I don't normally post on the weekend, but I wanted to take the time to enter a submission into the Seventeen Magazine Project "Hey Mainstream Media" movement. You can read about the movement here and I strongly encourage you to do so. We are all affected by the unrealistic ideals that the media perpetuates on a daily basis, even if we're not aware of it (and even if we're not impressionable teens anymore). Some changes need to be made to the images and languages used and an approach that is more inclusive of different races, sizes, shapes, sexual orientations, physicality and personality needs to be used. Not to mention that it should not be assumed that we're all mindless morons who need to be spoon-fed dumbed-down information (sure, there are lots of those out there, but most of us are fairly intelligent, free-thinking persons; in fact, projects like this are proof of that). We can handle the truth (we are the truth). We are all different and unique and that should be celebrated and acknowledged in a positive way.
Please read up on this and spread the word - the only way to make change is by joining together and questioning; saying "we're not going to take it anymore".
10 comments:
TOTALLY agree! Awesome post, how true that everything is about our bodies. Beauty is not just on the outside.
You know who needs to hear this even worse than Seventeen? Cosmo. I'm definitely going to participate in this, and I hope a billion other people do so we can send an enormous collage to all of the "women's interest" magazines out there.
Thanks for introducing me/us to this project and the blog!
Cool post. I heard about this project and it sounds great.
Though I do kind of take issue with the poster. I range from a size 0 (on occasion 00) to a 4 depending on where I shop...and I'm not an anorexic photoshopped model (that I know of!) either.
Sadako - sorry that I offended you with the poster. I'm not trying to say that it's bad being a size 2 or that a size 2 is unhealthy - what I'm trying to address is the fact that mainstream media perpetuates a small size like that as the ideal, and as the only right size. The implication is that there is something wrong with your body if it has curves or a few extra pounds. Everyone's body type is different and you could be healthy at a size 2 or at a size 16, but the important message for media to get is that they need to acknowledge this and start representing it in media and not just show thin shapes. The poster is just from my perspective as someone who is size 12-14, but the overall message is celebrating all bodies. Make sense? Thanks for reading!
What a great post! Thank you for doing this! I am an educator whose focus is media literacy, an area sorely overlooked by most and one that NEEDS to be addressed in this day and age.
Wow, I had no idea about this project. It's awesome! I originally was going to do fashion photography but I just couldn't do it. It makes me too angry that they photoshop every model to look like a barbie doll. Ugh!
Awesome! We're NOT gonna take it! I'll be spreading the word, for sure... I can never be a size 2 no matter how hard I try, and it would be awesome to see fuller models in the ads that are thrown at my face everyday.
Sadako - sorry that I offended you with the poster. I'm not trying to say that it's bad being a size 2 or that a size 2 is unhealthy - what I'm trying to address is the fact that mainstream media perpetuates a small size like that as the ideal, and as the only right size. The implication is that there is something wrong with your body if it has curves or a few extra pounds. Everyone's body type is different and you could be healthy at a size 2 or at a size 16, but the important message for media to get is that they need to acknowledge this and start representing it in media and not just show thin shapes. The poster is just from my perspective as someone who is size 12-14, but the overall message is celebrating all bodies. Make sense? Thanks for reading!
TOTALLY agree! Awesome post, how true that everything is about our bodies. Beauty is not just on the outside.
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Thank you so much for reading!