You're Nothing But Skin & Bone...

It was only last week that I picked up a magazine that had an article printed on one side, ‘Embrace Your Shape’, then advertisements of skinny models covering the remainder of the pages, who looked liked they survived upon three cheese sticks between them daily. So why is it that these people that make us feel unnatural? The media creates false impressions on what people should look like. Each individual is generalized, and builds on society’s expectations on what a woman’s body should look like.

   Personally, advertisements, televisions and even shop mannequins should reflect the idea that everyone should embrace and love what they were born with. Unfortunately, it’s not the case in reality. Everyone is normal, but what has become the ‘norm’ by society is unnatural, and creates an image people are pressured to look like. Normality has gradually been blurred.

   Media depicts the beautiful people; the ones who stand there with a full, white grin and a body minus all of the Bridget Jones’ ‘wobbly bits’, which seems so effortless to have, whilst we (I) sit there guiltily putting down the spoon back into the half eaten Hägen Daas and are lulled into the sense that this is what we should look like. This creation of perfection that has become so pressurizing that people strive for those advertised ‘hineys’ that are ‘to die for’.

   Literally.

   Anorexia, bulimia and crazed diet trends are on the rise. With magazine headlines such as ‘THE TOP 30 WORST BEACH BODIES!’ and starved shop mannequins, society is provided with a spectrum of extreme body shapes, and an urge to be on the one side. And I believe we can guess which side that is, which is projected to the rest of us as the one to reach. Approximately 1 out of 4 woman have taken unhealthy methods to lose weight, whilst surrounded by the idea that if you look a certain way you can have it all. A happy marriage with Mr Right, that house you’ve always wanted, the perfect children and the best pay cheque you could imagine. In fact, consummate attempts to reach this ideal ends in skeletal bodies, a hospital bed, mental health issues and the threat of infertility.

   These serious possibilities are nonchalantly thrown aside without thought, and the image of perfection is constantly rammed in our faces wherever we go. It’s in the book you read, that one with the heroine. It’s in the shop windows and photos, with that girl in the lovely clothes – buy them and you’ll look like her. It’s on the side of buses and on children’s note books, everywhere, with the result being that children from five think about dieting. However, instead of addressing this issue, everyday media still puts out a negative message. One that doesn’t take the dark side of supposed glamour seriously.

    In some ways, it almost mocks it. For example, a Halloween costume titled ‘Anna Rexia’ is an anorexic dress with a skeleton print and a measuring tape accessory. Oh, and there’s a thin tanned blonde twenty-something to advertise it online.

    The broadcast of grotesque cases like this is greatly helped through the Internet. Sites like Tumblr mainly exhibit model-type girls, appearing oh-so effortlessly stylish and starved for teenagers to follow and become used to as they continuously pop up on their ‘Dashboard’. This is how you should look, each image silently screams. Facebook is a source for the outcry of these effects, with users becoming obsessive over how many ‘likes’ one of their profile pictures gets. Two likes? Oh My, we must delete that one then! Web sites such as these have been linked with obsessive traits, and the child-like need to be reassured constantly, particularly on how they look. Worryingly, these sites are used so often, that they are considered to be as addictive as drugs.

   This bad influence and effect just reinforces the generalized definition of how we should look. Although individuals should be defined by themselves, now it is by the label on our jeans, the way we wear our hair, how many people liked that last photo we put up or the way we’d look in a bikini.

   Fortunately, this issue is battled with positive figures to look up to and be influenced by. Celebrities such as Adele and Beth Ditto show that you don’t need to fit in with what the media wants; just talent and a personality and you’ll be loved. People like these break this idea of perfection, by forming another, which is what we should really look at. Each of us are beautiful, and perfect as our own. If we all attempted to change that to fit in with another idea, where would we be?

   We’re the ones made to believe we need to change. But, in the heart of the matter, it’s those who try and make us think that way that need to start making an alteration.

   Hey, everyone could do with a few Bridget Jones moments and the odd tub of Ben & Jerry’s on a rainy day, right?


FINALLY gotten round to some writing. I wish I had written something sooner, but I've had writer's block, which I've chosen to turn into blogging...dum dum dum! Hense the title! I really hope you read and like this. It's been a boring Sunday so I decided to write on something I've noticed a lot recently, body image. Every single one of you are beautiful, whether you're naturally tall, short, thin, curvy, whatever. Never believe otherwise. 
Thanks for taking the time to read this. X

Wow!

I just wanted to send a quick message - I'm speechless! I didn't really think this blog would be very good and haven't checked it in quite a while...I've only just seen all your lovely words of encouragement and decided not to give up on this! It's really meant a lot to see your comments and I'm going to really try to write on a consistent basis. Thank you ever so much - I'll post again soon!

Eva :) xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

My First Article :)

( Okay, so little message before the article: just wanted to say that I worked so hard on this, and I'm trying to get a feel for journalism, and I need all constructive criticism I can get, so bring it, please ;) And, this isn't focusing on anything in particular, and all article posts I make will vary subject-wise so there'll hopefully be something you take an interest to when I work my way through! Hope you like it, and fingers crossed it's okay - I've debated even uploading it, seeing as it'll be my first one! Here goes!)

What has violence done to our Media Industry ?

 

   My grandmother always used to tell me many of her various life stories, ranging from the days when she spent her childhood weekends climbing trees, and running along unknown secluded dirt paths in the countryside, to the time she got completely drunk and ended up dressed as a clown face down on a gutter. One account she shared one day did truly stick with me, one that showed a true allegory to our lifestyle today. It was when she described seeing The God Father in the theatre with my late Grandfather.

   ‘In that time, it was the most violent film that had been produced.’ She’d remarked, and then contemplated the memory. ‘Especially the scene near the end, when one of the men get shot through the eye. The blood that followed completely shocked the audience and made me feel faint. It was definitely the most hard-hitting content that I’d ever seen at that point.’

   Even though the Godfather is remembered as an iconic movie in history, with one of the most legendary casts of its time, scenes such as those would now be considered by the younger generation as sympathetic attempts at ensanguine violence. This would be a fair comment, seeing as, in recent years, technology has contributed a considerable quantity to the film industry, making it accessible to much more realistic violent portrayals onscreen. However, is the fact that the shock from films of a few decades ago have become a laughing stock in today’s society a worrying issue, showing that our constant ability to surpass realistic shocking images is quite concerning?

   Films have explored and depicted countless storylines that continue to exceed the exaggeration of past plots, which began as a small scale ‘shock factor’ to attract an audience. This has since been embroidered to maximise profit, and has gradually become more shocking. Now audiences have been conditioned to find scenes like these usual, as the use of violence in films is constantly recaptured and explored, time and time again.

   The extremity of movies has made a major alteration in global views. A few decades ago, murders and other serious crimes would be received with horror, but film’s manipulation of using this has resulted in consumers not feeling raw shock about such terrible occasions, causing films to exaggerate scripts to attempt to keep this factor.

   The World Wide Web and television has heavily fuelled this issue too. Internet sites such as Youtube has made film advertising widely known, and many videos promote humorous angles on incidents and violence. This causes similar issues not to be taken seriously, which television reflects in its contents. A study in 2001 showed 4o acts of violence per hour took place on television, depicting a ridiculous amount of times a family with a TV set have to sit through brutal endorsement, influencing aggression constantly. It would certainly shock anyone to find how much sadism exists on television, and the frequency of it, yet we still sit through it, not realising the ridiculous amount of time of our lives are filled, watching onscreen violence, everyday.

    Even though media and entertainment are certainly at a peak of causing negative effects currently, this influence of violence can also be traced back many centuries. For example, in between 2000 B.C. and 44 A.D., ancient Egyptians exhibited re-enactments of their God’s murder, Osiris, which led to various imitated killings, showing that violence has always had a role in entertainment. However, in recent decades, the sadistic inclusion in entertainment has changed.

   The study that revealed how much our contemporary media violence concurred, depicts how, from a factual-based play on a God’s murder, it is now corrupted by hundreds of many violent portrayals in one day, depicted on-screen.

   The influence that acted murders had many centuries ago is reflected in modern society. There are now many more imitated killings, proven to be have copied from TV storylines. However, compared to issues similar from a throng of centuries, the difference is that today, these shocking killings are much more frequent.

   A well-known example is the James Bugler case, in which two boys, at the tender age of 10 years old, murdered a young 3 year old. The perpetrators allegedly admitted they had seen a violent film that their dad was watching, and they copied it.

   This is a case of many, and should make us consider what the real role media and entertainment play in our lives. Promotions are all over TV, advertising violent games, such as ‘Fallout’ and ‘Call of Duty’, which are all restricted with an age limit. However, even if there are limitations for such things being bought, many young children own copies of such violence, whether having been mistaken for being older, having parents purchase them, or asking an older friend or sibling. All these issues aren’t taken into account, and many younger people have an easy route to owning these games, which hasn’t been considered or faced by governments or game producers.

   One of the most famous games amongst these would be ‘Grand Theft Auto’, in which you can massacre people, set fire to buildings, and even decaptitate police officers. It seems too shocking to even consider buying, however ‘Grand Theft Auto’ has sold over 35 million copies, and has raked in sales, reaching a ridiculous $2 billion.

   The influence this must have on anyone underage playing such a game would be overwhelming. Steal things you like, kill people you don’t, and simply blow away any police officers that are in your way. Reality is nothing like this game depicts, and letting a young person play on it would and will have an awful effect, especially on their view of how the actual world works.

   Even games this violent have provoked controversy regarding how it has been able to be produced in the first place. Even those old enough to purchase it would be consumed by the destructive nature of the plot, which has been the case many times.

   ‘Grand Theft Auto’ has had a fair share of being the basis of many lawsuits, one most recently about an 18 year old who gunned down, and killed, three men in America, after playing the game for days and nights for months. When being in the position to end someone’s life is a terrifying thought, why should it easily be allowed virtually?

   And, as this case clearly presents, letting a game completely consume you trains you to act in reality how you would within a video game. This repeated exposure to violence can only make matters in the actual world worse. Worryingly, case after case, nothing has been done to limit the violent distributed in video gaming, and also in filming and TV.

   Storylines within everything material can alter our views of reality. Glamorous lifestyles portrayed on Hollywood scenes make us believe everything can easily be full of designer clothes and riches, and our lives can all be like ‘socialites’ in Malibu. Most plots depicted in the media have a happy ending, which, whilst watching, is what you want from the end, but it twists our realistic thoughts, making us believe everything can work out for us, and we don’t need to work at things. It’ll all come together. All genres in film, TV and gaming can change our views to a less realistic one, but violence is the one that, when exposed to, can cause the most damage.

   So, should we be asking what should change to lower viewings and accessibility to the younger generation on violence? There should be restrictions when such aggressive plots are produced, so why aren’t there? Many violent acts don’t portray a reality we need to wake up to; it just indoctrinates us to believe that it is the reality.

   Hopefully, many of us are starting to realise the lethal, negative effects of such media and entertainment, and it can be stopped being so extremely accessible in the near future. Otherwise, it is feared it will become a slow ascent into more violence, more terror, more brain washing.

   The question of this shouldn’t be ‘What has Violence Done to Our Media Industry?’; it should be ‘What has Our Media Industry Done to Violence?’.

So, that's my first article! I think my next one will be along the lines of 'The It-Girls of the Centuries' because I'd love an excuse to research and write on Twiggy etc! Hope you like it! :) 

Eva (: xxx

New Blog. :)

Hi! 


So I'm a relatively new addict to the website that is blogger, and started my first blog last month ; you can get to that blog by clicking here, which is mainly based on fashion and styles in the world. I started a separate one, seeing as I have a deep interest in history and journalism, and I thought I'd make a blog, posting articles on things I find interesting : and I hope you will too! 
Seeing as it's my ideal dream to work as a journalist in a magazine some day, I'd thought I'd give this ago for practice, and see how people find my ramblings! 
Hope to add more soon, and I sincerely have a desire for you to find my posts not completely despondent! 


Fingers crossed!


Eva (: xxx