It's amazing what the fashion industry has done to girls. And to BOYS, too, because a lot of those ads are targeted at them.
It's really an international tragedy that has to be stopped somehow. I don't know what it is, but I'm going to buy Dove products, even if they do plug Wal-Mart along with it (I draw the line at Wal-Mart). If Dove wanted a successful ad campaign, they've got one, at least as far as I'm concerned.
I ETA'ed a couple of more films. The third one is heartbreaking.
You've seen the Beautiful video, right? Makes me cry every time. The girl with the braces? Was me (only with ADD weirdness instead of braces). I used to have an icon of her. I should really start using it again.
Last semester I co-taught a class with the chair of the OT faculty called "Women, the Church, and Cultural and Ecclesial Diversity" (weighty title!), and I actually used that second short film in the class on the day that we talked about the way the media has co-opted the female body (and, by correlation, female sexuality) and turned it into a distorted canvas for advertising. There are also a series of documentaries that our media library had available, called "Killing Us Softly," made in the '70s, '80s, and '90s by a filmmaker called Jean Kilbourne. They're three really in-depth explorations of how the advertising industry constantly puts forth negative stereotypes of women, and how such images damage both women and men. I'd love to own these documentaries myself, but I haven't been able to find them for purchase or even for hire anywhere except university libraries. But if you ever get to see them, you totally should. Powerful stuff, incredibly powerful.
(I'm thinking you didn't mean this to happen, but the second one is the same link as the third one.)
I'd love to own these documentaries myself, but I haven't been able to find them for purchase or even for hire anywhere except university libraries. But if you ever get to see them, you totally should. Powerful stuff, incredibly powerful.
I'll look them up. Google Is My Friend. :) Also, fixed the link! I sent a link to the last video to i_am_a_hannah who looks like this(she's the lovely young woman in green on the far left of the row)yet sometimes still will speak disparagingly of aspects of her body she doesn't like:
Actually, ALL these women are really beautiful ladies (Daughters Hannah and Mary, DIL Trish, and Trish's gorgeous Mum Marilyn, L to R). None of them fit the pattern of what's fashionable because none are inclusively tall, slender, and fine-boned. But gorgeous? You betcha, every one of them. And not just because they're awesome. *loves* And even if they were ugly (which is SUCH a subjective description), would that make them, or me, or you, less? Uh-uh. I have to remember that myself sometime when I look in the mirror and expect to see twenty-four and find forty-six staring me in the, um. Face.
I've been thinking more and more about how our very selves are formed very young and really would love to do something to help change the way children are taught to view themselves, and by extension other people. I'm a victim survivor of bullying, so I'm really sensitive to pressures that kids Be "Normal", whatever that is. And sometimes "Normal" is impossible to achieve without a. Photoshop, b. Surgery, an c. Tons of money. And even with all those, there's really no such thing. :/
Weird, isn't it? I can't remember how or when, but once I came across a website for a photographic studio that specialises in hairbrushing pictures. It was bizarre. This woman who, lying on one side, had the tiniest roll of skin - couldn't even call it fat - on her hip had her waist reduced by a good inch, and then there was a group photo of Depeche Mode minus 80% of their wrinkles!
All pictures had a before and after example, presumably so you could see how convincingly these people could doctor any photograph. Scary.
The last two are the same link... just thought I'd mention it.
I saw the second and third one a few months ago, and it just pissed me the hell off. I used to argue that teenage girls should have to learn PhotoShop techniques in high school- sure, there's a good thing in learning a skill like graphics manipulation, but also... it would teach them in a non-pushy way just how manipulated and unrealistic and fucked-with everything they see in the media is.
I mean, sure, young boys could learn from that, too, but they aren't the ones having the same level of "you are what you look like-- and you should aspire to look like this" pushed onto them.
That said, I'll be showing my kids stuff like this as they get older and we can talk about it. I'm really careful of how I deal with the body image stuff in front of my kids... even though I'm on shakey ground with all that stuff personally, I don't want my sons growing up thinking that it's normal and acceptable for women to hate themselves and their bodies. I've dated enough dipshits who think it's perfectly acceptable for me to eat two pieces of lettuce while they wolf down a steak the size of my head... (I can think of two men who haven't been like that with me, actually) I don't want my sons becoming another two of those guys.
Fixed the link, thanks. It's hard to find the actual URL on that site for some reason. The films are great, but they need a better web designer.
I used to argue that teenage girls should have to learn PhotoShop techniques in high school- sure, there's a good thing in learning a skill like graphics manipulation, but also... it would teach them in a non-pushy way just how manipulated and unrealistic and fucked-with everything they see in the media is.
This is a great idea! The course could be "Photoshop and the Ad Industry: Things aren't as they seem" or something. Teach them the skills AND show them the deceptive media.
*uses Delenn icon because she's one kickass female*
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primroseburrows) wrote2007-10-03 05:47 pm
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It's really an international tragedy that has to be stopped somehow. I don't know what it is, but I'm going to buy Dove products, even if they do plug Wal-Mart along with it (I draw the line at Wal-Mart). If Dove wanted a successful ad campaign, they've got one, at least as far as I'm concerned.
I ETA'ed a couple of more films. The third one is heartbreaking.
You've seen the Beautiful video, right? Makes me cry every time. The girl with the braces? Was me (only with ADD weirdness instead of braces). I used to have an icon of her. I should really start using it again.
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(I'm thinking you didn't mean this to happen, but the second one is the same link as the third one.)
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I'll look them up. Google Is My Friend. :) Also, fixed the link! I sent a link to the last video to
Actually, ALL these women are really beautiful ladies (Daughters Hannah and Mary, DIL Trish, and Trish's gorgeous Mum Marilyn, L to R). None of them fit the pattern of what's fashionable because none are inclusively tall, slender, and fine-boned. But gorgeous? You betcha, every one of them. And not just because they're awesome. *loves* And even if they were ugly (which is SUCH a subjective description), would that make them, or me, or you, less? Uh-uh. I have to remember that myself sometime when I look in the mirror and expect to see twenty-four and find forty-six staring me in the, um. Face.
I've been thinking more and more about how our very selves are formed very young and really would love to do something to help change the way children are taught to view themselves, and by extension other people. I'm a
victimsurvivor of bullying, so I'm really sensitive to pressures that kids Be "Normal", whatever that is. And sometimes "Normal" is impossible to achieve without a. Photoshop, b. Surgery, an c. Tons of money. And even with all those, there's really no such thing. :/no subject
Also, if you saw the three of them - Hannah, Mary, and Trish - and didn't know their ages, it would be hard to know who was oldest, etc.
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All pictures had a before and after example, presumably so you could see how convincingly these people could doctor any photograph. Scary.
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Dude. I've SEEN that website. I wish I had the URL but del.icio.us didn't exist back when I saw it (what, a couple of years ago?)
I'd love to learn to DO this. Not to doctor photographs for the media, but to understand how it's done. And to make cool icons. *g*
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I saw the second and third one a few months ago, and it just pissed me the hell off. I used to argue that teenage girls should have to learn PhotoShop techniques in high school- sure, there's a good thing in learning a skill like graphics manipulation, but also... it would teach them in a non-pushy way just how manipulated and unrealistic and fucked-with everything they see in the media is.
I mean, sure, young boys could learn from that, too, but they aren't the ones having the same level of "you are what you look like-- and you should aspire to look like this" pushed onto them.
That said, I'll be showing my kids stuff like this as they get older and we can talk about it. I'm really careful of how I deal with the body image stuff in front of my kids... even though I'm on shakey ground with all that stuff personally, I don't want my sons growing up thinking that it's normal and acceptable for women to hate themselves and their bodies. I've dated enough dipshits who think it's perfectly acceptable for me to eat two pieces of lettuce while they wolf down a steak the size of my head... (I can think of two men who haven't been like that with me, actually) I don't want my sons becoming another two of those guys.
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I used to argue that teenage girls should have to learn PhotoShop techniques in high school- sure, there's a good thing in learning a skill like graphics manipulation, but also... it would teach them in a non-pushy way just how manipulated and unrealistic and fucked-with everything they see in the media is.
This is a great idea! The course could be "Photoshop and the Ad Industry: Things aren't as they seem" or something. Teach them the skills AND show them the deceptive media.
*uses Delenn icon because she's one kickass female*
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For the record I am hoping for a Sox-Cubs world series.
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