Blog 6

Growing up in the 21^st century, the media has had a huge impact on my life. I never felt like the messages I received from the media directly influenced me until I was able to grow up and reflect back. So many of the messages we receive are targeted towards making people feel self-concise about themselves. I use the word “people” because I truly believe that this affects not only women, but also men; women may be affected the most but men can also be influenced by these messages.  I thought the documentary “Miss Representation” did a great job of bringing some of these toxic messages to light. Body image for example, is definitely one of the biggest topics to tackle. While growing up, I didn’t have negative thoughts towards my body, but I’ve never exactly thought highly of it. I didn’t realize that I was subconsciously being influenced by the images the media was putting in my head. That’s what’s so sneaky about the media; most of the messages are subliminal. Even within “Miss Representation”, there were subliminal messages. The women who were interviewed throughout the documentary were well dressed and had their faces and hair done. These women were sitting there talking about how the media has influenced the way they think they’re supposed to look, but at the same time, were giving in to those expectations. This is the part where I get confused though. In all honesty if I were on television, I would also want to look my best. But is that because I’m subconsciously giving in to what the media has told me to do, or is it because I genuinely feel that way?