By: Linda Christensen
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Linda Christensen talks about how children are influenced at a young age by fairytales, cartoons, and movies. This continues throughout a person's lifetime though. The media has a HUGE influence on everything a person does.
Starting at a young age, children watch fairytales or read little storybooks (usually by Disney). Cinderella is a common one and Prince Charming becomes the ideal man the little child will want when she grows up. This is known as The Prince Charming Syndrome. The fact that this is a real "disease" is frightening. People will wait for their "Prince Charming" to show up and will miss out on all of the other guys who genuinely care about her but she won't give them a chance because they are not her "Prince Charming". You don't know who your "Prince Charming" is until you get to know the person because he will not fall from the sky and say to you that he is your "Prince Charming". Disney fairytales in general are all hyped up and edited to be all positive and all happily ever after and bad guys lose/good guys win, when actually that is not how the fairytale was written hundreds of years ago.
On a side note, the Grimm and Glitter First Year Seminar here is about fairytales and how they aren't what they seem. You compare Disney's versions of the tales to what they were actually written down as from hundreds of years ago and you can see how made up Disney makes them. It is a very good seminar to take. I highly recommend it.
Toys even like Barbie influence young children. Barbie is supposed to just be a doll that children play with and have shows based on her. But no. Children want to grow up to look like her with the big chest, small waist, and wide hips. Finally, Mattel, the company that makes Barbie, is creating more realistic Barbie figures so "the new body types [can] have the potential to impact both girls and boys' expectations of body image" (USA Today) positively. Barbie Syndrome is a real thing, sadly. It is showing girls that the perfect body has to look like Barbie's and it is also showing guys that in order to have a perfect girl, she has to have the body of Barbie, and that is not right.
Shows how people will do anything to look like Barbie.
Once the Barbie phase is over, or if the person ever gets over it, Victoria's Secret comes into play. Every teenage girl will want to get that perfect body to become and Angel for Victoria's Secret. They have the fashion show every year and girls will watch that and starve themselves so they can look like those women walking on the runway. Even their ads are of half naked women with perfect bodies showing off the perfect bra and panties or PINK clothes to wear because you can be perfect if you wear their clothes. It is truely horrible what people will go through to look like these "perfect" people.
Christensen also says that media insists that what they show is "innocent, that no hidden motives or implications are lurking behind the cheerful faces it generates" (128). Really? Because now the Super Bowl is being scrutinized because of Beyonce's half-time show and her hidden meaning of the outfits the dancers wore and the formation of them. Do you know how many people watch the Super Bowl? About 115 MILLION PEOPLE watch it. People criticized Beyonce and the Super Bowl for having hidden messages during her performance. She is such a popular icon that people will do what she says or follow what she believes just because she is Beyonce.
It is 100 percent true that the "secret education" from media and children's movies, fairytales, etc. impact and influence children and people of all ages.
Points:
Body images have changed over the years. It relates to SCWAAMP because most of the women who were idolized were white. "It's Amazing How Much The 'Perfect Body' Has Changed In 100 Years" This link shows who and what body image was idolized and how it has changed drastically over the past 100 years
This is sickening that these are real syndromes. People should love their body the way it is. I hate how the media say that they are innocent and don't influence people. Of course they do! Their ads and commercials and shows are about how to get the perfect body and what the "perfect" life is like and the perfect husband and family. It's sickening to say the least.
I really enjoyed your blog, the pictures really stood out too and made a clear point about society/media pressure to act in a certain way. I completely agree with how ridiculous it is that people feel like they need to give in to the media and let them affect peoples lives in negative ways. I can relate to your blog a lot, I discussed in mine some things as you did in yours. Awesome blog :)
ReplyDeleteYou did a great job of talking about Christensen's piece and the negative impacts media has on society today. People should not allow the media to have such an impact on their own lives, but instead learn to be happy with themselves and realize that media is not reality.
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