How+Media+Affects+Us

Media affects us every day.
Each of us see hundreds of advertisements each day, whether on television, billboards, posters, on the internet, in magazines...the list goes on. The problem with this is that media glamorizes unattainable beauty - skinny girls, tall, with a perfect body and face. We grow up seeing beauty portrayed this way. Even Disney glamorizes this unattainable beauty. For example: "Rumble, Cash, and Nashville (2000; cited in Klein & Shiffman, 2006) found that the schematic association of attractiveness and thinness with goodness was present in over 100 female characters appearing in 23 Walt Disney animated films (cel cartoons) produced over a 60-year period."

Girls grow up thinking they need to look like Barbie, and boys, GI Joe. The fact is that this beauty portrayed is nowhere near what the average person looks like or can achieve. Advertisements are manipulated so much to achieve a picture of perfect beauty. We need to know that who we are is beautiful, without any manipulations or dieting.

Dove created a Campaign for Real Beauty, a revolution to show girls that real beauty is, well beautiful. They made a few eye-opening videos. In this video, images that girls see every day are collaborated to show the effects it can have: media type="youtube" key="Ei6JvK0W60I" height="364" width="445" align="center"

This video is a great example of how an advertisement is created. media type="youtube" key="iYhCn0jf46U" height="364" width="445" align="center"

Decide for yourself what you believe.

A few good sites:
@http://www.mediafamily.org/facts/facts_mediaeffect.shtml www.campaignforrealbeauty.ca/