media affects us

This week in class we've been focusing on how media affects both us as individuals. I thought it was really shocking that media has stereotypes and is powerful enough that it can affect our everyday lives, and how we think about ourselves.

 I buy magazines a lot, so I know what the media prints and how they make these models and actresses and stars look. They look so fake, like fake skin and almost too skinny. I think that these pictures that magazines print attempt at making women want to buy their product so they can look just like the model, but I was really shocked to learn that it's media ads that show these images of gorgeous and almost unreal people that cause girls to have eating disorders, and low self esteem. In magazines you see like celebrities (pretty much women) being judged on like the way they dressed, or their weight, so as a girl, I start to think constantly, "do I look alright?" or "am I too fat?" The media does affect us a lot more than I used to think it did. 

Our teacher showed us a magazine where there were toys for little girls and boys. If he hadn't have pointed out that the girls were always shown playing with their toys somewhere safe (like inside a bedroom, or a living room, or a kitchen even...), and the boys playing outside (backyard, and my personal favorite: in outerspace), than I never would have noticed. But it's these little images that we see in the media that affect us when we're kids and adults. I never really thought about media in a way of being harmful to anyone, but after discussing how the media depicts women and causes all these serious problems, I know that a lot of it is harmful and kind of degrading.