body image & gender representation appreciation part ii
TRANSCRIPT
Body Image & Gender Representation
APPRECIATION PART II
Cultivating Beauty
Cultivation Theory - As a person watches more of some sort of TV, he/she becomes cultivated into the television program view of social reality… Gerbner’s theory shows that such change is gradual and slow in evolving in individuals. Gerbner believes there are two processes that reveal evidence of media cultivation.
Cultural Understandings…
• Our beliefs are influenced most about things we have the least first-hand knowledge of.– Stereotyping– Messages about different countries and
cultures
Cultural Studies of Media
“For cultural studies, media culture provides the materials for constructing views of the world, behavior, and even identities. Those who uncritically follow the dictates of media culture tend to "mainstream" themselves, conforming to the dominant fashion, values, and behavior…. Television, film, music, and other popular cultural forms are thus often liberal or conservative, or occasionally express more radical or oppositional views” (Douglas Kellner, UCLA, 1995)
http://www.gseis.ucla.edu/faculty/kellner/papers/SAGEcs.htm
Beauty and Body Image in the Media
Images of female bodies are everywhere. “Attractive” Women—and their body parts—sell everything from food to cars
Why are the media’s standards of beauty so different than the norm?
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-1993368502337678412
The Economics of Body Image
How does the “thinness” message get across?
The average North American girl will watch 5,000 hours of television, including 80,000 ads, before she starts kindergarten.
By the time she is 17 years old, she has received over 250,000 commercial messages through the media.
The Economics of Thinness
The diet industry is worth $100 billion a year—of that approximately $33 billion is advertising revenue.
The barrage of messages about beauty and thinness tells women that they are always in need of adjustment —and that the female body is an object to be perfected.
69% of girls in one study said that magazine models influence their idea of the perfect body shape
75% of "normal" weight women think they are overweight
90% of women overestimate their body size.
Beauty and Body Image in the Media
According to a 2005 study: Over 3/4 of the female characters in TV sitcoms are underweight, and only 1 in 20 are above average in size.
Men Vs. Women
“All family sitcoms — virtually all sitcoms now — are about a fat guy with a hot wife.”
Rick Marin, former NYT television critic “Father Eats Best.” New York Times, November 24, 2004
King of Queens
According to Jim
Image of Couples of Different Weights
Whether the images are real or animated, the message is an overweight man can have a happy family life, but
an overweight woman is destined to be alone...
According to Jim
Still StandingFamily Guy
Beauty and Body Image in the Media
Researchers report that women’s magazines have 10 and ½ times more ads and articles promoting weight loss than men’s magazines do.
Over three-quarters of the covers of women’s magazines include at least one message about how to change a woman’s bodily appearance—by diet, exercise or cosmetic surgery.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-1993368502337678412
It’s not only a female issue…
It’s not only a message of thinness, it’s a manipulated message of
thinness…
http://demo.fb.se/e/girlpower/retouch/retouch/index.html
How ethical is the “photoshoping” of images?
Implications of retouching?
• Is it creating a greater disparity between reality and fantasy?
• In a capitalist society, where we all benefit from market models, what’s the problem?
• Can repurposing help us appreciate body image more? (knowtheNews - Knowrealbeauty)
TASKHow would you, in this highly invasive media culture, help
people realize and appreciate body image?
