In this picture I felt a strong obligation to represent teens and the struggle and expectation from society to grow up too fast. Society has pressured us teens and held us to nearly impossible standards. Evidently, this blows our self-esteem out of the water and replaces it with a sense of failure. In this photo I have included diet pills, teeth whitening strips, “pure seduction” lotion, make up and magazines, all which speak for themselves. However, things like the shoes, pearls, glass flower, teddy bear, white dress, and wrist weights have a much deeper meaning. In this photo the girl is surrounded by so much but she is still lonely and isolated. She clearly is overwhelmed and thinking very intensely. While all of this is going on, she is still trying to fit in this high heal that is clearly too small for her. This shows her priority of fitting in and reaching that standard. The pearls represent maturity and they are clearly not fitting her well. They lay there as if they do not belong on her, she is not yet matured but still very young and naïve. The glass flower represents her innocence. It is glass because her innocence is fragile and can be easily broken. It is also in the direction her body is facing, but she s not looking in that direction. This suggests her heart wants to be pure and innocent but she feels a responsibility to be what society expects her to be. The teddy bear is the closest to her. She is surrounded by a ring of loneliness and can only trust her bear. This represents how unwilling she is to let go in her heart but has already made decisions that say otherwise. Her wrist weights represent the struggle; she is a prisoner. The pressure to be thin and beautiful is weighing her down and ultimately hurting her. The light is on her back but if you notice it cuts off right before it hits her eyes. This shows how blind she is because she does not understand who to believe. Should she go with what she is shown on an everyday basis or should she continue to be a child and grow up when she is ready? Her white dress is extremely important because it is her innocents and it is falling off of her. If you notice, she is trying to hold onto it but it is fairly close to being completely off. Her body language speaks as if she is an infant, holding herself because she is lonely and confused. The angle makes her seem small and overtaken by all of the media. While learning more and more about how we as teens are put on a pedestal and expected to live up to it, I was determined to create a picture that hurt to look at particularly because I always thought it was normal to have to be so thin and beautiful.
3 comments:
This photo in particular intrigued me, mainly due to the glaring contrast between innocence and mass media that is shown in this photograph. I loved how the girl is dressed all in white as well as the bedding, while everything that surrounds her pertains to mass media and covers the white bed sheets. All the objects that represent the media clearly show how the girl’s innocence is fading and becoming covered up by the effects of pop culture which surrounds her on the bed. The lighting also seems to suggest the fading of innocence in this photo, with the focus of the lighting more on the girls dress and back while growing dimmer in the edges of the photograph as well as her face. I feel that the lighting brings focus to the white in the girls dress, once again bringing back the focus on the ever fading innocence adolescent girls have. The girl is very young in this photo as well, yet she’s surrounding herself with fashion magazines, make up, and even bunny ears like many costumes have for Play Boy bunny’s on Halloween. With the fading light, the white dress falling off the girl, and even the clinging of the teddy bear, I think the photo is a great representation of how hard it is to hold onto innocence as young girls during a time which mass media pushes girls to act much older than they are.
This image grabbed my attention because it is so true about young girls and the media. Girls are always told that being beautiful is being skinny, wearing make-up, having white teeth and so on. The white dress that this girl is wearing is very significant because white symbolizes innocence and purity. Before girls are exposed to the media they really are innocent and pure, but as we get older we get pushed to be sexy. It is almost like you are not aloud to be yourself or you will face consequences such as getting made fun of and not fitting in. If you don’t wear make-up, you can get labeled as being boyish or ugly. The glamour magazine in this photo is great because it is made for mostly teen girls and in this magazine it is full of beauty things and sex. Young girls are forced to grow up and be sexy, but if they aren’t then they end up all alone like the girl in this photo. The girl in the photo trying to squeeze her foot in the tiny shoe also symbolizes how the media has girls so screwed up about what beauty is that they are willing to endure pain and be uncomfortable in order to fit in.
the white bed covers and the white outfit the girl is wearing is significant because this could be repersenting her youth and how the media and culture as impacted her life already at such a young age. The black makeup running down her face becuase she is crying is also significant due to the fact that she is young and already wearing so much make up. All based off of what she see's in the magazines and the media. Alot of teenage girls dont realize that these women are alot older than what they are portayed to be.
Post a Comment