Media Literacy

After Googling "Media Literacy", I learned that it is the way we analyze and question the media.

Growing up, I would read magazines like Seventeen Magazine and Cosmopolitan, both magazines that are geared for teenage girls. However, almost every section is about ways a girl can be better for a man. Different sections show you how to lose weight (no one likes curvy girls of course...), how to please your man in bed (since every single person in high school has sex...), and how to do your makeup better (no one is pretty natural...). This bothered me growing up, but now it bothers me a lot. I never felt the need to be stick thin, but after reading these magazines and learning that in the modeling world a girl who is 5'9" and over 120 pounds is considered plus sized, I started to question myself. How in the world could I ever be that thin I thought? It grossed me out that other girls of my body type felt the need to be this skinny to be pretty. Also, why is a young girl expected to "hook up" in high school? Whatever happened to having a relationship? Why do you have to look hot at parties? Why can't you go to the movies or hangout with friends at home? What about the girls who are not heterosexual? They never even mention anyone being anything but "straight" in these magazines. I will not let my teenagers read such things when the time comes.

This is a video a group of young girls made, questioning the media.

This particular Dolce and Gabbana ad is supposed to portray their clothing as being "sexy", yet to me and many others it seems as if this ad is portraying rape as being cool. The woman is being held down, while other half-naked men look at her being held down. Not cool with me.

Axe is a men's fragrance company the mainly aims at younger men and teenagers. This ad shows a bikini-clad girl who is dirty and her stomach says "wash me". Most teenagers would think "If I buy Axe, I will get hot girls in my shower". However, this ad is portraying a woman as solely a piece of property since one would write "wash me" on a car. Also, the woman's face is not shown, showing that a woman's body is all that matters. She is also trapped in a corner which disturbs me, making her seem insignificant and helpless.

What are these ads teaching our youth?

"Unlearning the Myths that Bind Us" by Linda Christensen

"Our society's culture industry teaches them how to act, live, and dream".

After reading Christensen's article, I found myself listening to ideas that I had once thought myself. Growing up, I wondered why there were no colored people in fairytales. Why was there always a happily ever after in every fairytale? Life does not always have a happily ever after. Not all of our dreams will come true. How come dwarfs are portrayed as "weird" or "funny" in The Wizard of Oz and Snow White? Where are the gay couples? How come everyone is beautiful and from that beauty, they get anything they could imagine? Only until the 1990s, did Disney princesses of color appear. Women are portrayed cleaning, cooking, and taking care of their significant other as in Cinderella, but never are they shown holding a career or handling themselves on their own. It seems as if a lot of problems were have in society with stereotyping or judging people all comes from movies and stories we have read as children.

Never in these fairytales are true values portrayed. Never does it say "getting a good education will get you a good job" or "beauty is not everything". They do not have interacial couples that are happy, without issues. Pocahontas and John fall in love, but they are torn apart by their community, having to hide their relationship from others. This teaches young children that forming bonds with people of a different race or culture is bad. This also teaches children of color that they will never be as good as the white people, all which should not be shown in retrospect. Characters such as Ursula show that people of a heavier set are bad people, leading to why the "chubby" kids in school are the targets of bullying among adolescents. I also agree with Christensen when she says that men are portrayed wrongly too. Men in fairytales are always muscular, charming, and save the women in the end. Never are their feelings shown, which makes adolescents mask how they really feel. They want the girls to find them attractive, and obviously they cannot be sensitive or weak as Disney suggests.

Although I do believe the story of Cindy Ellie is good in a sense that colored people should be portrayed in a good way in stories, I do not like how the story still teaches girls that they can only be pretty if they are covered in jewels and fine clothes. What does this teach girls who are brought up in poverty-stricken areas? How are they ever to be happy if they cannot afford such clothes? They should be portrayed becoming happy and wealthy through getting good grades, and putting forth the most effort they have in their schoolwork. In addition, I do not like how for a woman to be attractive she must have the correct body type. Women who have no curves can be just as attractive as women who have a lot of curves. Having nice breasts and a nice butt should not be the focus of attention, especially among young children. This affects their body image as they mature. However, I do like how curvy women are portrayed as attractive, but maybe it's not for the right audience. I wish more cartoons portrayed what life is really like, and how beauty has no boundaries. I think this article is pretty straight-foward, and it did not confuse me. This article definitely relates to out assumptions in class that youth is a culturally construced category, and that media matters. Without these fairytales, people would probably be more accepting to all types of people.

When I was 13...

I was obsessed with boys, volleyball, and my looks. I had just started high school, and had been growing my hair out so I could look "pretty". I was extremely nervous, and thought high school would be just like how movies portray it. My friends and I had all went shopping and with my new abercrombie and fitch clothes, I thought I was so cool. A boy in his junior year had asked me to homecoming within the first week of school. I had not been more excited about something until then (we ended up dating for 3 and a half years). I knew that who I was then was not who I wanted to be or who I was inside. I hated rap music, but still listened to it because everyone else did. I was not materialistic or stuck up, I even felt bad to ask my parents for money to buy the $80 pair of jeans that were popular. I was probably the tallest girl in my school, and my social awkwardness did not help. But towards the end of high school, I learned that being shy is okay. It took me a while to learn to be my own person, and to not be the girl everyone else was. I thought high school was all about fitting in.