(no subject)
this will get edited out later. so read and laugh now. hehe.
i wrote my piece for the magazine this morning. its a first draft. and the attention whore wants opinions.
its basically on the media and body image. i dont have a title as yet, but im accepting suggestions.
thanx.
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Young, gorgeous, and talented. We think they have it all. But the reality is so much sadder. Within this crowd of adored people, who appear to be oh so perfect, there are so many problems, drugs are abused daily, most of them will struggle to hold down a genuine relationship, and quite a few will suffer mentally for years with the “rewards” their fame offers them.
But we still want to be like them.
Pick up any “trashy” magazine, and it will be filled with smiling happy photos, of perfectly made up celebrities and you’ll be able to read all about their perfect lives too. Even their problems are somehow made spectacular within this world too. Its an evil world that hides most of its troubles under the cover of makeup and photo editing.
But for some reason, we still want to be them.
Not many people realise the impact the media has on our day to day functioning within the world. Everywhere you turn, you will be most likely faced with some form of media, be it, television, magazines, newspapers, billboards, etc. its just everywhere. But what does that mean for our functioning? Well, as quite a few magazines do state, many young woman are falling under the spell of the “Paris Syndrome” and instead of seeing her as she really is (ie - a slightly spoilt, rich individual whose only claim to fame is a dodgy reality TV program that very few people actually enjoyed) so many young woman are overcome with a desire to look exactly like her. Which impacts significantly on their lives and wellbeing.
Lets take photos for example. A large majority of the photos in magazines, and on billboards have been edited in some way. The models aren’t all that perfect, the skin you see in pictures has more often than not, been covered in a thick layer of makeup to hide any imperfections, and those problems that makeup doesn’t cover, are subtly removed with one of the many photo editing software packages that are around. And the size of the models, yup, you guessed it, they’re not all that skinny either. Its true that within the modelling world, and the world of famous individuals, there are a lot of people with disordered eating, but that’s not how they all get those bodies we see in the magazines. Especially the photos from fashion shoots. The people who model for them are chosen because their bodies have no shape. Pick up any well known fashion magazine, (I chose Vogue for this exercise) and look through their fashion shoots. The models are all very similar. And very thin. That can't be natural, so somehow, these women are slowly destroying their bodies to achieve this distorted image of perfection that we are faced with having to see on the pages of our magazines.
Even magazines such as Cosmopolitan, who state that they have “real life” models, of all shapes and sizes, do discriminate. It has been said that the clothes look better on someone who doesn’t have a body shape to alter their appearance. Which equals, stick thin, with no shape whatsoever. And us poor regular sized people are left to have to admire these “real” people. And it is these magazines that we read, that are filled to the brim with “diet tips” and stories all about cosmetic surgery, that are truly distorting our images. There are so many claims made that certain sections of the media are real, and do tell the stories of real people. but really, how many people do you know who’ve had cosmetic surgery, or fallen in love on a reality TV program, or even followed one of the magazines crazy dieting plans? Not many I would assume. So where’s the reality in that?
But there is still the problem of their lives to face. Most of these individuals that we admire each day have a lot to deal with. Fame in itself does not bring happiness. So many celebs agree that while it is fun for a while, once the glow wears down there are a lot of things to deal with. Elizabeth Hurley came out earlier this year and stated that she lives off one meal a day. And at the Logies this year, drug swab tests were taken in the bathrooms with many of them coming back positive. Or you could just take a look at some of the relationships that Hollywood manages to magnify and destroy. How can people be truly happy within themselves if they are living this lie each day? Its just not possible.
So lets all agree that not everyone can be a supermodel, and anyway, if we all were, the world would be a much more boring place. Everyone is an individual and we need to stop looking to the media to find people to imitate and live as. Because starving yourself, taking drugs, drinking, partying all the time, and being like your favourite celebrity isn’t going to leave you in a very healthy state. Its time we all started accepting individuality as what it is, a very special thing, and even though the media is everywhere, it isn’t in our hearts.
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comments?? anyone?? lol.
<3