Self Evaluation

1. My social issue is that media has a negative effect on women's body image. The messages are sent everywhere, in almost every magazine add, billboard, commercial, and even children's dolls. 90% of girls ages 3-11 have a barbie, which serves as a role model. The doll's figure is impossible to achieve and Barbie now is an unrealistic role model. Everyone sees models in magazine adds and most of the time they are thin. It is rare to see a average sized or overweight model. Model's are usually "flawless", usually air bushed or computer edited. Articles saying how to lose weight or achieve a better figure dominate magazines. The causes are simple, the image of an "ideal body image" are everywhere. Females will see images every day. The "ideal body image" is also unattainable if one is to remain healthy. Solutions are easier said then done, yet surprisingly simple. Make barbies, cartoon characters average sized, not unrealistically thin. Also, for magazines to stop printing articles about weight loss that dominate their pages.

2. Artifact #7 was one of the most surprising to me. (Dittrich, Liz, Ph.D. "About-Face facts on the MEDIA ." About Face. 17 Jan. 2007 http://www.about-face.org/r/facts/media.shtml.)
Also, Artifact #4 (Dittrich, Liz, Ph.D. "About-Face facts on the MEDIA ." About Face. 17 Jan. 2007 http://www.about-face.org/r/facts/media.shtml.)

Both articles suggested that younger children can be effected by what they see on television or even in their toy chests. Also, artifact #4 said that even ten year old girls were dissatisfied with with their bodies after watching a Britney Spears video. This proves that media in the form of television effects outlook on body image .

3. All of the the media portrays this topic. I have songs, magazine articles, newspaper articles, and websites posted throughout my blog.
The mass media suggests that women should be thin and stereotypically "beautiful". Artifact #8 bluntly stated that media urges women to be "...cute, sexually available, thin..."

4. I found most of my information on the Internet. Using search engines worked best for me. Some of my information came from what I already knew, and applying it to what I needed to find out. I did not use the books listed as sources of my sources. I would go back and find those books to use them.

5. My attitude changes from knowing that this was around to strongly feeling that the effects on girls are absolutely ridiculous. I always knew that media had effects on girls, but I never knew the extent of the problem. I believe that more people should learn to have the outlook of Treneice Whitehead (artifact #5). Also, personally, I've learned to not compare myself to models as much and look at what is real.