Subliminal Messages

The difference between the photoshopped pictures and the real models is astonishing. We've been talking about media and how it affects men and women differently but significantly. In class, while looking at the offensive ads about women that are plastered all over magazines, billboards, etc it brings my attention to how many of them that are out there. Girls are trained to think that they have to be absolutely flawless, feminine, and only do "what girls do". For example; Sal's daughter, it's so lame how society has slightly influenced her already by thinking that it'd be out of the ordinary to have a play date with this boy, Charlie. Men and women shouldn't be affected by media so much that it affects our day to day decisions, yet it does. I know that for girls in every age group, the media affects us all greatly but subliminally. The media impresses ideas and looks into our heads that we are supposed to conform to. We look at magazines and comment on how gorgeous and flawless the models are and that's one way the media entices us. We observe their perfections and we subconsciously aspire that beauty. We don't consciously think of how casually flipping through a magazine will affect our self-esteem or body image, but in reality that is how the ads seep into our subconscious mind and derail our judgement. I think companies like DOVE are promoting great ads that feature normal, average women in their ads and encourage women to be content with their unique body type.