From: Amber
I choose this picture because every girl has some kind of insecurity about themselves and the most common one of them all is weight. In this picture a girl is pouring reduced fat milk into a bowl of Special K cereal while looking at a magazine. In the magazine it says "look amazing feel great" making it seem like the only way to look amazing and feel great is to lose weight to look like the models in that magazine. On the back of the cereal box it says "eat breakfast lose weigh" implying that she does have a insecurity about her weight and wishes to look as skinny. There is also a Light Yoplait Yogurt which helps interpret her insecurities even more because light means low in fats when she could be eating regular. In this picture there is also a measuring tape and from all these assumptions could only mean one thing, measuring her waistline. This proves that the media brainwashes girls to make them think they are not good enough in size. The girl in the picture already has skinny arms but still wishes to lose more weight to fit in and try to be something she's not.
9 comments:
I completely agree. Every woman at some point of her life is unhappy with her body. It’s hard to be comfortable with your body when we are constantly being reminded of what skinny is supposed to look like. I know for awhile I hated my body. I wasn’t eating. Even when I was eating it wasn’t much. My younger sister did the same exact thing. Yes we both lost weight but we were hurting our bodies. Then one day I said forget it. I’m beautiful the way I am and if you don’t like my body then don’t look at it. Look at Kim Kardashian for example. She’s GORGEOUS and she has a body. She’s got curves and she embraces it. We all aren’t supposed to be a double zero after all.
This is a women's trait to feel like she is unwanted or fat. Most of them are insecure one way or another. With weight it is the most common thing, but in this picture it almost kinda demonstrates obsession because the girl really doesn't have to lose that much weight.
I think there’s a difference between eating healthier foods so that our bodies are healthier and obsessing over what we eat to become skinny. I have one friend who will only eat a Special K bar for lunch and if she doesn’t go to the gym that day she will freak out because she doesn’t want to get fat again. I think she has a serious problem with eating and a serious addiction to the gym. It’s disgusting. Not every person has the same body type and God didn’t design us all to look the same. It’s fine to want to be healthy, but people need to realize not everyone is going to look super model thin.
I really enjoyed this posting. I am one who eats Special K products and drink non-fat milk to keep my weight at a good range. I can really understand why there are many out their like this girl who feels the need to lose weight. Everywhere in the media and in everyday life there is always things pointing to looking skinny especially for the summer time. Additionally, women feel the need to diet and exercise to look desirable by those they have intrest in. Today, this is a way people choose who they date by their looks not just personality or what they have going for them. Not only do women feel this pressure from media but they feel this need to be skinny or diet from other women becasue there are those really skinny girls that we all know and strive to be their size. Great posting and very relateable.
This picture is a great example of so many young females and their attitudes in culture today. There is nothing wrong with eating healthy and losing weight to be fit, but losing weight to fit into a strict standard of culturally constructed beauty, is not right. I love that in the forefront is a magazine open to a page that has “look amazing, feel great” and “500 health & fitness tips”, common articles used to convince women and young girls that the way to feel best is to look best. The photographer’s use of the specific foods in the picture indicates the awareness for such weight loss –whether it is culturally driven or for one’s best interest may remain unknown, though the measuring ribbon helps to suggest that it is more so for weight loss. Also interesting is the girl in the picture and the fact that she is only partially shown. It is not her as a person that the photographer chose to focus on; it is what she stands for. She symbolizes another girl victim to the pressures of being thin, though from what we can see of her arm, she does not appear to be overweight. Great photo!
I think this picture is very well done. I like the tight framing, which makes the food the focus of the picture. I think this is apt, and reflects the fact that when it comes to health and weight today the focus is not necessarily on what your body actually looks like or how healthy it may be, but rather on the number of calories you’re consuming, or how many grams of fat you have in a day. The facts that the girl’s face is obscured and that the only faces you do see are those of the airbrushed models smiling out of advertisements seems to symbolize that her identity has been eclipsed by this narrow definition of ideal femininity. The window in the background seems to allude to her inability to see the reality of her and other women’s bodies, as the outside world is obscured by the blinds. The girl is surrounded by the impossibly high standards set by these magazines and the media in general, and the realities of the outside world, such as women’s actual bodies, remain obscured. Thus she holds her body to a much higher standard than is realistic. This is reinforced by the measuring tape, which she (problematically enough) keeps on her breakfast table.
I also like the contrast in the colors; all of the media images are bright, glossy reds and whites, as opposed to the dark blue tank top she is wearing, reinforcing the idea that she is being obscured and overpowered by these bright, idealistic images. I think you also captured the irony in our culture’s definition of “health” very well in this photo. Everything surrounding this girl is pressuring her to be “healthy,” most notably the magazine header which says in bold red letters “500 Health & Fitness Tips,” accompanied by a picture of a typically thin and scantily clad model. But the emphasis on the food in this picture, rather than on the girl’s body, mirrors the magazine’s emphasis on thinness, rather than physical wellbeing, and this is quite powerful. With it you show that this definition of “health” really just serves to reinforce the unrealistic ideal female body, which, ironically enough, is unhealthily thin and often can only be attained via dangerous eating habits such as anorexia and bulimia.
This post explains pretty much what girls go through to impress others and to feel pretty. I agree with everything in this picture because im also that type of girl to try and eat healthy to put on a good look even though i love myself and my life. No ones perfect but some young girs try to be because they think its the only way to be pretty or to get guys attention. It's ok to loose weight but do it in a healthy way. Don't damage yourself for others becaue every girl is beautiful inside and out.
This picture shows the power of the media. The media implies that the only way for us to be happy is if we lose weight. I understand if people want to lose weight to be healthy, but being as skinny as a model is not realistic. The pictures in the media are photo shopped to be perfect.
This post is a great example of how girls are pressured into feeling they're not skinny enough.In this day and age with so-called models in the media, there really is so much added pressure on girls to fit into a role of a size "0-2". I mean, its hard enough to go through all the other challenging body issues and roles in society as it is...
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