Day 10

Today was our last day of class. I have to say that I'm sad to see it come to an end. I know that there is a great deal more material that we didn't have time to cover but is well worth learning about. I will have to take on some of this during the rest of the summer and see what else I can learn about media literacy. I'm excited to keep exploring the topic.

Today in class we talked about gender stereotypes in ads. It was frustrating to see how many ads are directed at women and how much more pressure is put on women than on men. Not only did the men have fewer ads directed toward them, some of them weren't even pressuring them to look a certain way. Not to say that I would wish the same pressure on men that women face but in a way it seems unfair. I can't help but feel that subjecting myself to advertisements depicting women as unrealistically skinny, having flawless skin, beautiful hair, perfect clothing, etc. has had a strong impact on me over the years. I wish my my mom or dad had cancelled my subscriptions to Seventeen and Cosmo Girl. I could have done without being flooded with unrealistic images all through my teenage years. I think now about how I am uncomfortable if I leave the house without makeup on. I'll do it but I don't have half of the self confidence that I have when I'm wearing makeup. I don't even wear that much makeup to begin with but it's almost like wearing a security blanket. It lets me cover up any flaws that I feel I might have on any given day so that the rest of the world can't judge me on them. This is sad to think about. The craziest part is that men don't wear any makeup at all (with some exceptions). I haven't heard of any scientific research indicating that men have flawless skin and women don't so I'm not clear on why men look absolutely normal to me without any makeup on while when I see women without makeup they look unfinished and lacking to me. Though I'm almost embarrassed to admit that, it's the truth. I think the only place this could be coming from is the images that I'm constantly faced with of these women with flawless skin and perfect makeup. I rarely see women in ads, TV or movies without makeup on. I think it's safe to say that when I do see it, they are actually still wearing makeup, it's just makeup made to look as though they're not wearing makeup. What a way to mess with our minds!!!