Journal Week #4

It's hard to believe that we are 1/4 of the way through the semester.  This reading opened my eyes in some new ways.  I've often thought that I did not have a body image issue, I'm fat and I know it, accept it or ignore it - my choice.  If others cannot accept me because of it, than that is THEIR issue.  However in the last couple of months I have had it pointed out that while I say tha I accept myself, perhaps I don't really.  If I did truly accept myself than I would not be so resistant to compliments .  At my age it's hard to change boydy image and I'm a fairly confident secure person, so why do we make it so hard on the younger generation?

Quote:

“Our culture's visual world is inundated with images on the web, television, ads, videos, and magazines that define desirability as "slim and muscular bodies with white features"

Response:

This is such a true statement and it irritates me to no end.  Why does everyone want to “be” what the world thinks is perfect.   And yet, that very statement, “what the world thinks is beautiful” is not one that can be universal.  Not all parts of the world perceive beauty the same way.  It would be better to say that in the US, beauty is perceived as…..  Or as the original quote from the article states “our culture’s”. 

So this ramble, in the previous quote actually exemplifies how we, as Americans and people tend to generalize and lump things together.  I don’t think I truly realied the impact of mainstream media on our body image until I started to look for an alternate resource and while I found a number of you tube videos that were apparently created as part of coursework I was more significantly struck by the blog I found where real girls are putting their thoughts, ideas, and self-image out there and I think WOW, this really is a problem.  One writer says: 

I just think, that each week (this is what I’m now doing) we should have a day where we don’t wear makeup or straighten our hair etc. A day where we let our natural beauty is on the display, to help us realise that we can beautiful the way we are without ‘enhancements’ such as makeup.

I want to say “Honey, you can your natural self every day.  JUST DO IT!”  How can we empower these young women and make them realize that they only have to please themselves!

 

Resource:

A great website/blog with video snippets called “Ask Amy.”  http://www.tumblr.com/tagged/body+image

Citations:

Sauer, H., & Robles-Pina, Ph.D., R. (2003). Magazines: What adolescent girls are reading and the way they shape body image. Avancing Women in Leadership, Retrieved from http://www.advancingwomen.com/awl/winter2003/SAUERR~1.html

wheresthecookies, K. (n.d.). "Hi, i'm kelly.." [Web log comment]. Retrieved from http://www.tumblr.com/tagged/body image