So there are good movies, songs, TV and magazines that promote positive body image and say that it’s ok to be whatever size and shape you are. There is also a lot of popular negative media about body image. This Pesky Dames video talks about the objectification of ‘page 3’ models in magazines.
The second link is about advertising and negative body image.
I know I talk about body image in the media a lot so today I will talk about the other 3 main categories; movies, songs and TV. The third link is about pop music and the hatred of women.
The movie ‘Lying to be perfect’ is a good place to begin. It gives the message that it’s what’s on the inside that counts and whatever you look like you can still be great. They even talk about the way some larger women are treated differently and disrespectfully because f their size, it also talks about men objectifying women and sexual harassment:
But it also implies that what you look like is one of the most important things and that looking different changes your life, for example all the women are happier and more successful at the end when they are thinner. The film also annoyingly concentrates on the ‘getting thin’ rather than the only briefly mentioned ‘getting healthy’.
Secondly music, a good example of bad body image in music is as the Pesky Dames said, One directions song ‘What makes you beautiful’ as they say ‘ you don’t know your beautiful, that’s what makes you beautiful.’ This implies that it’s attractive to have low self esteem.
Lastly TV! I could go on forever talking about this subject but since I have a life, I won’t. So TV shows, like movies often star thin people who care a lot about how they look. The TV ads are often the bad body image (By the way there are a lot of perfume ads with kissing etc. But when was the last time you saw a gay one?) But don’t get me started on that. The TV I want to concentrate on is reality TV. Most reality TV either stars thin people or laughs at the larger people on the show. Although quiz shows often aren’t too bad the hosts can often be subtly patronising to any larger people on the show for ‘cheep laughs’. The slow motion playback on total wipeout often shows overweight people falling off things or struggling to complete various tasks. The way they play it back they might as well have added sound effects.
The other thing TV shows do is have ‘Best Moments’ episodes were they show people failing over and over again, this is a good place to show all there footage of larger people falling off things in slow motion again.
People don’t understand that being overweight doesn’t mean being under intelligent and until they do people like me will keep trying to explain to people that being ‘fat’ is not a bad thing as long as you are healthy.
Good luck surviving the media.
Bye
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