From: Marina
“Women are pushed toward impossibly high standards of beauty and receive strong cultural messages that their bodies are unacceptable as they are.”
I choose to focus on the beauty and weight issues that forced on young girls in our society. We learn from a young age the mask that we all must wear to “fit in” with our culture. Younger and younger girls are exposed and told that they aren’t pretty enough or thin enough. As girls are bombarded with images of thin obtainable body they begin to feel body dysphoria. This cultural pressure to be thin can be seen in girls getting eating disorders at a much younger age than ever before, some as young as eight. This dysphoria can lead to a disconnect with ones body and cause one to self objectify.
In the image the young girl is seen standing almost nude about to mutilate her stomach fat off with a pair of scissors. The subjects eyes are drawn downward towards her stomach, the scale, and then the scissors in her hand. She stands balanced on the scale with a Health magazine at her feet.
In the background there is the onlooker male watching her injure herself in order to lose weight. He is the Male Gaze that objectifys all women. He is the pressure women feel to thin in order to be pretty and worthwhile. The girl in the photo is further objectified by the lines that are draw on her body. They are similar to those are drawn on a pig before it is cut into different cuts of meat. She has self-objectified herself as a piece of meat to be cut as well.
5 comments:
From Marisa,
This one definitely caught my attention. I like how the magazine appears sideways on the floor, as if she had been looking through it beforehand and thought this was the only way, throwing it down to the ground to start her own procedure. We also see one wall and an open door keeping her boxed into a specific area, as well as the man in the reflection blocking her like a third wall, keeping her in this situation with no way out. I also noticed the smaller mirror beside her. She already had a large mirror to see where to draw the lines, but she also took out a small mirror to make sure she found every "flaw".
From Sapana,
This photo really caught my attention. I think you did a great job using props like the small mirror, and magazine. The magazine to the side of the toilet stands out because it shows that she was probably sitting on the toilet reading through the magazine or looking into the mirror and after reading the magazine and being frustrated, so she threw it down. Even though she had a really big mirror behind her, she had a small one to draw the lines on her flaws. Another thing that stands out is obviously the weight scale. She is standing on it already feeling insecure about her weight but she is also taking a pair of scissors to try to cut out her flaws in order to be skinnier.
From Ciera,
This photo stood out to me because it is a very common issue in girls my age. Most girls learn from young ages that they need to be a certain size or their bodies need to look a certain way to be beautiful. Marina makes this photo great because she uses objects like the mirrors, magazine and the scale to show what struggles females deal with to feel as though they fit it. Also, I like how Marina drew the lines on the “model” to show that there are specific areas that must be a certain way. She is changing certain areas so that they live up to societies standards. Great job!
From Amber,
This image stood out to me, it is a on going issue for girls and every women to meet beauty standards. The use of two mirrors was a good idea to show that mirrors can lead to distortions so she used two so she could find all her "flaws" from every angle and mark them to make them better. The toilet in the background is a symbol like the scissors of the extreme measures girls go through to look a certain way. They will go anything like throw up or cut off fat to meet these beauty standards. The door is also not fully open this could be because she is trying to hide from society.
From Armana,
I really like how this photo shows how even if there's a male overseer, there's no stopping him from letting the girl achieve true beauty, despite the drastic pain. On the other hand, it could even show as the "model" is cutting herself for change, she's attracting more and more attention.
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