Body-Image

Taken from a "Thinspiration" blog

I guess you could call me social media obsessed. From Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Tumblr (you would think my Klout score would be higher than it really is), I often find I get lost within these websites and sucked into the virtual world. One day while I was perusing on Tumblr (you can check out mine hereeee if ya want) I came across one girl’s blog that was more than just some pretty pictures. For me, my Tumblr encompasses my personality, and the pictures I post are a reflection of idea, words, and images I take a particular liking to. So while I was on her page, with hateful words and dark images splashed all over the page, I began to think how tortured of a soul she must be. Her page led me to dozens of other pages just like it. Those with girls posting exactly what they ate for the entire day although with (airbrushed) images of stick thin models in swimsuits and lingerie, those with daily photos along with the current weight or “CW” as they call it, those with painful phrases like “Why aren’t I pretty?” and “All these pictures of pretty and skinny girls make me want to go starve until I’m thin and attractive.” They call them "Thinspiration" blogs, I would say they are more depressing than inspirational.

Another "Thinspiration" blog photo

This is another issue with women’s magazines; they portray those in their magazines in such an unrealistic light, that it creates an ideal that isn’t even attainable among real women. From my own personal experience as well as seeing blogs like the one mentioned above, the inability to look like and the images they see in the magazines creates a hate for one’s body. The pressure to be thin and to look and dress like the models in magazines is overwhelming. In the United States alone, the diet industry is currently worth 40 to 100 billion dollars.  Never been the best at math nor do I quite understand how the economy works, but I am pretty sure that’s a hell of a lot of people buying diet products. In addition, an American research group reporting that one out of every four college aged women uses unhealthy methods to control or to lose weight. These methods range from excessive exercise, vomiting, laxatives, fasting, and skipping meals. Once again, not so good at math, but that translates to millions and millions of young women around the United States.  

Articles like the ones on the cover above
 are being read by young girls.

You would think that the magazines with cover headlines like “50 Best Sex Moves” and “Tighten you Tush” would only be read by a more mature audience, but research shows that these magazines are trickling down to girls much younger than the intended target audience. I came across a unique USA Today article that discusses the effects of fashion industry ideals on body image. Sarah Murnen, a professor of psychology at Kenyon College, performed a study in which she found that girls as young as first grade believe that culture and society is telling them they need to look and be like celebrities. Well, I am soooo glad these girls are growing up with such esteemed role models like Lindsay Lohan and Paris Hilton. My question is there even a way to protect girls against these unattainable ideals. As of now, it doesn’t seem like there is light at the end of the tunnel. It is a vicious and dangerous cycle that our society is a part of, and it is difficult to not get sucked in. 

Soulmate

Perhaps Genevieve Pecsok isn’t the prime example of someone who uses social book marking, however she uses it in a way that is relevant to our class and to all students gathering various sources for a paper. After extensively searching Diigo to find my soulmate, I came up empty handed. Does no one share my same interest in the effects of women’s magazines on society!? I am joking, clearly, who really wants to use Diigo to bookmark serious shiz like that... It seems as though most Diigo users are not necessarily using it if for research purposes, but rather pleasure purposes.  I did find one interesting character, Genevieve, as I mentioned above, who doesn’t bookmark often but when she does, most of her articles are relevant to my blog. Genevieve, until like most Diigo users, seems to use it for more than just tagging her favorite articles about cats in costumes or new recipes she wants to try out. After perusing through her bookmarks, I found that she concentrates specifically on body image and eating disorders. A few of her links are specifically related to the media and magazines and how they affect women in society. On a more random note, I can’t help but imagine what Genevieve Pecsok looks like, her name to me gives off the image of something with thick coke bottle glasses who enjoys reading Nicholas Sparks books in her spare time. Think LeeLee Sobieski circa Never Been Kissed (you probably have no idea who I am talking about.. IMDB it). Anyway, Genevieve is very thoroughly in her bookmarking practices, she frequently adds multiple comments on the bookmarked article. She directly quotes the article and then adds her personal opinion below. She actually has more annotations on the bookmarked articles than she does total tags. Each article has multiple annotations and sticky notes. However, although she annotates thoroughly, she does not tag often. Most of the tags that appear on her page say “no_tag.” In fact, she has only bookmarked 12 different articles but she has over 80 annotations. One great link that Genevieve bookmarked is a scholarly article entitled “Body Image, Media, and Eating Disorders” which appears on the website, Psychiatry Online (If you really want to read a scholarly article, here's the link). The author explains how exposure to the mass media is correlated with obesity and negative body image, subsequently leading to a possible eating disorder. A second gem that Genevieve has in her Diigo library is an article titled, “Beauty and Body Image in the Media,” you can find the article here.  The article is a more informal, yet informative look into advertisements in the media and there direct effects on women. Genevieve has bookmarked some potentially valuable articles for the upcoming research paper. A major trend in today’s society is eating disorders, millions of people in the United States, the majority women, suffer from them. Joel Yager, a psychiatrist specializing in eating disorders made a bold statement when he said, "Every society has a way of torturing its women, whether by binding their feet or by sticking them into whalebone corsets. What contemporary American culture has come up with is designer jeans." I am interested in exploring and researching this topic more in the future. 

Trifecta

Hello, World!

I work for a major women’s magazine. This is probably a long overdue confession but I am beginning to hate it. Perhaps I am not cut out for the whole “9 to 5” job or maybe I’m jut not that into it anymore. I know there are hundreds of girls who would kill to take my spot but honestly, I don’t care. Everyone I work with pretty much sucks and they might be the most passive aggressive group of humans I have ever met in my life. I think it is the industry that turns people this way or maybe it is just that women intrinsically are jealous of other women. I can’t really figure it out. Whether it be jealously of their accomplishments, looks, boyfriend or whatever else, women are jealous. I remember walking into my boss’s office one day eating a cupcake (first mistake), she looked at me and said “HOW do you eat THAT and stay so thin?!” to which I responded “Umm, I don’t know, I don’t really gain weight” (second mistake). I could then see her lips purse up and her face turn green with envy. Since then she often makes comments regarding my eating habits and looks, it is almost like she resents me for it. Don’t get me wrong, my boss is no Meryl Streep from The Devil Wears Prada, but she can be quite a handful. 

Jayne Manfield and Sophia Loren

Maybe women aren’t jealous of other women and maybe that is just something I have observed from my experience, but there is something going on and I think it is in large part due to the society we live in. In today’s world, I don’t think we could survive without media. In our daily life we often look to the media to tell us what we should be aware of and what is important. We are constantly surrounded by news of beautiful celebrities and billboards are plastered with stick thin models. In the United States alone, over 8 million people struggle from eating disorders and that number is increasingly yearly. Many suffer from body image issues and look to celebrities and models to see how they should dress and how they should look. You would think after reading this post that I hate the media, hate the fashion industry, hate the beauty industry, and hate basically anything that influences culture and society. But the kicker is, I don’t. I am still a girly girl obsessed with nail polish (literally obsessed), clothes, and all the latest beauty products. I’m just comfortable with myself and don’t feel the need to strive for what magazines and celebrities tell women is “perfect”. Although I am comfortable with myself (don’t get me wrong, I still have my insecurities), many women are not for a variety of different reasons. Throughout this course of this blog I am going to explore the effects of the magazine industry as well as mass media on young women in today’s society. I am going to incorporate my own experiences with the various topics I choose to touch upon which may include exploring the effects of the fashion, beauty, advertisements, sex articles, and fitness while also looking at how we can protect ourselves against the societal norms that are pressed upon us. Brace yourselves; this could be a bumpy ride. 

Above is a excerpt taking from a young woman's tumblr blog.  She illustrates the effects of media and society on women.

Profile

Well.... this is just disturbing.

What are you obsessed with? If you asked me this question I would tell you…. nail polish, cats, costume jewelry, and interior design (don’t ask me about the cats). Every person would have different response, but I don’t think you would get too many people responding that they are obsessed with celebrities. However, in America, we really do have an infatuation with them. I mean, I’d like to think I am not mildly obsessed with Justin Bieber, but sadly that’s false considering I follow every move of his on Twitter. What is so crazy is that circulation for almost every gossip magazine is over two million (and there’s a heck of a lot of them out there) AKA we L-O-V-E celebrity gossip. 

So, I found this blog that perfectly captures our infatuation with celebrities and thus relates to my blog as well, the blogger goes by “Urban Katie” (I’m going to take a wild guess and say her name is Katie) and her blog titled “Obsessed.” 
You can check it out hurr --> http://urbankatie.wordpress.com/ . Her blog was created for one of her classes (how fitting!) at the University of Virginia and as she writes in her “about” section of her blog she is a double major in media studies and American studies with a concentration in visual and popular culture. Sounds like she’s pretty damn smart. Katie may be a student but she has excellent insight and theories into why America has such a fixation with celebrities. Although she only averages about one post every couple weeks, her interest in the topic is portrayed throughout her blog as her posts are filled with thought and care.

Katie writes in her very first blog post,

“I want to use this blog to explore America’s infatuation with celebrity through an academic lens and examine topics such as celebrity replacing religion, celebrity “news,” and celebrities’ ability to influence.” 

My blog relates to Katie’s on the level that we are both writing about how media influences society. Katie’s blog focuses strictly upon celebrity influence, whereas my blog will explore this area as well as how magazines, models, advertisements et cetera affect women today. Katie’s blog will be a fab reference and resource when writing my blog because her writing is more academic, with frequent footnotes and links to case studies and scholarly articles. Although I don’t plan to have a formal voice in my blog like she does, she supplies content that may be relevant to the topics I choose to post on. My goal is to develop a strong voice throughout my blog and give the readers more than just straight facts in an academic format.

Katie has a few posts that are directly relevant to my topic. One of her most relatable posts to my topic is entitled, “The Media and Female Body Image,”it focuses upon how women in the media are objectified and made to be seen as “passive” rather than “active” by men. Another similar post called “Media and Body Image Part 2” addresses how the media focuses upon images of perfection to market their products and celebrities. Many are aware of the false images of perfection presented in our society but they still have extreme affects on women today. In a future post, I hope to touch upon the topics she presented on a more personal level. Katie’s posts are highly informative however they lack a certain quality that makes the writing more assessable to the reader. Katie does not offer any personal stories or anything that the reader can particularly relate to. As someone with an attention span of 3.5 seconds, you got to grab me if you expect me to read something scholarly… ew. Most women can probably share that feeling of thinking they are inadequate to celebrities and models in magazines and on the news but I believe that the adding a person touch makes the reader feel more connected with the topic and the writer and therefore more engrossed in the writing.

Voice Critique

I remember the first time I didn’t do my best on a test in college. I was sulking, pissed at life, and fro yo was just not cutting it. I needed someone other than a friend who pretty much has to say nice things to me to tell me it wasn’t the end of the world. What I really needed was the blog, “Nourishing the Soul”. If you are feeling pretty bad about yourself then you should really check it out. By the title, you can infer that the blogger might be a cheesy, over-enthusiastic “you can do it!” type. And to be honest, that is kind of what she is. However, the blogger Ashley does it in a way that isn’t irritating or fake. Essentially, Ashley’s blog is about well… nourishing the soul. We live in a world where society and media make us for bad about ourselves for not being skinny enough or pretty enough. Ashley’s blog is basically here to tell you, you are enough.  Not only does it address body image issues, but also the pressures in being successful, having healthy relationships, and finding peace within yourself. By reading her blog you can get a sense of who Ashley is as a person, or who you imagine her to be. If I could guess Ashley’s story I would say she grew up not being the “cool” or “popular girl,” and she probably had pretty low self-esteem in high school. That sounds depressing and no, I am not sorry for sounding betchy, but by the way she writes, you can tell she hasn’t always been the person she is today. She definitely gets those little everyday insecurities that most of us get even though she has grown from where she once was. But, everyone gets them. Just today I was trying to figure out a way to cover a zit that I thought was humongous on my forehead (it’s really not that big), and at work I felt like everyone was staring at it, definitely a little insecure… 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D7elZMMv2pE

Anyway, the first post of hers I would like to point out is “You are not a fraud. No, really. You aren’t.” Well first off, thank you Ashley for making me feel good about myself and telling me I’m not a fraud when in actuality I am kind of bullshitting my way through life. So she starts off by telling a story, which I am always partial to and her voice pops right out at you. The first place I notice this is when she compares her nervous stomach somersaults to the gold-medal gymnast Shawn Johnson. She writes,

“I had always thought this was an expression, and now I was quite certain that this organ was competing with Shawn Johnson for best all-around gymnastics performance.”

She then basically has a conversation with herself bantering on about her lack of knowledge and experience for passing an exam. She often uses italics to emphasize her point, which in her case does the job. The writing itself it pretty simple, it’s not LOL (ew, can’t believe I just used that acronym) funny but it makes you smile and that’s all I really need to stay semi-entertained. Her posts are a mix between silly, inspirational, and psychological. Being a psychology major, I dig it, it’s informative but relatable. Her posts seem to follow similar formats, start with story, get all psychological and conceptual, end with some inspirational food for thought. At the end of this post she says,

“If these thoughts plague you, know that you’re not alone. You are also not really a fraud. It’s just your mind’s way of trying to hide you from your greatness – that sneaky little devil trying to slyly sabotage you.”

I like that she personifies her mind, it’s playful, lighthearted, and oddly relatable (story of my life).

Get an idea of what her blog is like?

In another post “Why I get tired of ‘You are beautiful’", her word choice is encouraging and likable. While society sees being slightly overweight as less than ideal, Ashley writes that being large is beautiful. Instead simply saying “overweight” she writes “gentle curves of flesh around bellies.” Later on, instead of writing something more commonly seen like “drop dead gorgeous,” she writes, “the aesthetic quality that launches a thousand ships and intrigues our visual senses.” Her word choice is unusual and has a sense of enchantment to it. I like the general vibe of Ashley’s blog, any time I am feeling down, I know I can take a gander at her blog and instantly perk up. 

Airbrush Magic

This looks natural.

Today the Kardashians are a multi million-dollar empire. I am pretty sure at this point they make money just for breathing and I swear 98% of the time I turn on E! one of their 50 different reality shows is on. For many, they are considered “American royalty,” but in all seriousness how in the hell are they famous?  I don’t think anyone really knows the answer to that. I am pretty sure their family only became famous after Kris capitalized on her daughter's sex tape with Ray J... klassy.. and well, smart. Ok, sorry, I got a little off topic BUT I bring up the Kardashians because a couple of weeks ago the lovely Khloe did a shoot for our magazine which provoked me to touch upon an important issue in the publishing world. Photo shoots are actually one of my favorite parts of my job, and I have a weird love/hate relationship with the Kardashians, so I was pretty stoked. I like that no one in this family is considered society’s criteria of “skinny.” They are curvy girls, but why are they always airbrushed in photographs to appear much thinner? Are their real bodies not good enough for magazines? I think this might be the thing about women’s magazines that disappoints me the most, you hire some of the best photographers in the world, have the best possible lighting and equipment available, and an amazing "glam" crew, can’t you just leave the photo alone?! At the shoot I was checking out some of the images with the photo assistant, Khloe looked bomb (2.5+ hours of hair and makeup doesn't hurt), but then the assistant actually started editing the photos on the spot. Doing all kinds of crazy stuff I didn’t even know was possible like putting an eye from one photo on a different photo and shading the back of her legs, uh what? I think that's when I began to realize what a big issue this really is. Photoshopping has gotten so excessive that models and celebrities don’t even have pores anymore, let alone any fat on their bodies. Every day young impressionable girls are looking at these magazines wondering why they don’t look like the women they see in all the editorials and advertisements. It doen't surprise me that one in four people are depressed about their bodies in America. We have these images of perfection all around us that we want to live up to and despite that many of us aren’t blind to the idea of airbrushing- it still affects us.  At the shoot I was bopping around to a digitalized electronic remix of one of MJ's classics with Khloe’s makeup artist, he turned to me and said “When something is perfect it doesn’t seem real or raw. I miss those imperfections.” Despite that he was referring to his hatred toward the new trend in house music, it was a really bold statement that struck me as relevant to this issue. These photos aren’t real; in fact there is really nothing real about them. Back in 2007 when Redbook was under fire for heavily airbrushing Faith Hill, the editor went on the Today show in response and said, "In the end, they're not really photographs. They're images." Personally, I think she looked better before going under the digital knife, wrinkles, pores and all, but apparently the photo wasn't good enough.

Before and After

Positive Polly- Finding VOICE

By the title of the blog “Nourishing the Soul”  (http://www.nourishing-the-soul.com/) you can infer that the blogger might be a cheesy, over-enthusiastic “you can do it!” type. And to be honest, that is kind of what she is. However, the blogger Ashley does it in a way that isn’t irritating or fake. Essentially, Ashley’s blog is about well… nourishing the soul. We live in a world where society and media make us for bad about ourselves for not being skinny enough or pretty enough. Ashley’s blog is basically here to tell you, you are enough.  Not only does it address body image issues, but also the pressures in being successful, having healthy relationships, and finding peace within yourself. By reading her blog you can get a sense of who Ashley is as a person, or who you imagine her to be. If I could guess Ashley’s story I would say she grew up not being the “cool” or “popular girl,” and she probably had pretty low self-esteem in high school. That sounds depressing and no, I am not sorry for sounding mean, but by the way she writes, you can tell she hasn’t always been the person she is today. She definitely gets those little everyday insecurities that most of us get even though she has grown from where she once was. But, everyone gets them. Just today I was trying to figure out a way to cover a zit that I thought was humongous on my forehead (it’s really not that big), and at work I felt like everyone was staring at it, definitely a little insecure… 

Get an idea of what her blog is like?

Anyway, the first post of hers I would like to point out is “You are not a fraud. No, really. You aren’t.”  (http://www.nourishing-the-soul.com/2012/01/you-are-not-a-fraud-no-really-youre-not/). Well first off, thank you Ashley for making me feel good about myself and telling me I’m not a fraud when in actuality I am kind of bullshitting my way through life. So she starts off by telling a story, which I am always partial to, I don’t like straight facts or opinions, I like stories I can relate to. The first place I notice voice in her post is when she compares her nervous stomach somersaults to the gold-medal gymnast Shawn Johnson. She writes, “I had always thought this was an expression, and now I was quite certain that this organ was competing with Shawn Johnson for best all-around gymnastics performance.” She then basically has a conversation with herself bantering on about her lack of knowledge and experience for passing an exam. She often uses italics to emphasize her point, which in her case does the job. The writing itself it pretty simple, its not “LOL” (ew, can’t believe I just used that acronym) funny but it makes you smile and that’s all I really need to stay semi-entertained. Her posts and a mix between silly, inspirational, and psychological. Being a psychology major, I dig it, it’s informative but relatable. Her posts seem to follow similar formats, start with story, get all psychological, end with some inspiration. At the end of this post she says, “If these thoughts plague you, know that you’re not alone. You are also not really a fraud. It’s just your mind’s way of trying to hide you from your greatness – that sneaky little devil trying to slyly sabotage you.” I like that she personifies her mind, it’s playful and lighthearted. In another post “Why I get tired of ‘You are beautiful,’” (http://www.nourishing-the-soul.com/2011/07/why-i-get-tired-of-you-are-beautiful/) , her word choice is encouraging and likable. While society sees being slightly overweight as less than ideal, Ashley writes that being large is beautiful. Instead simply saying “overweight” she writes “gentle curves of flesh around bellies.” Later on, instead of writing something more commonly seen like “drop dead gorgeous,” she writes, “the aesthetic quality that launches a thousand ships and intrigues our visual senses.” Her word choice is unusual and has a sense of enchantment to it. I like the general vibe of Ashley’s blog, any time I am feeling down, I know I can take a gander at her blog and instantly perk up.