Final

Q. 1
Body image is the interaction between the minds eye, cultural perception, and one’s understanding of interpreting such information concerning body image. Body image calculates in the one’s mind as a judgment whether good or bad about one’s content with their body. Body image affects many areas for individuals such as the mind, physical body, and effectiveness of human interactions. The concept of body image has developed throughout the semester from thinking body image was rooted in self-esteem, to I know understand the concept to mean that body image is dependent on self-esteem, culture, media, and society. Body image can be compared to the assembling of a car in factory that to make the car complete parts and mechanical pieces come from all over the world to assemble one car. So too, body image is comprised of personal opinions, cultural influences, media saturation, and societal promotion and acceptance.
According to Naomi Wolf the history of the beauty myth extends from societal perceptions and institutions of influences:
If the beauty myth is not based on evolution, sex, gender, aesthetics, or God, on what is it based? It claims to be about intimacy and sex and life, a celebration of women. It is actually composed of emotional distance, politics, finance, and sexual repression. The beauty myth is not about women at all. It is about men’s institutions and institutional power (Wolf 2002).
Wolf makes a strong argument discussing the institutional influences that have led to the development of the beauty myth and the prevalence of societal influenced body image. She claims that it is the trends, needs, and advertising that target women that have led to the stratification of inequality among genders. She guides the reader through the various institutions and target industries that have led to the development and increasing prevalence of work inequity, domestic abuse, eating disorders, and how all these and more institutions and influences cause the beauty myth that women believe.
Programs and courses like the Women and Gender Studies aim to debunk the beauty myth that so many men and women have come to believe. The program aims to educate genders on the importance of equal education and opportunities. The lucky individuals who are fortunate enough to experience such enlightenment are now without excuse for believing the lie that has been fed to society for so long. The beauty myth has plagued society for so long by having us believe that it is the institutionally constructed standards that we—victims—should believe. The educated individual is now capable of deciphering influences that are culturally imprisoning. It is important for such life developing education to become available to more than just the curious college student. The WAGS program and courses have empowered its students to create a discussion to bring about great change!
The top three body image issues present in my societal sphere are acceptance, perseverance, and risk—one may say that these three issues are not body image issues; however, in my opinion these are the top three issues I have personally struggled with and know others have too. Acceptance that our bodies are no two alike is priority number one for both men and women. If men and women continue to compare themselves to individuals that are thin or in great health is creating what the beauty myth continues to try and fight against. It is important that we begin to look at our bodies as healthy life cases—kind of like a house or building. For example, when people move into a house they usually do not buy a house because they want to fix it up, they buy a house because its move-in ready—so too we compare this with the perception of body image at the time, we just want a body that is without occasional fix-up and ready to live in. However, to have such a house there usually needs to be continual maintenance, just like our bodies. Our bodies need continue maintenance of nutrients and exercise to keep our lives in good health. When people buy a house that is a fixer upper, they usually end up building a relationship with such a house and begin the process of acceptance that their house is beautiful and complete. Like the building the house concept, our society is set on immediate gratification and not perseverance, and to build a body that is healthy takes time and perseverance. We are set on getting that immediate healthy look when it takes our bodies months to build up to good health and it takes years to maintain good health. Finally, it takes risk to decide that one will strive for a healthy body…not a culturally “ideal” body, but one that is healthy and able to maintain all proper life functions. It takes risk to get up and eat what is good for you and exercise to live years longer. It is important that our society begin to accept that no two are alike, persevere regardless of what obstacles may come, and take a risk to live a life worth living.

Wolf, N. (2002). The Beauty myth how images of beauty are used against women.
New York, NY : Harper Perennial.

Q. 2
Popular culture is composed of various influential outlets that reach more than the intended target audience. Popular culture has owned the television and film industries, modeling and advertising industry, music, and print media.
Pop culture has provided us with many things of life that we seem to take for granted, for example the clothing and fashion industry definitely stems and follows the projected trend of pop culture. An example of how deep our pop culture influence is embedded in our everyday life occurs in the movie The Devil Wears Prada. There is a scene where Meryl Streep tells Anne Hathaway where the root of the color on her Gap sweater can be traced all the way down to the trend that appeared in Italy 3 years previous. The influences of pop culture have brought us every good and bad trend we could possibly remember. Pop culture has added to our lives the understanding and beauty of how we can use the influences in a positive light. For example celebrities can use their fame to bring about positive change, like Bono and Tyra Banks. Bono has created a global move to bring global awareness and financial influence to the AIDs epidemic in Africa. Tyra Banks has created philanthropy to help girls with self-development. Two other forms of positive pop culture influence that can be accounted for are the spread of culture and the increase in globalization. We can thank pop culture for introducing middle America to the power of other cultures, for example not until the film Slum Dog Millionaire came out did I know or enjoy the Bolliwood music and dance styles. We have come to see cultures and trends that we have never seen before and attribute and combine what the culture finds beautiful with our culture. The ever-increasing trends and expansion of media has allowed for globalization, or connections of cultures and countries that have never been exposed or connected with media to become a visible media presence. We now can see the Japanese culture of the hirajuku girls and how their culture finds the trend beautiful and fascinating.
However, just like there is positive aspects to pop culture there are also many more negative aspects. WE can thank popular culture for the increase demoralization of the sexes from reality TV, the ever-societal presence of body image issues, and the lack of self-development. The reality TV shows that now populate our viewing schedules range from For the Love of Ray J and The Bachelor/ Bachelorette. These shows take men and women and expose them to a game of love, they portray love as if it is just a game to be played and the best competitor wins the affection and life long trust of the desired bachelor/bachelorette. These shows, though classified as reality TV, do not portray the reality that I see in everyday life. I would be ashamed if I saw 30 young and beautiful women pursue a burnt out not so cute rapper or even saw several women competing for a man. These shows exploit the contestants and expose the world to their ignorance. I do not approve of such television because I think it is allowing our society to revert back to the days of Rome when society was savage to see people compete until death. What does watching women drink, lounge, and then sex around for the love of one man? Unfortunately, pop culture knows no limits they even extend to the every aspect of media. We see men and women exposed and violated in several advertisements in print and electronic media. I remember from our media analysis blog my disgust with the Juicy Couture advertisements generalization of male weakness to female dominance. It is these advertisements and media that flood our every moment and because it is prevalent and saturated we cannot help but become affected by the media. Because we are surrounded by body image influence and we allow ourselves to be exposed to even more forms of media we are becoming more delayed in self-development. We are allowing ourselves to measure up our body image standards with someone else or societies standards and stint our self-development. Just like infants grow to know that their toes, nose, and fingers are theirs; so too, we grow in our self-development of understanding what we choose to believe and what we just allow to seep into our lives. We, unfortunately, allow our own body image to be hijacked by the various influences we perceive. We can stop such affects by censoring what it is we read and view. It does not mean one cannot read a magazine, but read a magazine with the knowledge that there is an ulterior motive for several issues in the magazine. We can definitely thank pop culture for the beautiful, the bad, and the ugly.









Q. 3

1. How do you think society has become so conditioned to the beauty myth and in what forms have we become conditioned? (conditioned in the psychological sense of B.F. Skinner or Ivan Pavlov)
a. If some men have come to “need” beauty pornography—Binet did simple experiments that proved that when sexual imagery was preceded by an image of a boot, he was able to create a sexual response to a boot—it is because the stimulus-response imprinting took place in the best of lab conditions: the ignorance that society tries to maintain in men about female sexuality (Wolf 176).
2. Why do you think we feel the need to continue to ostracize those who are overweight?
a. Padding it: why I don’t need a plus-size pad
i. By Wendy Shanker
3. What is the first memory you have of measuring your beauty standards to what men think of you?
a. “Indeed, as one study found, ‘our data suggest women are misinformed and exaggerate the magnitude of thinness men desire…they are misinformed….” (Wolf 73).
4. Why do you think young collegiate women look to the social construct of the Pan-Hellenic system to find identity in college?
a. Rush: Sorority Sisters by Vendela Vida
5. Society has a social construct for most aspects of life. How do you think the beauty myth construct has helped our society?
a. I would like to cite all the reading sources because I believe from all the readings we can learn how it is helpful to know about the beauty myth.


Q. 4
My Humps: Black Eyed Peas
Daughters: John Mayer
I’m Just a Girl: No Doubt
Work It: Missy Eliot
I Look to You: Whitney Houston

Poem:
Phenomenal Woman
Pretty women wonder where my secret lies.
I'm not cute or built to suit a fashion model's size
But when I start to tell them,
They think I'm telling lies.
I say,
It's in the reach of my arms
The span of my hips,
The stride of my step,
The curl of my lips.
I'm a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That's me.

I walk into a room
Just as cool as you please,
And to a man,
The fellows stand or
Fall down on their knees.
Then they swarm around me,
A hive of honey bees.
I say,
It's the fire in my eyes,
And the flash of my teeth,
The swing in my waist,
And the joy in my feet.
I'm a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That's me.

Men themselves have wondered
What they see in me.
They try so much
But they can't touch
My inner mystery.
When I try to show them
They say they still can't see.
I say,
It's in the arch of my back,
The sun of my smile,
The ride of my breasts,
The grace of my style.
I'm a woman

Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That's me.

Now you understand
Just why my head's not bowed.
I don't shout or jump about
Or have to talk real loud.
When you see me passing
It ought to make you proud.
I say,
It's in the click of my heels,
The bend of my hair,
the palm of my hand,
The need of my care,
'Cause I'm a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That's me.

Maya Angelou