When Discussing Beauty,
Personality, and our selves; do you ever question how much you truly know about
yourself?
This is a question that is
difficult to ask, but also difficult to answer as well.
How are we able to know ourselves
without the incredible and strong impacts that society shadows over us?
This is a topic that can be
contemplated over and over again. Society
and media in one-way shape and or form affect all humans. And has anyone ever
asked or thought about if its effects are contagious?
DO you remember a time when you
were young and we all had to dress with the same style, have the same toys and
climb this playground of popularity to fit in but yet stand out?
Who set those standards? This is
pure proof of how the business aspects of media and society completely run the
world. But what if they didn’t? What If we lived in a world where we could not
be affected by such things?
This is something called, “Media
Literate”. If we were taught to know and understand all the airbrushing,
photoshopping, cuts and re-takes that the media is created of and spread onto
our society would we still be the same?
The idea of being, “Media
Literate”, is to know and understand everything that occurs behind the scenes
to sell, entertain and push products’ and create medium between society and
media. With this knowledge, do we or would we still take in the media the same
as if we did not understand what being media literate.
While I myself struggled with the
ideas of society and the impacts of the media, and trying to create a balance
with my own wants and desires I worked with Sylvia Davi, a certified
nutritionist and health specialist and qualified yoga instructor. Sylvia
created a plan to help me with a successful and useful diet I can follow by. As
most people see the “word”, diet and suggest it has something to do with
“eating and loosing weight”, This was not the case what so ever. With all of
Sylvia’s qualifications she created a plan to help me seek a way to loose
weight, workout, eat healthier and clear and detox my mind. We planned on
creating a balance.
Yoga is the simplest form of
balancing exercise and balance within the body and mind and connecting the
two. Sylvia also made me a book
full of tips, tricks and exercises to help clear my mind of the worlds wants
and help make mind louder.
This consisted of breathing
exercises, myths and facts about the media’s false advertisement editing and
nutrition facts about foods that help clear the mind and make the body feel
“healthier”.
Working with Sylvia has taught me
a lot about how much the media plays on society, and how easily individuals
like you or me get suckered into the business world.
This is a challenge that I can
healthily recognize today as a challenge I will always be working on especially
with growth, because with growth comes change.
When speaking to Sylvia on depth
about all the areas and ways she thinks society and the media affect people,
she managed to say there are many. And in some sad cases many fall under
developing serious emotional and psychological issues, such as eating disorders
and or depression.
In a world that is being taken over by technology, it is easy
to develop symptoms of A.D.D. How can any individual pay attention or be
entertained for any small amount of time without being entertained at every
waking moment. Today we are constantly entertained, with cell phones,
television, radio- think about your average day-to-day routine. We wake up to
an alarm sometimes our alarms are the radio, we wake to the radio or the
television we get dressed, showered, eat breakfast sometimes on the go and jump
into our cars with the radio?-sound familiar?
It is strange that in today’s
generation it is difficult for us to read novels where as the generation before
us find no difficulty at all. Media is also taking over the ways that we learn.
We can easily loose sight of how to communicate, write papers, and edit papers,
read, and research. In the past it is obvious no one had the use of Microsoft
word and other forms of technology that enabled us to type a paper, have it
edited, spell checked and emailed on a scheduled due date; there where no forms
of search engines such as google, yahoo or aol that with the click of a button
all of our research is in out hands on an instant. And with the use of texting,
skyping, emailing and instant messaging it is obvious our means to communicate
properly and effective is becoming more and more difficult.
Although, many of these forms of
technology may sound that they can help us to create our lives to be simpler
they help to complicate them as well.
They help us subliminally reach
for standards of perfection that the media and society expects us to. If we
think back to history when women stayed home, and men where the breadwinners
technology helped create the women to become more competitive with one another
and define who we were. Our jobs were to clean the home, and to tae care of our
husbands and children, But as the advancements of technology increased with
vacuums and clothing irons it began to be a greater and greater reflection of
who we were as individuals.
Should this be? Does this seem
fair? Is this something that can still be occurring in different forms and
fashions?
In examining just the physical
aspects and expectations of the media, these are some facts to help us
contemplate this issue that Sylvia included in book she created for me, and
called “Life in its fullness is Mother Nature obeyed”—Weston Price …
1. Twenty
years ago models weighed 8% less than the average woman. Today they weigh 23%
less than the average woman.
2. When
meeting others your should focus on something besides your appearance. Strive
to be interesting, nurturing, witty and a good listener.
3. Expand
your definition of beauty, Define your inner self and be defined by it.
4. See
yourself as a whole person, not as individual body parts
5. Be
realistic about what you can change, and learn to be happy with what you
cannot.
6. Of
Barbie was a real woman she would have to walk on all fours due to her body
proportions.
7. If
GI Joe were a real person, he;d have bigger biceps than any human.
Sources:
Seek Wellness: http://www.seekwellness.com/weight/body
image and you.htm
National Institute on the Media
and Family: http://www.familyservices.bc.ca/professionals-a-educators/jessies-legacy/resources-for-parents-families-a-friends/fashion-a-media/314-national-institute-on-media-and-the-family
