NoBODY Is Perfect ... Unless The Media Says So.

     This week I have just been slapped in the face with media representation issues ... and since it's kind of my thing ... I guess I should probably say a little something (or more than a little something) about one of the giant problems that lie within the media.

     I recently attended the National Communication Association Conference in New Orleans and attended a seminar about magazines. One of the speakers mentioned that the current stats say that 68 million women read magazines each month without fail. 

     This statistic scares me considering what I have observed about the messages that magazines (and media in general) send to its female consumers - and males too in certain cases, just to be fair! Just in scanning through a few of the more popular women's magazines, you notice what the media considers the "perfect" and "ideal" woman - both in the pages of its content and in its advertisements. For example, in the most current issue of Cosmopolitan magazine, there are 62 ads which feature front-facing females. Only one of those women are depicted as having a position of power (I think it was an Orajel ad) and from what I can remember counting - only 20-somewhat ads featured women of color. None featured plus-size women. 

     What is Cosmopolitan telling women about themselves simply through the ads they choose to accept and run, let alone through their actual content? (By the way, all that counting was done for preliminary research for possible thesis topics! ... OH YEAH. I can never get away from grad school which is why I have been so MIA on the blog posts lately).

  

     Considering the state of the media today and the ways in which it is treating its women, we are the only ones who can change it. We need to stand up to the media (and the fashion industry - we can't forget them!) and say that we aren't scared of not seeing size 0 models on our runways and in our magazines. We need to see more women of color and of differing body types on our TV stations. We also need to be the ones working in the media. Today I was appalled to hear someone make a bulimia joke in a media setting and I didn't even know what to say as I was so shocked - especially when you consider the facts like the ones presented here:

     All those facts should stir a little something in you to want to make a change, and even if that change is just a personal one to accept yourself and give yourself a little slack when you look in the mirror and to love yourself for who you are ... then that's enough. But if it stirs a little more in you to make more changes like contacting fashion designers and magazine publishers/editors, then more power to you! Hopefully we can help change the world before a new generation of girls are hurt by the media messages they are fed every day.

I want to be beautiful. Make you stand in awe. Look inside my heart and be amazed. I want to hear you say who I am is quite enough. Just want to be worthy of love and beautiful. Sometimes I wish I was someone other than me, fighting to make the mirror happy - trying to find whatever is missing. Won't you help me back to glory. (Beautiful, Bethany Dillon)