You could get with this...

I had submitted this blog on the 16th of March. However it posted in the same blog as March 15th so I am resubmitting it so that you can all see this blog!!

You could get with this...

or

You could get with that!

This blog is based on theories of media exposure and impact:

“In study after study, findings have indicated that women more often than men are portrayed in a sexual manner (e.g., dressed in revealing clothing, with bodily postures or facial expressions that imply sexual readiness) and are objectified (e.g., used as a decorative object, or as body parts rather than a whole person). In addition, a narrow (and unrealistic) standard of physical beauty is heavily emphasized. These are the models of femininity presented for young girls to study and emulate ("Sexualization of girls," 2007).

With new technology developing it is much easier to showcase women in the media. This blog entry focuses on how women are portrayed in the media and though this topic has been beaten to death by many researchers and sources the one topic that isn’t covered quite as often is the affects it has on children. Desperately thin and tanned women are displayed before children in very little clothing with their size zero bodies as young girls are watching television, playing video games, or surfing the net.

As I pondered what I would discuss for this assignment I ran some ideas by my sister. As we began to talk about this idea of how women are portrayed as only being beautiful and of worth if they are skinny and how this affects children she made a comment about what she learned in her humanities class. She said “Who decided women had to be skinny and tan to be pretty? Back in the day if you were plump and pale you were idolized.”

With that in mind I began my research. Who exactly did get to decide that ‘thin’ would be ‘in’?

But more importantly we should ask ourselves, why did we all decide to go along with it?

I have been out to the beach recently and it is shocking to see how skinny girls have become. However, I could certainly see how many would feel the need to be. The pressure that society has placed on women to be skinny and tan is frightening. I myself have fallen in to this category of feeling the need to be tan and skinny. Before we left for the beach my sister and I joked about not standing by one of our girlfriends in the photos that would be taken because we did not want to be the “fat pale girl” in the photos. We both decided that we would just stand on either side of guys or whoever else would be in the photo to avoid looking unattractive next to her. We both laughed, but sadly this is true and to worse degrees. 

The other photo that was used in this blog is of women who are apart of the Dove Beauty Campaign. The best part about this photo to me is how happy all of these women look… Society is taking advantage of the fact that you can use new technology such as social media websites or television shows and are sending a very unattractive message to young girls.

Word Count: 487

Sources:

 Sexualization of girls. (2007). Retrieved from http://www.apa.org/pi/women/programs/girls/report.aspx