Axe and Dove...

The freaking Bow Chicka Wah Wahs are the most annoying people to ever grace the Internet. Good Lord.

As frustrated as I get with our cultural definition of beauty, when I see things like the Axe Bow Chicka Wah Wahs video, I know that I'm not crazy. I have a hard time putting my words together to explain how ridiculous and messed up things are today. How backwards we are as a result of what the media tells us is beautiful, and important, and desirable.

When I saw the Dove video - That it supported a cause called the Dove Self Esteem Fund, etc, I applauded them for putting out such an amazing message - one that people, especially women, really need to see.

I was infuriated when I found out Dove and Axe are owned by the same company. Basically, Dove wants you to think they've got a good conscious and they're on board with questioning what the ad industry tells girls they should look like, but really... they are trying to capitalize on that viewpoint, which they obviously do not hold. GRRRRR. I almost think they're worse than the some of the immoral, tacky advertisers who blatantly only produce media with scantily clad women, fake breasts, and suggestive poses...

Project Ideas

So, I've been thinking a lot about what I'd like to do for my final project. I am extremely interested in doing something that relates to how women are portrayed in print media. I'd like to do a different study, not an exact replication of one we've studied in class. I also think it would be neat to somehow study face-ism in music videos, but I'm not sure how I'd judge that. Would I do 5 male artists and 5 female artists and see how many face vs. body shots there are at the end of all ten videos? I'm not sure how I'd pick the videos/artists, either. Top 5 male and female artists on MTV or on Billboard? How long would the shot have to be to constitute a tally for an instance of face-ism? If 5 seconds counts as a face-ism shot, and the camera is on a man or woman's face for 30 seconds... does that count as 6 instances of face-ism, or should I not worry about measuring it like that, and simply count each instance as 1 whether it lasts 4 seconds or 40 seconds?

WHEW...

Killing Us Softly

My favorite part about last class was watching the video Killing Us Softly. I mean, I know it was kinda dated... and sorta cheesy... but everything that was said held truth. I have never been comfortable with the way entertainment and advertising media portray women. I wrote a private blog entry a while back that touched on the topic.

"I want to understand fully and be content with not ever looking like or sharing any similar thought processes with the bottle blonde, size zero, double-D chested women that have somehow gained the coveted title of "What America Thinks Is Beautiful". There is something wrong with our society, or me, or maybe both when a 115 pound, size 2 woman feels conscientious about her weight. 115 is too much, and 34Bs are not enough, my hair always looks like crap, my stomach doesn't look sculpted - and because I don't look like the photoshopped, air-brushed women in this picture when I leave my house in the morning - the quirks that make me ME are also the reason I never feel up to par. Wanna know what perfect looks like in real life? "Perfect" looks exactly like you and I, completely UNPERFECT."

So... yeah, I feel like a lot of people don't understand why I feel the way I do with regards to this subject. The kind of women I just described are "hot" to men, and looked up to by other girls, and the subject of a million ads. That's why I'm happy I watched this video... there is at least one other woman in the world, and hopefully more, that feel the same way I do.