How do girls and women see themselves in the media mirror? (Media Meditation #6)

The media has this weird way of controlling us. Changing the way we perceive things, especially when it comes to body image. You can go back in history and see the trends in female body images in fashion. From Marilyn Monroe who would now be considered a plus size model, to Twiggy - the first super skinny fashion icon. Currently, French politicians are campaigning for a new law that will result in government health warnings on pictures that have been enhanced by photoshop. They are doing this in hope to regulate the images being seen by female youth and distorting views on what they should look like.




Here is a video on why the French feel like there should be a law regulating these photoshopped images.

Ralph Lauren had some controversy back in September of 2009 when the blog site Boing Boing were the first ones to recognize the photoshop work on one of their advertisements. The title of this Article was "Ralph Lauren opens new outlet store in the Uncanny Valley". The only text in the article other than the picture of the ad was "Dude, her head's bigger then her pelvis". This picture really shows how the media can portray unrealistic ideals to women and girls who see their ads. You can even see in the picture where the plaid colors don't match up. It is very disturbing that someone actually put this together and went...yes this looks good.



I know I have been referencing the Book Feed a lot, but this makes me think of the situation where all the popular girls decide lesions are cool because they saw people in the shows they watch getting them. In the Limbo and Prayer chapter Calista get an artificial lesion on the back of her neck to be cool and attract this guy Link who is likes. He even thinks this new lesion is attractive and tickles it. In the chapter Flat Hope (pg 190) Quendy, who is jealous of the attention Calista is getting, arrives to the party and everyone goes silent, her whole skin was cut up with artificial lesions that she got done to herself the day before. This whole epidemic of lesions started because the their feeds were doing it to them. But since their feeds made the lesions seem like they were cool, everyone to who had one just thought the same way, even going so far as to create lesions artificially to look cooler. Calista even says at one point "because seeing what's inside of you, all your guts, is just so sexy". This situation in the book makes me think about ads such as the Ralph Lauren ad I talked about above, and how eating disorders can start. Girls want to look skinny, like celebrities or like the girl in the ad so they don't eat, or they throw up. The more girls that think that kind of behavior is okay the more girls develop eating disorders and think that they HAVE to be skinny to be beautiful.