Does this blogpost make me look fat?

In journalism class fall quarter, there was a discussion about the images we see in the media and how this affects our body image. Every single person raised their hand when asked if they knew of someone or had a personal experience with severe body image problems.Can you relate to this?

Every day American citizens are

exposed to 3000 advertisements that paint a false picture of reality and tell us how we are supposed to look and act.

Men and Women alike can't open a magazine, turn on the television or walk into a store without being bombarded with the image of being perfect. The images to the left represent how media portrays the perfect male and female. Men are supposed to have big muscles, shiny white teeth, distinct jaw line and a charming twinkle in their eye. Women are supposed to be petite with large breasts, toned abs and a sun-kissed glow. This is not reality. The truth is not many people fit into this stereotype. There are people with all different shapes and sizes.

Because of this influence people take beauty to the extreme: spending drastic amounts of money on diet supplements, plastic surgery, gym memberships, steroids.

Arecent example is Heidi Montag, from The Hills. Pictured above in a PeopleMagazine feature, Heidi spent thousands of dollars on 10 different bodyaugmentations in order to look "perfect." Another example is Greg Valentino. The man whose literal bicepexplosion has become a gym rat phenomenon, Gregg boasted a 28"armmuscle, and openly took steroids.

It is important to know that the images we

see daily are not correct representations of what even the models actually look like. Pictures are photoshopped, airbrushed, and retouched to be more appealing to the target audience. The picture below shows an example of a model's photograph before its retouching and you can see the distinct chages made to her face and body.

Notice there are no wrinkles on her face, legs are toned, any stomach bulging disappears, her skin color is given an airbrushed softness, and even her back is more curved than before.

In recent years, there has been a definite shift in the culture of how men and women should look. Dove's Campaign for Real Beauty has taken the initiative to promote natural beauty, and being happy with who you are. The campaign is "committed to freeing the next generation from self-limiting beauty stereotypes" (dove.us). In recent years, people have stopped focusing on calorie counting and low-fat diets, but eating and living healthy lives with more healthy exercise.

As two girls, it is hard to tell whether men or women face more difficulty with body issues. We feel that men and women are both, unfortunately, faced with the difficulties of looking perfect. Do you think one sex has more trouble with self-esteem and body issues than the other? How do you feel that these problems in our culture can be eliminated? Do you think body issue is even a problem?

Ra Ra-ah-ah-ah Roma Roma-ma GaGa Oh la-la

What would your parents think about you viewing a music video with bad images like this photo to the left? Maybe because we are in college, parents really have no say in what we watch, however, Gaga's main audience is middle school and high school students. According to commonsensemedia.org Lady Gaga's "videos feature images of sexual bondage, questionable sexual behaviors, and even violence." For younger kids, Gaga is definitely not age appropriate, although lots of younger children view her videos and recite her lyrics. She is definitely not someone for a young child to look up to.


This little girl in the video displays actions that typical girls of her age shouldn't portray. For instance, her make up and her hair style are not normal along with her gestures. Not to say that only Lady Gaga causes this, but the little girl's mannerisms are very similar to what is seen in Gaga's videos.

So why is it so effective on teenagers? During teenage years, young adults are just becoming accustomed to their sexuality. They can be easily manipulated by celebrity displays of sexuality. In regards to Lady Gaga, she always is shown in inappropriate attire, which may give females the message that it is okay to wear revealing clothing, and males the wrong expectations of female dress. Being that Lady Gaga is so popular at this moment, teens want to imitate her inappropriately sexual dance moves and lyrics. When Lady Gaga sings Bad Romance, she makes questionable hand gestures when she says the words " I want your psycho your vertigo stick," something teenagers shouldn't be exposed to.



Parents probably wouldn't want their children of any age to view Lady Gaga's video Telephone. This may be because of her sexual behavior, dress, and the violence observed. In the very beginning of this video, Gaga walks in the jail and the only thing preventing her from exposing her breasts are black pieces of tape. When she enters her cell, she is completely stripped of her clothing. Throughout the whole video, she has many different provocative outfits, including different versions of thongs and bras.
She kisses another woman in the jail, and drives a car named the pussy wagon. These two things characterize Lady Gaga in an unacceptable manner.
There are many different fights and deaths observed that shouldn't be represented in any music video. These violent scenes could lead to casual fighting to act in a superior way.



These characteristics are represented in every music video that Lady Gaga has made, not only in Telephone. So if you were a parent, what would be the age group in which you would allow your child to watch Lady Gaga?

Wassup, Yo, Hi, Hello: Wonders of the English Language

Back in my glory days of playing competitive hockey, I traveled around the United States and abroad. Every time I came home I would speak slightly different. I could remember coming home from a weekend in Canada and speaking with a Canadian accent. Similarly, after a weekend in Boston, I remember that god awful Bostonian accent. For a short time, I would pronounce words like “car” as “cah”, or “dark” as “dahk.” The more time I spent home, however, the accents would wear off. Perhaps you have had similar occurrences. How in the world does this happen?

If you have ever been to different parts of the country, you have probably noticed that people speak with different accents. Perhaps the most famous one is the southern drawl, where adding a twang in an otherwise easily pronounced word might project images of the American flag, Budweiser, NASCAR, or your favorite country music star. Everyone knows of the ghetto accent as well, or Ebonics for all you politically correct folks. With the ghetto accent in mind, it is all too easy to judge someone using words such as “Homie”, “Dog”, or “Brother” to refer to a friend, even though “Homie” is a made up word, “Dog” is an animal, and “Brother” is a sibling. So, how is it that the English language has become this way? Why do people think they have to speak a certain way because of their surroundings?

Obviously, this guy loves America, so he HAS to speak with a southern drawl, right? Perhaps you think his speech, love of beer, American flag button-down, jean shorts, belt buckle, and work boots all make for the perfect package. Would you find this guy equally entertaining if he spoke with a mid-western accent?

These different types of dialect can be traced back to cities or people of the same socioeconomic class. These changes in speech occur over the beginning of people’s lives or a long time exposed to them so it can be seen as suspicious when an accent immediately appears.

This video demonstrates how someone might cover up their original dialect to possibly advance a career, to fit in, or maybe told to do so. It’s also interesting that someone’s mind will switch back to what it originally learned. It’s known that actors sometimes have to lose their thick accents to be in feature films because for some weird reason nobody wants to hear a Jersey accent for 2 hours. Is it right to make someone lose a piece of their culture to fit in? Dialects give someone a sense of individuality and background.

With all the different ways we speak the English language, some might think that the concept of “Standard English” is harmful. How is there a certain way we should speak English when there are so many different types of dialects and sociolects? There are several things that factor into someone’s dialect, so is this “Standard” wrong for wanting to make everyone sound alike?

Build Them Up Just To Break Them Down...

We have all been at that magical age. The age in which we are infatuated with Disney characters and are obsessed with all the magical things that go on in Disney movies. Many little girls dream about one day being in that perfect imaginary world in the arms of their very own prince. Little girls are often so influenced by these ideas of being the perfect princess, that they spend hours fantasizing and dressing up with their very own dresses and beauty accessories. Is it smart to be instilling these ideas to little girls that in order to be happy, successful, and able to find their one true love they must be the perfect “princess”?

With just the flick of the magic wand can every girl turn into a princess? From the Disney movie Cinderella, the Fairy Godmother turns the ordinary pumpkin into an eccentric carriage, the mice into strong horses, the dog into a carriage driver, and lastly plain old Cinderella into an extravagant princess.

These images that are instilled in young girls minds may be harmful in the sense that it encourages them to learn a false sense of reality; that the world revolves around beauty, even though this is not truly the case.

Not only have these fairy tales influenced little girls, but they also seem to have infiltrated the way that romantic comedy movies are produced. To a certain extent almost all of romantic comedies contain a key element taken from fairy tales. This element is that in the end love is almost always guaranteed between the two main characters and they live happily ever after. In the movie She’s All That, Freddie Prince Jr. falls in the love with the nerdy girl Rachael Cook. After Rachael gets her makeover, she then becomes the popular girl who is dating the most popular boy in school. In the end, Rachael gets swept off her feet by her very own prince, Freddy Prince.

Do you think that only little girls are affected by this fantasy world? What about little boys dreaming of becoming that star professional athlete, the athlete that has fame and fortune. Is this highly unlikely dream of theirs comparable to little girls desires to become princesses?

Do you feel that these fantasy worlds are indeed damaging to little girls or do you feel that these make believe lives that girls recreate is just an absolutely harmless part of growing up?

“Mercedes is black, I'm gay... We make culture”

Glee is about the lives of the McKinley High School show choir, New Directions. They are considered to be nerds by the rest of the student body. They work to gain acceptance and win the vocal contest. The show focuses mainly on 12 cast members and many of them are part of a minority group.

Kurt Hummel, a member of Glee club, is a homosexual.

Another member of New Directions, Mercedes Jones, is black.

Tina, one of the female singers in New Directions is Asian.

There are also 2 male background dancers in Glee club. Mike is Asian and Matt is black.

Two homosexual fathers raise Rachel Berry, the lead female vocalist.

The Principal of William McKinley High School, Mr. Figgins, is from Pakistan.

Quinn Fabray is a cheerleader and member of Glee club who gets pregnant.

Sue Sylvester, the cheerleading coach, visits her developmentally disabled sister.

Artie Abrams is a member of Glee club and is in a wheelchair.

Two other members of the group, Santana and Brittany, are rumored to be bisexual with one another.

Several of the episodes also include a deaf choir.

So, was this group part of your typical high school experience?

The characters play up their minority stereotypes in a very over-dramatic way. Kurt tries out to be the kicker on the football team to please his dad and before he kicks he has a “unique” preparation.

Mercedes plays up many stereotypes in this video where she sings "Bust Your Windows". Not only the choice of song, but also the car and how she portrays herself demonstrate this.

If this does not represent how high school was for anyone then why has this show become so popular?

Besides the fact that this is not your average day in high school the show is also popular because of the music it incorporates. Glee is the equivalent of a musical condensed into a TV series. The cast takes popular songs from many different generations and genres, and they make them their own. It is ironic that the show gives popular songs to “unpopular” people. The show also features many celebrity guests that draw more viewers to help make the show more successful. Some of the stars include: Eve, Kristen Chenoweth, Idina Menzel, and rumor has it that we may see Lady Gaga in the future.

This show has also become such a success because there are so many characters, and although many of them are a minority they are easy to relate to. There is at least one character that everyone can relate to in one way or another. Even if you feel like you don’t relate to them they are still entertaining to watch. So which Glee member are you?

We know that Glee is popular, but do you think that its popularity will last? Is it this generation’s Saved By The Bell? Are you so addicted that you have become a Gleek?

Look again, I'm on a Horse

If you are a male and have watched television lately, you have seen numerous Old Spice and Axe Spray commercials. These companies are showing you what smelling like their product can do for you. With some hilarity and wit, Old Spice has tried to renew itself as a popular brand, battling Axe for the top spot in male grooming products. So, are you enjoying the competition?

In seeing the ads of Old Spice products over time, a noticeable progression has taken place. In the beginning of Old Spice “manmercials”, the half-man, half-horse character that was created not only enforced male stereotypes, but also tried to convince the viewer it was a smart buy. Following the half-and-half commercials were those featuring Brian Urlacher and LL Cool J that showed the before and after effect of using the product. These depicted that it would transform the user to be manlier. One of the current commercials being shown is of the perfect man, who is shirtless while presenting diamonds and other wonderful things (as you know, he’s on a horse). Not only does this address men, but it also is addressed to women about what the perfect man should be. Another more recent line of commercials is for Old Spice Odor Blocker, which includes an extremely muscular man, telling other males how the product is strong like him. Basically, it’s a ripped man yelling and breaking shit. These commercials are increasingly straying away from the product, and focusing more on male stereotypes. Is this progression effective or beneficial to the product, giving you a stronger desire to buy it? Or has this transition caused the commercials to lose all seriousness and possibly even be just plain annoying?

Or what is your take on the “Axe Effect” commercials? This campaign appears to be selling their product on the basis that it will cause sexy women to act like animals and throw themselves at you.

Axe has produced similar commercials in the past, but their focus in this new campaign is even more clearly the products’ effect on women. For each of their products there is a different part of the campaign. For example, their hair product campaign is called “Axe Hair Crisis Relief”, their shampoo and soap line commercials are called “The Fixers”, and their body spray line follows the “Double Pits to Chesty” move. Each one has a different story line, however they all have one thing in common; each has beautiful women who cannot resist the Axe using male. Whether he smells good, is clean, or has beautiful hair, each product seems to make the male who uses it into a woman magnet. It resorts the women to animal-like behavior, and their only goal is to get their hands on the boy who uses the product. Similar to the Old Spice campaign, it appears that each new ad group is pushing the limit more. When the first ads came out, the women in them would simply cling to the male, or smell him. Now the females in the ad are resorting to animal qualities, bending the males over tables and attacking their hair. While it could be interesting to think about, is such a blunt tactic effective? Does the idea of women flocking to a male affect his psyche in a good way, or does it just make him forget the product because the ad is so over-the-top and ridiculous?

For these two types of manmercials, many questions can be asked. Do women hold men to the standards that are portrayed in the commercials? Is the idea to be the perfect man what truly what motivates men? Do women feel insulted in being portrayed as brainless? Or are these commercials just something funny to make you remember the product?

A final and important point to note is the development of these campaigns. Old Spice is an older brand that has been around for years, yet recently the new Axe products have made Old Spice take a back seat in its own game. So, in an effort to rebirth the Old Spice brand, these new commercials have surfaced to imitate and do one better than the Axe commercials. Due to the competition, each brand is looking for the funny new thing, or the advertisement that will put them to the top. While this produces new products and ads for viewers, it may be starting to go too far in content and number. However, in the end the effectiveness of the ads relies on how you, the viewer, respond. So, are the ads working? Or are the manmercials too much, and the Axe Effect too ridiculous?

Works Referenced

Neff, Jack. "The Battle of the Brands: Old Spice Vs. Axe." 17 Nov. 2008. Web. 17 Apr.

2010. .