Hello Everyone!
Let’s talk about the social media, shall we? Perhaps, also about
how it influences our life by creating some ideal men and women figures. Sounds
interesting, well, it is undeniable that the social media is one of the
greatest inventions that have come along with the recent generation. It plays a
vital role in our day-to-day life. It allows us to be informed, entertained,
educated, and connected with different people regardless of geographical
distances. It is also a good way for marketing and advertising ones product to
the society. However, how realistic are these advertisements and how well do they
represent the society?
The media has completely changed the way people
perceive beauty by displaying what they call the “idealistic and standard
masculine and feminine figure.” Strangely these idealistic figures are almost
unachievable by any average person. The media praises a macho, tough, arrogant
and skirt chaser man and a tall, thin and long haired woman, other attributes
such as personality and intelligence seem to have no place in categorizing men or women
as ideal/ attractive. Something somewhere has gone wrong in this world. Instead
of making intelligence, good personality and manners the ideal beauty, the
media chooses something unattainable as if we are here to make each other’s
life hard and miserable.
Even though there are
various positive impacts of the media, I believe its disadvantage outweighs the
advantages. The Media constantly tells and manipulates both men and women that
they need to have certain looks and sizes, in order to be able to fit in the
society. The way media portrays beauty has great influence on the way men and
women view themselves and it has become a major reason for many people to have
a very low self-esteem and a feeling of unworthiness.
The media can also be the main reason for
ending a number of romantic relationships, by making people feel insecure and
live up to the unachievable expectations of the media. Nowadays, many
people compare their spouses to what they see on TV and in magazines, according
to a survey made by the Teen Advisory Board (TAB), “75% said that social media affects
romantic relationships “negatively,” 18% positively, and 7% said that social
media had no effect.” (Anne Collier, teens on
social media’s impact on relationships: survey)
Sometimes
I wonder if we would perceive the world differently if there was no such thing called
“media”. A weird thought I know. But would we look at every human being
equally, would we stop being judgmental and appreciate one another just the way
we are? This question remains a mystery to me. So, please don’t hesitate to
come up with your interpretation how you think the world would have been like.
Furthermore,
boys and girls from a very young age look for men and women with ideal body
shapes as role models. given that the media is trying to tell women that they
are not pretty or skinny enough, they put an effort to have the body image that
is described by media, consequently, they suffer from physical and mental
problems such as; eating disorder and body image dissatisfaction.
From
all the things mentioned above, one can have a clear understanding that media
has changed the way we communicate and see things and its negative impacts
outweigh the positive ones. Now the main question is, what can we do to
prevent this? How can we stop ourselves from being influenced by the media?
Works Cited
Annie Collier. Teens on social media’s impact on relationships: survey. 23 January. 2014. Web. 07 May. 2014.
It's quite unfortunate that a large majority of society is affected by the presence of social media which subsequently bends a person's opinion of themselves. Not being able to fulfill this supposed "expectation" where you need the perfect body and the latest brand names can pull one's self esteem down because they may not have the money to afford these brand names, or their overall appearance may not fall in line as the "girl in the magazine". I liked that quote by the way; the one that says
ReplyDelete"You will never look like the girl in the magazine. The girl in the magazine doesn't even look like the girl in the magazine."
It's definitely true. I don't know how many times I have glanced at magazines in stores like shoppers drug mart only to see a perfectly shaped woman or man on the front cover. Every single magazine shot of a person NEVER goes untouched by airbrushing programs such as Photoshop or Paint tool SAI. Not only that, but even before these "celebrity shots" were taken, the models undergo applying a tedious amount of make up to their face and body making them unrecognizable from their original appearance. This drastic change in how one looks before and after applying make up is evident in how women in Asian-pop culture use make up to enhance the size of their eyes; to give their eyes a larger appearance. With the deceiving combo of Photoshop and cosmetics to enhance a model's appearance, people are presented with the most unrealistic ideal figure in which they are expected to follow. I feel that if people know the reality behind images in the social media they would be less likely to chase after unrealistic ideals the mass media portrays.
It's ironic that women continue to battle against objectifying women in the social media amongst a male-dominated media industry when even women themselves are objectifying each other. A perfect example of women objectifying women can be found the case of Petra Collins, where women (and men) were outraged at a picture of an unshaven bikini line that was posted by Petra on Instagram. Despite Instagram's reputation for users posting sexually suggestive and almost-nude photos of women and men on the site, Petra's unshaven bikini line had received harsh criticism because it is seen as unattractive and inappropriate for women to leave their hair uncared for. People have been raised to view certain body parts of a woman as smooth and hairless, and to find women who don't shave absolutely repulsive. This only encourages the objectification of women in the sense that they are expected to look a certain way. In this case women are expected to shave where necessary, and if you deviate from this societal norm like Petra Collins has, you risk being ostracized from certain groups identical how her profile was deleted from Instagram. In a world where women are objectified as sex objects and merchandising tools, women themselves may reject other women because they refuse to follow female societal expectations that this male-dominated media industry has implicitly prescribed to them.
what do you think should be done to fight back the misrepresentation of male and female figures in the media?
ReplyDeleteI believe that the media has changed the way we look at things for the past couple of years. With the bloom of social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram people are more focused on beautify themselves then ever before. Our cellphone devices have many different application that we can download to instantly add filters to our pictures to enhance our beauty.
As a male, I feel like the media equally targets women and men. Advertisements that are targets toward men shows images of muscular men that are usually tall and good looking. There is also a female in the AD which is drawn to the man that is in the AD. This misrepresentation of the AD is saying that muscular, tall, good looking men always attract women. This is affecting a lot of men because they spend hours in the gym which can actually do more harm to their bodies. I think that AD's should show men of all sizes and shapes instead of showing only one type of man,
Moreover, I think that media also has a strong affect on women. This is because women are always shown as very thin with a lot of enhanced beauty such as makeup. This gives women low self esteem because they assume that they have to look like that to be beautiful. Dove has a campaign which targets body image and it helps women of all sizes and colours feel beautiful. I think that their should be more campaigns for both women and men that show people of different sizes in the media. This will show that everyone is different and not perfect.
I really agreed with the quote that you chose which stated: "You will never look like the girl in the magazine, the girl in the magazine doesn't even look the girl in the magazine.". I recently watched a video on youtube called " The Truth Behind Photoshop" and it proved to me how true this quote is. Celebrities have their pictures retouched and photoshopped to add more curves and look slimmer. This deceives many people because they think that the celebrities and models are perfect but in reality, they are far from being perfect.
I believe that it's almost impossible to dodge the media. I think the best way to prevent ourselves is lowering our intake. I think we should limit our TV intake. I think that because whenever you watch TV, you see something negative and depressing on the news. They always blast your minds with devastating information. I think sometimes that society is kept in fear in this way. This would change your perception of things. This TV habit is something we don't really give much attention too. To sum up our lives it's TV, eat, work, shop and sleep. This is not what life is about. We need to break free of this habit of constantly absorbing media to doing something more productive with our lives.
Great Topic and Blog!
Well done Tsion!
- Bille Omar
I agree with everything you said about the media being a great influence on us nowadays. It is very sad how media has caused us to think about ourselves and others in a very narrow way. The perfect image of men and women are definitely not achievable by any average person, just like that quote above says that even the girl in the magazine does not look like the girl in the magazine. The amount of Photoshop and makeup they do on people to make them look perfect is immense. It is totally unfair to portray fake "perfection" and then expect the public to look up to them.
ReplyDeleteIn my opinion I do not think that the influence that media has already engraved in our mind can be wiped away. Nowadays telling people that they are not ugly but it’s the society that is ugly just makes them think that you are being sympathetic towards them. If i had to suggest a way to prevent this horrible influence it would be through the media itself. The media needs to stop promoting the perfect image and rather portray real beauty which is normal everyday people! Nowadays there are a lot of videos on YouTube that show you how the models are changed by makeup and Photoshop. These videos help us understand that everything on the media is customized and there is no possible way that any of us including the model him/herself to look like that. More videos and articles that prove how fake all of this is will extremely help in reducing the determination to achieve that perfection. Once we all know how this perfect image is just a myth, we will definitely feel better about ourselves and accept others and ourselves the way we are.
Wow what a great blog Tsion. I highly agree with the fact that you said "The media has completely changed the way people perceive beauty by displaying what they call the idealistic and standard masculine and feminine figure.” I remember when I was in middle school I use to say that I would get married to a "hot chick" and a hot chick to me was a woman with a slim body long hair and well dressed. The reason why I use to think like this was because every time I watched a movie on TV. The women who were usually married would have a slim built body with lots of make up on and thick long hair. Most of the movies I watched were usually like this. I mean if you ask me not only in the movie do you use women like this but in magazines, advertisement and etc. The media has done such a great job at making us portray women in such ways. We live in an era where the Media is something we look up on.
ReplyDeleteI want to answer your last question. I feel like the only way we can stop the misrepresentation's of male and female figures in the media is to have self confident in ourselves. If we depend on how to look based on what the media says than we will never feel great about ourselves. The real beauty lies within you, don't let anyone ever tell you how you should look.
I admire how informative your article is and I personally agree with it. That being said, to answer your question "what do you think should be done to fight back the misrepresentation of male and female figures in the media? " - I say there isn't much we could do really. You see the media has a fine line between what goes out to the general public and what should never come out. However in terms of falsely depicting the human body in Ads, T.V shows, Movies, etc , straying away from what society has deemed 'ideal' is the only way. I believe that it lies between who you are and what you believe in as an individual. If you are easily influenced by what the media portrays than you will be under the influence. However if you aren't the one to follow what others say/do and are confident in yourself and stick up for what matters, than you basically absorb your own power. When you mentioned in your article that, "Sometimes I wonder if we would perceive the world differently if there was no such thing called “media”. A weird thought I know. But would we look at every human being equally, would we stop being judgmental and appreciate one another just the way we are?" I thought that was very interesting and in no way weird because it shows how true this statement can be. Yes, what would the world be like if we didn't walk down the street or walk into mall and start judging others by their appearance. It also opens up the question of, How realistic can that ever be in today's society in the 21st century? People already feel insecure within themselves because of the media abusing its authority time after time and you wonder why people are getting plastic surgery or injections, etc. The media has permanently ruined what the real definition of Beauty is. To fight such a controversial topic such as this is start from within and really ask yourself, Why you don't like what you see and How does that really matter at the end of the day. From a general point of view, everyone has flaws and was not made to be perfect in no way shape or form. Which was what makes everyone so much more beautiful and in fact different to each their own. However, companies with power such as Dove, use their authoritative power to show women, real women and how beautiful they are by just being them and not dolled up to threaten other women. Your AD which displayed looking at a woman in the magazine and not even looking like what she may be in the magazine really rang truth and I found it very eye opening. In the end, those who are in the media industry have the advantage of either sending good messages or false messages to the public. When you really look at the Media itself, if Media were a person, I'm pretty sure it would be very hated on.
ReplyDelete1) However, how realistic are these advertisements and how well do they represent the society?
ReplyDeleteThe advertisements that represent us are very unrealistic as they do not represent the appearance of actual humans. These advertisements are usually enhanced to make them look like they are much more attractive than they actually are. I once saw a video that reversed the process of Photoshop editing. The picture you would see is a beautiful woman, but after the Photoshop editing was taken away the original picture was of a pizza slice. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hnvoz91k8hc&feature=kp) This shows the ability that people have to change something not even human into a model. You are not “editable”; it is impossible to reach that perfection because it does not exist in reality. Only in the world of photos does this exist when anything can be turned into anything else.
2) Now the main question is, what can we do to prevent this? How can we stop ourselves from being influenced by the media?
Companies will never change their ways and put an average women in their shampoo commercials or an average man in their old spice commercial. By making you feel not good enough they make money because you want to buy their products to become that perfect model. The other option is to change ourselves. First and foremost we must not be gullible. There are many out there that believe everything that the media feeds them. If you are gullible you are easily manipulated and controlled. You will believe that to find a partner you need to be a god/goddess in appearance. Another way is to avoid the biggest advertisement spreader, the TV. You are forced to watch these on your screen unless you are filling to change your channel. Unlike a computer where you can just glance at the ad banners and move on, a TV commercial is engaging and draws you in on their false reality. With Hulu and other video streaming sites, paying for TV is pointless and makes you a target for companies to influence you.
3) I am sure there are many other ways to do this and I would love to hear from you, what do you think should be done to fight back the misrepresentation of male and female figures in the media?
It is impossible for us to convince media to change so that they will take out these overly, physically attractive people because it makes money. What we can do is to promote disclaimers, similar to ones found in medical advertisements. Something like “the actors in this advertisement have been enhanced and are used as an accessory to the commercial and in no means creating an association between the actors and the product being sold.” This allows them to still make the commercials with losing a big hit, but reminding there viewers that you won’t be these people if use their products.
From a young age we view media as if it is going to shape our lives. Many of the way children learn to speak in this generation is encouraged by what they watch on TV. What we could try to change is, instead of showing in the media an “ideal” man or woman, they should show what people are actually like. An example is the “Dumb blonde” idea. Cause of media today, if one blonde makes a mistake, she is completely stupid. As we grow older we go through different stages of what we start having interest in. However, the media always finds some way to inform the viewer of what an “ideal” man and woman are. Whether it is a commercial or a character in a cartoon, media always finds away to advertise their motive to people. If this advertising of the “ideal” gender starts from a young age, as we grow older we are going to believe a certain thing or way is right. So we go ahead and buy their products because they told us to. In order to fight back the misinterpretation, the media should advertise their products in a more realistic way. An example is the Victoria secret commercials, the women are all skinny and model like. However, it is unrealistic for everyone to look that way. So what the media could do is instead of showing these type of women, they should have a variety and realistic women who would kind of connect with the viewer. And so this could change the misinterpretations and have everyone feel like they belong somewhere.
ReplyDeleteThe advertisements don't portray a realistic representation of how the average man and women look. In your article you stated that "The way media portrays beauty has great influence on the way men and women view themselves and it has become a major reason for many people to have a very low self-esteem and a feeling of unworthiness. " people go to such extreme lengths to attain this unattainable beauty that is being represented in the media that they develop critical illnesses such as emotional distress and eating disorders. This can also relate to a quote that supermodel Cindy Crawford said " I wish I could look like Cindy Crawford" this quote was her referring to a magazine cover she was issued to. After all the makeup, airbrushing and Photoshop she couldn't even recognize herself when she looked in the mirror because she always wanted to look the way she did on the magazine cover. this enforces my statement how the media represents unrealistic expectations when an individual cant even recognize themselves or develop self-esteem issues because they are trying hard to achieve something that doesn't exist. the best way to control ourselves from being influenced by the media is to stop engaging in it all the time .this generations, being constantly on social media is exposed to these unrealistic beauty expectations. Once we refrain or educate ourselves that these industries make millions of dollars off our insecurities the easier it is to make the decision on how it's not going to effect us. To fight back media misinterpretation people need to be educated. when people can distinguish the facts from the fiction more logical decisions are made.
ReplyDelete