Bloggers

Well.. In my opinion the three blogs that are worth looking at are Danijela Demarin's, Lucie Cadova's and Nathalie's.

I have found them very well written and very engaging.

Danijela Demain goes into depth about deindividualization which is in my personal opinion a very important and in a way loosely thought and discussed topic.

She talks about different ways people loose their individuality going from tv-shows to magazines which influence us and our individuality.

Lucie Cadova talks about Media and its Objectivity, furthermore its biasses and use of enhanced words to explain and beautify words that are actually at times degrading, hurtful or to explicit.

The last but not least blog is Nathalie's and it regards violence on TV and it's impact on children which is actually a topic that i am personally very interested in and find it intriguing.

So, in case you came across my blog my advice would be to go look at theirs...

Danijela: http://deindividuation.blogspot.com/

Nathalie: http://nathalie-mediaandviolence.blogspot.com/

Lucie: http://comm-unblock.blogspot.com/

The other side... Conclusion

In this last post I would just like to say that this particular problem that is circling the world, therefore the horrifying influence that various media images and talk shows about ideal weight, idealized body images and styles (both male and female) can be mellowed. It for sure will not be an easy task because people are used and have grown up with these idols; they have it rooted deep in their heads and memory. However some Media’s have gotten sick and tired with it and decided to turn things around, at least a bit.

The first example would be Quebec’s Coup de Pouce magazine who published only photos of full-sized women, moreover another magazine, Chatelaine pledged that they will not retouch nor include models younger than 25 in their photos. Another example occurred in 2006 in Madrid where ultra-thin models were banned from the runway (Media Awareness). September 9th, 2006 the Times published an article regarding the revolutionary banning in Madrid. They decided to band all present models who had a BMI (body mass index) lower than 18 and that whoever showed up had it lower then 16 will need treatment. However, since Madrid's fashion week is not as important as Milan's nor London's it really and unfortunately did not make a great impact, but, at least it was a step forward from someone in this industry (By Fran Yeoman, Carolyn Asome and Graham Keeley, Times Online).

The last but not least nor less important example is Dove which launched the ‘Campaign for Real Beauty’ which represented real women, with all their flaws and curves. They tried to show that real beauty does not mean being skinny and looking unhealthy. They wanted to show that beauty is different and it does not know age, race religion, none of these, everyone is equal, unique and should be treated and respected for who they are. One particular fact, that I have found interesting that, when they did their research they found that only 2% of women from ten different countries were satisfied with their bodies.

This topic may seem obvious but I think that every one of us needs to read and hear these things in order to really appreciate real values in life, be satisfied and confident with themselves and their bodies. Each and every one of us is unique and often flawed, asymmetric but this is exactly where the beauty of it lies.

P.S.-If you are interested a little bit more in this last topic and want to explore it a bit more and understand why these so called ‘Barbies’ are not the proper idols, go check out Dove’s web page, read their articles and maybe you will start appreciating yourselves and your extra kilo’s a bit more.

http://www.campaignforrealbeauty.co.uk/#/CFRB/gallery/article_gallery.aspx/

Relevant Videos and site:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TpKgGuADViY&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=epOg1nWJ4T8&feature=player_embedded

http://loveyourbody.nowfoundation.org/091704survey.html

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article633568.ece

Continuing..

By reading more and more into this particular topic I have found out that the root for which women are portrayed as they are in today’s media lays in the economy. The media by idealizing, both the male and female figure, and by providing such a difficult imagery to achieve bursts the economy in various fields such as pharmacology, cosmetics, nutrition and many more (Media Awareness Network). During the years the imagery of the ideal women changed, but not drastically. When I talk about ideal women I mean (super)models, actresses, singers and all the thin and ‘flawless ‘women visible on every channel you turn on. I say ‘flawless’ because even these role models to whom we stick up to have flaws and in order to achieve this spotless look their picture need a lot of retouching and cleaning.

In the past, about twenty years ago, models weighed 8% less then the average women while today the weigh 23% less. Another yet important fact that most girls nowadays forget is as, Sarah Michelle Geller said: “How can women be as thin as we are? We have personal trainers to work us out. We have specially prepared meals” (Kidzworld). Most girls tend to deify these Hollywood, MTV stars that can be seen on TV; or the supermodels from a specific magazine, however, by envying them and wanting to be exactly like them esthetically wise, tend to take the wrong path. The path of starvation or they get caught in a cycle of bingeing and purging.

Moreover I would like to quote a Media Activist who said “Women are sold to the diet industry by the magazines we read and the television programs we watch, almost all of which make us feel anxious about our weight” (Jean Kilbourne, Media Awareness). In relation to all that was said beforehand I wanted to add the following statistics; in 2006 up to 450,000 Canadian women had eating disorder problems. While back in 2003 Teen Magazine (US) reported that about 50 to 70 percent of girls with normal weight thought they were overweight while 35% of girls between the ages of 6 and 12 were at least once on a diet (Media Awareness).

Videos related to this topic:

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

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hsiQptl_Y9E

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hs5IyioCUFU&feature=related

Continuing..

As you will be able to see in the video downwards and in some articles from newspapers people are constantly being attacked from every side by articles and topics like diets and how to be thinner. As the Canadian Women’s Health Network (CWHN) reports, 90% of women and girls are unhappy with the way they look thanks to the media, which shows them an unrealistic, and unattainable figure/shape models to which they should look up to. By doing so it can lead people to some serious problems, as I you may know.

The media show us an unhealthy and universal way of how to achieve such figure, even if maybe, some people can get skinnier in a healthy way and be satisfied with themselves without looking like monsters. They in various ads, commercials, TV-shows, magazines and interviews promote various diets and ways of getting to this goal without thinking of what it can lead to or explaining the causes it can provoke.

As I said the CWHN provides us with some of these health problems, which are:

-Unhealthy dieting

-Taking drugs (pills) to lose weight

-Depression and other mental illnesses

-Disordered Eating

-Unnecessary Surgery.

These health problems aren’t attacking only the ‘common’ people but the celebrities as well, some like Anna Carolina Reston a 21-year-old model died of anorexia. This issue is an important and a rather neglected one, at least in the media and that is why I chose to write about it. In the Washington Post on November 16th, 2006 they released an article where they talked about the Brazilian model and where they mentioned the exact reason of her passing away.

In this particular article her the Washington Post posts exactly what has happened to her and some, in my opinion shocking facts like her weight comparing to her height (39.92-172.72) and her mother's statements. They conclude the article by saying that in Spain during a fashion show they banned ultra-thin models. As is it visible from this article and Reston's unfortunate and terrible death (which ended with an infection that thanks to bulimia and anorexia lead her to death). (The Washington Post)

Related Sites and Videos:

If you wish to dig deeper into this topic go visit this site on which you can find all about the two main diseases that the media and its portrayal of body causes, therefore Bulimia and Anorexia and information about celebrities who unfortunately have or struggled with these diseases.

http://www.caringonline.com/eatdis/people.htm

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/16/AR2006111601392.html

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qLCKJe8KEgY&feature=player_embedded

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3-LpRxxPw5c&feature=related

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

Women and Eating Disorders

The Medical News Today has published an article in which the UK psychiatrists expressed their concern about the influence of media and its portrays of the female body image and its harmful influence on young adults, mainly females (Medical News Today).

The Royal College of Psychiatrists' (RCPsychs') Eating Disorders Section is proposing a new editorial code in which at least in magazine the types of women showed would be diverse and closer to the common women figures.

This particular proposal, if taken in action would help women feel more comfortable about their bodies and to help women be even more secure they also stated that for each digitally enhanced picture there should be a sign saying it was in some way retouched (Medical News Today).

Dr. Adrienne Key in this particul interwiev said that:"Eating disorders, such as anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa, are serious mental illnesses". She also stated: "Although biological and genetic factors play an important role in the development of these disorders, psychological and social factors are also significant," she added, saying that was why the RCPsych was urging the media "to take greater responsibility for the messages it sends out" (Medical News Today).

People Usually do not think about how much of an influence the pictures and the various contents seen in the media have on the viewers mental and physical health, they just wanted to portray a beautiful life. A life that is hard to achieve, either because it is too expensive (clothing, various surgeries) or impossible body image wise since we have different bone structure, masses, height etc.

Usually you would think that the most vulnerable and affected people are Teenagers since the older women and people have more experience and are not any more in that vulnerable stage where they are still in search of who they are and their body is changing as well as their self-esteem. Apropo, 50% of girls between the ages of 11 and 13 see themselves as overweight; anorexia has been detected as the 3^rd most common chronic illnesses among Adolescents of which 95% are between the ages of 12 and 25 (eating disorders in college.wordpress.com).

Since my previous statistics were taken from The Easting Disorders in College website I wanted present you with the following statistic since we are as well in college. One out of every four girl in college has an eating disorder (Kidz World). Moreover, a survey done by Kristen Harrison in 1994 that consisted of 232 female under0graduate students showed that 15% of girls show met the criteria for some sort of eating disorder (www.ur.umich.edu)

Related Videos:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gYXDIZfDyX8

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OFYIIUyDVas&feature=player_embedded

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gTQpMIUC-78&feature=related

Media Influence on Men

As I mentioned in my previous post, men are as much preoccupied about their looks as women, even if they do not seem like it. Men are also being attacked b

y ideal male figures in magazines, TV-shows, ads, action figures and even cartoons, they are as well either extremely difficult to achieve or impossible. In order for this figure to be achieved a person has to take illegal steroids, especially because men, as well as women have different body configurations and therefore possibilities sinceeach of them has a physiological limit to how much muscle they can gain (UCLA).

For example, try thinking off how your male friends look like body wise, how many of them look like they came out of an ad? If you pay a little bit more attention you will figure out that in 99% of the time the men portrayed are shaved, with an amazing body that includes a six or eight-pack, perfect biceps and triceps… The whole ideal looking package, but, turn around most men have hair on their chest and back, they have beer bellies or are really skinny and you cannot find a single muscle or abs.

Men figures vary, they are short, fat, skinny, some even have the so-called chicken legs and not the football legs that most portrayed men in the media have.‘Real men’, ‘common’ men also get depressed, also get eating disorders because they want to look like these idealized men which are showed at every corner. Even if this number may not be as big as the one in women it still exists and 1% of men have anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, or binge eating disorder and all because of someone’s idealistic version of men (Teen Health and the Media).

Video about Males and Body Image:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6gQtw-2xwvA

Men and Women

Many factors contribute daily to how women and men feel about their bodies and the bodies of the apposite sex. Women have enough problems and worries on their own since most of them want to have an ideal body

image, the one that resembles most

people that they see in the media. To this first pressure we have to add men, who are also being constantly bombarded by thin, beautiful women with no cellulite or imperfections. These kinds of women are those that most men want, dream about and find attractive, however, are they aware that these women aren’t that common?

The percentage that can actually achieve such a thin, long legged body type is of only 5% (of American women); now, imagine of how much damage the media pervasiveness regarding this specific body image is doing? I would say a lot. (Snac UCLA). It has to be said that the bodies haven’t changed, the standards changed. Just think of Marilyn Monroe and the Sex Symbols from a couple of years ago, nowadays they would be considered fat. Are Kate Moss or Lindsay Lohan your sex symbols? Would you really like to look like them?

Since most of us is in our twenties and you for sure have guy friends, just try recalling of how many times while watching a film, a TV-show they commented on how they want for example Jessica Alba or Angelina Jolie and, of how many times they said they wanted a girl like that. Did you try it? Good, now, think of how many times you said you wante

d a guy like… Chad Michel Murray or Josh Hartnett. By a guy like them I mean a guy with a six-pack, flawless, gentle, dreamy, intelligent and lots of other qualities that you could not find in the guy next door.

Well, once you have thought about this now try recalling both reac

tions, you as a girl probably felt frustrated but wanted to be in her shoes, he on the other hand just mumbled something and told you that guys like this do not exist. However, what most girls do not think about is that men also feel threatened by these Hollywood stars and their bodies. As much as we want to be perfect for our husbands and boyfriends, they want it as well.