5I: According to the media

In my media class we have recently been analyzing ads and looking at the deeper meaning of things.  One subject we came across many times was how media portrayed women.  Out of all the ads we looked according to the media there were only two options of being a women.  An ad would either show a girl being sexy, modeling in few clothes or a girl being sweat and innocent.  There was no in between. The ads were basically all saying that you’re either sexy, or very innocent. 

Today, in the lobby of Engle man hall I noticed a big poster board with a bunch of magazine cutouts on it.  I stopped by to take a look.  I came to find out that this little presentation was exactly about what we were talking about in my media class.  The poster was titled “How to be a woman... according to the media.” Next to the poster were popular magazines and scissors.  They were asking girls to cut out ads from the magazines that showed how media portrays women. I participated by cutting out a skinny girl modeling in just a bathing suit.  All of the pictures were very revealing and talked about dieting and being skinny.  None of them actually portrayed what the average girl looks like. 

While I was at this little convention I also picked up a flyer. The flyer informed me that almost every magazine cover and ad image is altered to make the girl look extra perfect.  I think that this gives false hope for girls and makes them feel insecure.  The media should be using average girls with flaws of their own for advertising to make the readers feel good about themselves and not feel like they have to live up to such perfect standards.  Before I left my friend Brie and I took a sticker that said “Everyone is beautiful” and we wore them around campus all day.