October Blog Post - Masking Reality

“Images mask a particular reflection of reality” – Chapter 10

How are the images we see in the media affecting our perceived reality? Women in media are considered to be the “ideal” women: beautiful and usually skinny. Being a women and seeing these beautiful and skinny people in basically every form of media while growing up changes the way I perceive what beautiful is. It is altering my reality, and masking another reality of what beauty actually is.

The documentary about Disney movies that we watched in class made me re-examine how Disney movies portray a lot of different things, especially because they are made primarily for children entertainment. I was really focused on how Disney princesses are made to look. They have silky long hair, huge eyes, a tiny waist, big breasts, and slender legs. Children often idolize these characters and want to be just like them and look just like them, but no one looks like a Disney princess. 

Similarly, Barbie dolls are made in such disproportion that if a human actually had the same body ratios they might not even be able to walk, her “Her 16-inch waist would also be four inches thinner than her head, leaving room for only half a liver and a few inches of intestine.” 

In a buzzfeed article, they used photoshop to make six women look like different Disney princesses, and the results are far from natural looking. According to another recent Buzzfeed article, the average American women wears a size 16-18. 

Why are women in media, especially in animation, still being idealized as these perfect human beings when in reality no one looks like that? And no one should. No one should have to worry why they don’t look exactly like Cinderella, or Ariel. Young girls should grow up seeing images that reflect their reality and they should see images that empower them to become healthy young adults full of self-love, and above all everyone should be healthy.

There are campaigns happening that are moving away from photoshop and ultra thin models,a dn I think it is so important for women of all ages, and especially young girls, to see all different body types being represented in the media. 

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2308658/How-Barbies-body-size-look-real-life-Walking-fours-missing-half-liver-inches-intestine.html

https://www.buzzfeed.com/chrissymahlmeister/anything-but-average?utm_term=.sn63yNM86#.fkeyGDA9Q

http://emgn.com/entertainment/6-real-women-were-transformed-into-disney-princesses-and-the-results-will-shock-you/