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?