It's been a while since I've blogged about class, but a few classes ago we were talking about how women are told from a very young age how we should look. Ads are everywhere we look, telling us we aren't skinny enough or tall enough, or that we are too tall or too skinny. The media shows this perfect body type that is impossible to achieve because even the women being photographed don't look that way. They've been airbrushed and photoshopped to the point that they almost don't look like the same person anymore. And that is the standard of beauty that we are measured by.
We also watched a video called "Killing us softly" that talked about the same sort of issues. But one thing that she brought up that stuck with me is that we are told to be sexy but innocent. We have to have that sexiness in order to please the men around us, but we also have to have the innocence of a child or we are condemned. And there is such a double standard here. Men are praised for the amount of women they sleep with, and are judged for being a virgin. But it's the exact opposite for women.
I'm not trying to say that women should go sleep around all the time too, because my beliefs hold me to a different standard altogether. But the double standard is completely ridiculous.
Another thing that’s been on my mind is the sexualization of women in advertisements. For our projects we just turned in I analyzed a magazine from 1971. None of the ads had women in anything but completely reasonable clothes and situated in normal positions. I hate the fact that people decided that sex sells and that it’s the only way to sell to men especially.
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