Emily - Final Project

Over the years, American society has evolved into a culture that is heavily
dependent on technology. Today, we are exposed to more media than ever before.
According to article by ABC news, in 2006 the average American spent approximately 5
months out of the year (3,518 hours) intently consuming media. This number has most
likely increased since then. At this rate of consumption, it’s safe to say the media is
certainly playing a role in the practices our society is adopting.

There are very explicit guidelines for gender formalities, sexuality and body
image that are imposed by the media onto its viewers. As a result, our society’s people
(women especially) believe that if they don’t dress a certain way, look a certain way or
weight a certain amount, that their self worth is minimal. As a result, we are constantly
on a quest to augment and alter ourselves in order to meet the standards that our
society bares. This constant pressure and emotional stress of not being good enough can
lead to consequences outside of the social realm such as depression, anxiety, substance
abuse and eating disorders.

I chose to create advocate commercial in regards to this idea because I thought
that it would be the most amusing for my audience. I specifically wanted to outline
(slightly dramatically – for entertainment purposes) the extents that people go to try to
accommodate this societal burden. And some of the rather ridiculous insecurities that
are common among media consumers.

I believe that it is in within our primal desires to be esthetically pleasing and to
receive social acceptance. However, I think that the universal conceptions and
portrayals of beauty are what are causing the harm. In my opinion, beauty should be
unique to each person and reflect everyone’s internal qualities. Nobody is the same, and
as a result, nobody should be comparing themselves and trying to be someone that they
are not. In a perfect world, the media would be (much) more diverse in appearance,
race, size and sexuality. Instead of consistently creating the notion that you have to look
like a size zero Victoria’s Secret model, in order to be worthy, it would encourage
consumers to embrace what inside of them makes them unique and express it. Beauty
should not be a specific image; it should be billions of different images that represent
each person as an individual. I believe that true beauty will never exist in our society
until the media encourages people to stop looking with their eyes and start seeing with
their hearts.

Works Cited
M.D, S. (2006, December 15). Mass Media Exposure. In ABC News. Retrieved November 18,
2015, from
http://abcnews.go.com/Health/story?id=2727587&page=1
Méndez, J. (2013). Cold. On Silhouettes [Online sound recording]. Retrieved November 18,
2015.