Media Log 11

     Just in time for summer! I hope this "Boot Camp" can also tech me how to get my skin to glisten like that too. 

     This is an article I found in some Instyle published long ago in a summer season far  far away. The message is simple: Get your body ready to rock a bikini before summer starts. However, it's not this message that really stood out to, the stereotypes that this page plays to are what caught my attention the most and reminded me of the documentary "Miss Representation" that we watched this past week.

     The intro blurb at the bottom of the page that is supposed to attract you into reading this article. The part that stood out most to me was "Those teeny two pieces have all the forgiveness of a Housewives reunion. Luckily, we've got everything you need to look hot in a swimsuit this summer." This statement implies that women should only wear swim suits once fit to be seen as beutiful. The girl pictured is extremely thin, tan, and in shape which contributes to this idea of a "perfect bikini body" and creates an ideal. This ideal is used to make the reader feel inferior. Looking closer, this picture is totally unrealistic. (Just one thing I noticed) The only way you'll be able to get your skin that shiny on a beach is from sweat and some spray on sun screen. Trust me, it's just about as glamorous as it sounds. This ideal that they create is unattainable unless you follow the steps they've detailed in the article. Still, the workout they propose can only take you as far as it can. It won't give you a supermodel body, a killer spray tan, and beach waves. In "Miss Representation", the idea of girls becoming self-concious because of what they are taught to see as ideals in the media is discussed, and I think that this article provides a great example of what girls are exposed to. Images as unattainable as these, with captions telling you that this is what is required to be seen in public is what's behind such wide spread insecurities amongst teenage girls.

     After watching Miss Representation in class, I thought I'd be totally full of ideas and insight to provide you all with on your Sunday evening scroll through media blogs in hopes of finding one short enough to comment on. However, when I had my picture loaded and my document open in front of me I came to the realization that I completely forgot every idea that I had planned to discuss. I apologize for this being not the quality that I had planned on it being. I blame it on the four hour head ache and  the cold that I've been wrestling all day.