March 28th, 2008
Distorted Media
Every day I see ads that I find borderline insulting or irresponsible (particularly in their depiction of women). Now we can go on a tirade about how women “buy into” the notion that they have to be physically perfect and perpetuate the ideal, but for now I want to direct you to a site I stumbled across recently: About-Face. As per their website: “a san francisco-based non-profit group, about-face combats negative and distorted images of women in the media”. Their gallery of offenders is rather interesting and for the most part I agree with their viewpoints. Obviously we need to understand that this is a very subjective topic and what I consider “insulting” to someone else may be way over the top and to another, nothing at all. I think it is a great thing to bring attention to some of the media we see and just how distorted it really is and hopefully start some open discussions about it. For anyone who hasn’t seen this, I definitely recommend checking out the Dove Evolution film to get an idea of just how much digital “touching-up” goes on to make a normal, attractive woman look like a super-model.
April 1st, 2008 at 11:31 pm
I totally agree with you about the pressure that women are put under to conform to a certain image. Anorexia is increasing and many women suffer from depression, possibly, in part as a result trying to reach unobtainable goals. Its about time we started to value the more important things in life like friendship, relationships and health.