This week I wasn’t really sure what I wanted to write about; we have been discussing women and the media in class so I searched women and the media on the web looking for inspiration. One of the first websites I found was http://www.mediaandwomen.org/. This is a non-profit organization dedicated to raising awareness to the impacts of the media on women and girls and how we are represented in the media. What a wonderful group! I am sure that there are more websites and groups dedicated to this cause, I wish that more people were aware of them. I love that we are seeing more recognition of how the media affects women and especially young girls. Young girls are so impressionable and seeing stick thin models or girls who act out sexually for attention are just two ways in which girls are influenced and harmed by the media. This website reminded me of the Dove Campaign for Women, which is also another great cause dedicated to empowering women. I was reading through an article by Jess Weiner on http://www.dove.us/#/CFRB/arti_CFRB.aspx[cp-documentid=7051112]/ and she discusses her struggles to be thin as a child /teen. Things could have been easier for Weiner if only the people around her would have set different examples. She illustrates things she would like to teach her daughter in order to break the cycle of poor body image. I wanted to quote one of them on here because I think there are wonderful. Weiner said,
“FAT is not a feeling! Every woman (and man) in my life said the phrase, ‘I feel fat.’ So I picked up that phrase, too. I wish someone would have told me that fat indeed is not an emotion.”
Weiner goes on to talk about how feeling fat is commonly a coin phrase to mask deeper emotions. She expresses the need to emphasize the importance of inner “style” not just outer style, and how parents need to actually set the examples for their children not just by saying but by doing.
It is no doubt important that female empowerment and self esteem start at home but I think we still need more awareness and more done to improve the media and it’s regards to women. For companies like Dove to be recognizing this need, I think we are starting to turn in the right direction.
