Caroline Maddaloni Annotations:
Boyd, Danah. It’s Complicated: The Social Lives of Networked Teens. Yale University Press, 2014.
Danah Boyd’s book, It’s Complicated: The Social Lives of Networked Teens, highlights how teenagers now-a-days communicate through social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram and how that affects their quality of life. She discovers that these social media platforms allow teens to engage and create a sense of identity that they did not have before. Her findings conclude that not only teens, but parents, and anyone interested in studying teens, should read this book because she found that emerging technologies have a huge impact on society, culture, and the world to come.
Greeson, Larry E., and Rose Ann Williams. “Social Implications of Music Videos for Youth.” Youth & Society, vol. 18, no. 2, 1986, pp. 177–189.
Larry Greeson’s journal article, “Social Implications of Music Videos for Youth,” highlights how television has considerable impact on the youth due to the amount of hour’s youths spend consuming digital media. The article states that the more TV teens watch, the more true to life they believe it to be. If we start to believe what we see on TV is true, audiences try and live up to that unrealistic standard of what they think real life is supposed to be. The article highlights that entertainment industries such as MTV try to reflect and influence adolescent behaviors and concerns through producing popular music and music videos. The study also highlights that teens were more likely to buy something they saw on MTV than subjects who had not viewed MTV. That is a perfect example of how highly influential our digital mediums are.
Dittmar, Helga. “How Do “Body Perfect” Ideals in the Media Have a Negative Impact on Body Image and Behaviors? Factors and Processes Related to Self and Identity.” Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, vol. 28, no. 1, 2009, pp. 1–8., doi:10.1521/jscp.2009.28.1.1.
Helga Dittmar’s journal article highlights the issue of body image and mass media. She discusses that body image is a core aspect of mental and physical well-being and rapidly growing research questions whether body perfect ideals in mass media are a core risk factor for negative body image in women. This connects to youth and entertainment industries because so much of what entertainment industries distribute to the public highly influence the way audiences behave and react. Entertainment Industries such as the modeling industry, portrays tall skinny beautiful women. If that is what you are used to seeing and that’s all you see, you are naturally going to assume you should look like that too. The article states that the mass media are seen as particularly potent and pervasive source of influence, evidenced by a virtual explosion of studies on media exposure and body dissatisfaction. The modeling industry obviously finds the most beautiful and perfect looking women to represent them because they want the best of the best to simply make money.
Fardouly, Jasmine, et al. “Social comparisons on social media: The impact of Facebook on young womens body image concerns and mood.” Body Image, vol. 13, 2015, pp. 38–45., doi:10.1016/j.bodyim.2014.12.002.
Jasmine Fardouly talks about how there are currently 1.3 billion regular Facebook users and that social media is particularly popular among young women—which is a demographic for which body dissatisfaction is problematic. During this study, Fardouly conducts research and found that there is a positive correlation between Facebook usage and body dissatisfaction. She had 112 women participate in the experiment and by the end, those who spent time on Facebook reported being in a more negative mood than those spent on a controlled website. Facebook users also reported more body image concerns than non-users did. This study correlates to youth and entertainment industries because the entertainment industry of social media (Facebook) creates unrealistic expectations of women and what they should look like. Young female youths are active on social media and they are most prone to body dissatisfaction. A way to fix this issue would be to show more normal looking people on social media so the expectations are not as high and women don’t stress over looking a certain way.
Krupnick, Ellie. “Aerie’s Unretouched Ads ‘Challenge Supermodel Standards’ for Young Women.” The Huffington Post, TheHuffingtonPost.com, 17 Jan. 2014, www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/17/aerie-unretouched-ads-photos_n_4618139.html.
I believe this source will help me with my final project because the clothing line, aerie, created a solution to the issue of young women having unrealistic body standards due to distorted portrayal in the media. Aerie launched their ‘Aerie Real Campaign’ in 2014 in efforts to break the high beauty standards that our entertainment/fashion/modeling industries set. The purpose of this campaign is to have your average everyday girl as the face of Aerie to show customers that is what normal people look like. Aerie uses young girls of all body and skin types. They also do not touch up or Photoshop the images whatsoever. Aerie’s demographic ranges from 15-21 (high school and college students) Research shows that young women’s sense of body confidence is often influenced by images of female beauty in the media. This campaigns goal is to challenge the supermodel standards and to create a more realistic and normal standard for young women so they can be comfortable and feel empowered in their own skin.
Okwodu, Janelle. “One Model Takes On the Fashion World-And Wins.” Vogue, Vogue, 1 Feb. 2017, www.vogue.com/article/model-charli-howard-reaction-open-letter.
This source entails fashion model Charli Howard bashing the modeling industry after she was fired because she “looked out of shape.” I believe this source will help me with my final project because someone from the modeling industry finally put their foot down and said, “No. Fuck this. There is nothing wrong with me, there is something wrong with this industry and society.” The model states that fashion doesn’t cause eating disorders, but society’s adornment of and reward for perfection makes it a tool to support them. She says that beauty is not measured by a number but she believes high fashion is made for one body size that creates a large disconnect with the majority of the population. She says the solution to this lies in everybody’s hands. If everyone including the people at the top of the modeling industry encouraged models and their audience members to be true to themselves and to do things their own way, beauty standards would not be so high. She says models are told all the time to do anything they possibly can to be slim. Howard is even guilty of it. She admits to doing unhealthy things to lose weight, not because she wanted to, but because she was told to. She says a lot of people in the modeling industry don’t speak out about this topic because being too opinionated could end their careers. We hold the solution to this problem. We need to show the modeling industry you do not have to be a size 2 to be beautiful and that starts with creating our own activism and awareness like Howard has done.
Gardiner, Casidhe. “16 Celebrities Who Prove There’s Hope in Changing Beauty Standards.” Spoon University, 28 Apr. 2017, spoonuniversity.com/healthier/16-celebrities-who-are-changing-beauty-standards.
I believe this source will be helpful to my final project because the author highlights 16 well-known celebrities who do not abide to the typical beauty standards of Hollywood. These men and women dance to their own beat and have proved that you can still be successful, respected, and feel happy and confident in your own skin without following the strict beauty standards our modeling, fashion, and entertainment industries have set for us. Amy Shumer once had a producer say to her, “if you weigh over 140 lbs, you will hurt people’s eyes.” At first she bought it because she was new in town. She lost the weight and absolutely hated the way she looked. After she filmed Trainwreck she went back to her initial weight and felt very happy with herself. Adele also says, “there is only one of you, so why would you want to look like someone else?” Why do we strive to look like a bunch of thin tall models when we were given our own unique bodies to flaunt in our own ways? All of the celebrities on this list encourage fellow stars and average people to find beauty from within, self-acceptance, and to stop striving for a different version of ourselves just because that’s what we see on TV. These celebrities are part of the solution to breaking beauty standards because they are telling millions of people it is OK not to look like a supermodel cause, “look, I don’t either and I’m in the entertainment industry.”
alvarosalcedo. YouTube, YouTube, 14 Apr. 2015, www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=58&v=WF_HqZrrx0c.
“Nike Powers Women To Be Better For It.” Nike News, news.nike.com/news/nike-powers-women-to-be-betterforit.
This Nike advertisement and campaign ‘Better For It’ is a call to action for women to embrace their inner strength, confidence, and beauty. The advertisement video shows a bunch of normal looking women at the gym, a spin class, running a half marathon, and in a yoga class. The entire video we are hearing the funny and accurate thoughts of these women as they work out. Before this, I had never seen a sports advertisement like this. You usually see extremely fit beautiful women doing something extremely athletic effortlessly. That’s not the case in this video. It shows the inner and true struggles a normal person has while working out. We strive to be these fit and perfect people we see in advertisements while we are exercising, but this video showed us it is okay to feel a bit discouraged throughout the way because we all feel that way at some point or another. This video shows real women and their real thoughts embracing themselves because even though they are not an Olympian, they are still proud of themselves for putting in effort. This advertisement will be helpful for my final project because Nike is showing normal women working out and showing the realities and truths of what it is really like mentally to be working out around other people. This advertisement lowers the standard that a lot of people have.
Victoria Paradise Annotations:
Aljazeera.com. (2017). Search. [online] Available at: http://www.aljazeera.com/Search/?q=body%20image [Accessed 13 Nov. 2017].
Big fashion brands like Yves Saint Lauren, Christian Dior, Gucci, and Louis Vuitton are joining forces to stop hiring models that are too thin and too young due to criticism about the industry leading to eating disorders. These changes were to be implemented this past fashion week season and would be monitored.
Barth, D. (2015). What’s the Best Way to Deal With a Negative Body Image?. [online] Psychology Today. Available at: https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-couch/201507/whats-the-best-way-deal-negative-body-image [Accessed 3 Nov. 2017].
A psychological therapist explores the things she has learned from her patients with eating disorders. Barth explains that this has been an uphill battle for psychologists because more and more people have eating disorders as time goes on. Barth acknowledges that she does not have a cultural solution, but on the individual level people that go to a therapist that have body image issues tend to become happier and healthier.
Berninger, L. (2017). Stop Blaming the Media for Our Body Image Issues. [online] HuffPost. Available at: https://www.huffingtonpost.com/lauren-berninger/stop-blaming-the-media-fo_b_4633388.html [Accessed 5 Nov. 2017].
Lauren Berninger believes that rather than looking at the media and blaming the media we should be looking at parents, teachers, community leaders, clubs, etc. to provide positive role models that the media does not provide. Again, this suggests a more independent solution to the problem rather than a cultural, systemic solution. She says “rather than demonizing the media…” we should teach our girls to ignore what they see and change their opinions of beauty. She provides one point that begins to look at the media as the problem, but then fails to continue on this point.
Fraser, Kristopher. Thedailybeast.com. (2017). Search. Available at:
https://www.thedailybeast.com/the-invisibility-of-being-size-8-to-12
Models sizes 8 to 12 have begun to slowly enter and be represented in the fashion industry due to agencies like MSA Models and True Model Management’s curve divisions. Curve devisions usually only included women sizes 14 to 16, but now the “in-between” models are being represented.
Hopkins, N. (2017). Negative Body Image – Understanding and Overcoming. [online] Center for Change. Available at: https://centerforchange.com/battling-bodies-understanding-overcoming-negative-body-images/ [Accessed 5 Nov. 2017].
Hopkins suggests that there are seven main ways to fight a negative body image, most being, again, on the individual level, and one that begins to address the problem as a media/societal issue, but then it fails to elaborate and again makes it more into an individual issue. The suggestions are fighting “fatism” (judgements based on weight), fighting the diet crazes, accepting your genetics, understanding that emotions are skin deep, questioning messages in the media, recognizing the influences of body misperception, and befriending your body.
Jervis, L. (2017). Barbie’s New Bod, BFD. Mother Jones. Retrieved 14 November 2017, from http://www.motherjones.com/politics/1997/12/barbies-new-bod-bfd/
Barbie’s body shape is changing with a smaller bust, slightly bigger waist, and shorter height. Many people think this change was to reflect changing body image ideals around the world, but Mattel has denied that this is why Barbie is changing. In my opinion Barbie is missing out on an opportunity to change their image when they are believed to be a main reason many young girls have unrealistic expectations of women.
Oh, I. (2017). Thanks to Victoria’s Secret, we now know models get sad with body envy too. Mother Jones. Retrieved 14 November 2017, from http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2014/11/victorias-secret/
A failed attempt by one of the worst culprits of body image issues, Victoria’s Secret. The company tried to respond to the backlash coming from their “Perfect Body” campaign, and again they showed that they are insensitive to body image concerns. Victoria’s secret should begin to figure out how to contribute positively to the movement while still running a profitable business.
Walsh, P. (2017). Body Image Movement. [online] NewsRadio KFBK. Available at: https://kfbk.iheart.com/onair/pat-walsh-890/body-image-movement-15466132/ [Accessed 3 Nov. 2017].
A mother in England began her journey to find out why women hate their bodies so much when she posted a before and after picture of herself; the before picture being a picture of her as a body builder and after as an average woman. The photo and her efforts toward change have inspired women across the globe to try to stop caring about their bodies and inspiring other women to do the same. This is an example of a more individualist approach to the issue of the modelling and fashion industry causing body image issues across the female population