Misrepresentation & Misogyny in the Media.

The influence of the mainstream media that we consume on a daily basis has been something I have been wanting to write about for a while. Three things have lead me to actually attempting to put down my thoughts this morning:

The recent article by Ashley Judd, which is both incisive and eloquent on the issue of misogyny in the media; Madeline of Jean Griege included some thoughts on it in her latest post.

The recent feature in the Guardian on Italian artist Anna Utopia Giordano, who has re-imagined the works of the great masters in terms of a 21st century audience's ideal of beauty. The images above are taken from the article, and you can see more here.

Jennifer Siebel Newsom's film Miss Representation. When I first saw it in January, it shocked me, saddened me, and angered me. It exposes the power of the mainstream media in making women feel less worthy to adopt positions of leadership, and asks the pressing question: "What can we do?"

I don't necessarily have an answer to how we can fight this, and find a way to break the cycle of these narrow standards of "beauty" we feel the need to conform to.

Another video features more shaking statistics from an average teenage girl:

"3 out of 4 of my friends feel depressed, guilty & shameful after spending 3 minutes leafing through a fashion magazine."

We live in an image-obsessed world - and the blogosphere is far from immune to this. There's something seriously skewed in our value system. But I believe being aware of this tension is at least a good start, because it allows us to change the conversation from one of appearances, to one of ideas.

EDIT:

Tavi Gevinson of The Style Rookie shares her thoughts on our daughters and the media at TEDxTeen - humorous, heartfelt, and well worth a watch.