In the documentary, America the Beautiful, the narrator
Darryl Roberts films the life of a preteen model with commentaries from a
varying set of individuals. A review I found about the film was in a website
called Blog Critics and was written
by an author, Jennifer Williams, who held the same views as I did regarding the
movie. Williams expresses thankfulness to Roberts for bringing together clips
from the reality of the fashion industry and the reality of how it is detrimental
to the way people view themselves, especially young girls. The author then
proceeded to interview her readers and received a similar response as the
readers expressed a low self-esteem in matters of beauty. I believe that both
the work of Roberts and Williams unfortunately presents the mindset of a
rapidly growing portion of America. Many of the people interviewed and the
statistics gathered show how society takes something so integral to humans as the
concept of beauty and twists it in a self demeaning and unhealthy way. Industries
like the fashion and advertising industry, have a major part in shaping this
concept. The many who look at magazines, models, ads, movies, and television
shows are bombarded with a sense of what is beautiful that only a small
percentage can achieve. The industries do
so for profit, saying that it is cheaper to make smaller clothes and that
beautiful women sell products better, neglecting what their choice does to so
many people, especially women. Viewing this film would help people question
whether or not their concept of what is beautiful is truly theirs. It will make
them conscience of how their off-hand comments may affect the other. And it
will cause people to see the beauty in someone because they themselves perceive
beauty in them, hopefully while boosting a couple of egos along the way.
http://blogcritics.org/video/article/movie-review-america-the-beautiful/
http://blogcritics.org/video/article/movie-review-america-the-beautiful/
I agree completely with you and also side with the view of Roberts and Williams, as I think most young women do. I know most girls feel threatened by our society's image of beauty, mainly because most cannot achieve this image. I took a Media Lit. course last year in high school and learned that most of the images of beauty and perfection we see in our culture are totally unrealistic. Billboards, ads, and magazines displaying gorgeous models are all photo-shopped and changed drastically until they look perfect. It really bothers me that this happens, because it makes so many young woman feel insecure and upset as they are trying to attain a perfection that is fake and unrealistic. The minds of young woman in our culture would be a whole lot healthier if the photos of models in ads and outside of stores were of average looking, natural woman. Our society focuses way too much on physical beauty and looking perfect, and it is totally messing with the minds of young woman everywhere. In my opinion, the media is totally to blame--if woman were portrayed realistically in the media, I think our culture would see a significant change.
ReplyDeleteGood comments, Kendra and Vivian. I'd challenge you both to consider what institutions like Calvin College and the church could be doing in this area of life to promote a Kingdom view of beauty. The media has power, but so do these institutions, including families.
ReplyDelete