Monday, February 25, 2008

Help?

I know that everybody is doing this... but I really need any help I can get on my WRP, I am trying to get some last minute quotes put in this week, so if you want to take the time to answer my questions that would be swell!
Okayy,
1. Do you feel as if Hollywood sets unhealthy and unattainable body standards for teenagers? If so, why?
2. Do advertisements for things such as diet pills or weight loss plans, or even television shows, affect you? How do they make you feel about the product or yourself?

and lastly...

3. How does High School affect your image of yourself? Are there different standards here then in the outside world?

if you took the time to do this...
Thank You! Thank You! Thank You! Thank You!
and if you didn't, well I guess thats okay too.

7 comments:

melissaz said...

I would be happy to help if I can!

1. Yes I have to agree on that one. I feel that Hollywood gives off the wrong messages all too often, selling the skinny "beautiful" to the rest of the public and not really celebrating the real and beautiful bodies that fill up most of America.
2. I don't think that it affects me consciously. I think that maybe sub-consciously there is some aspect that effects me, just that all we really see are the skinny girls or guys and people not happy with their bodies getting a quick fix through pills and plans. Like when one grows up in an environment, they learn to accept what they know. This may even become more prominent on future generations, kids these days growing up in a society were the only one type of beauty is shown on TV. Many times I think that the products are way blown out of proportion and many times I have to laugh about how many people fall into that trap. I feel that one should be able to take a very healthy route; they shouldn't need the pills or a special plan.
3. I think that High School definitely reflects a lot of what is seen in the media, but I don't really think that it affects me all that much. I feel that if someone has a great support group of friends, they don't notice the push quite as much.

MollyS said...

Thanks a ton Melissa!

morganw said...

I'd, likewise, be happy to help.

1) Without a doubt. Hollywood contains many extremes in body image, and because our society places such high a value on movie stars, we all feel as if we have to live up to their expectations; which is totally unrealistic. The pictures we see of our favorite actors, singers, or entertainers have often been airbrushed and the people in them coated in layers of make-up and dressed in hideously expensive clothing and jewelry. Thence, they look like perfection. Trying to copy them is simply madness, because nobody and nothing is perfect.

2) Diet pills and weight loss plans mostly make me ashamed that people who are willing to make and endorse those products walk our very earth. Its really disgusting what people think they can get away with telling you through advertising. They make me think that the products are stupid and don't work, and then I usually get mad for letting myself sit through such outrageous messages. Other than that, they don't really make me feel anything other than sane in an utterly insane world.

3) There are definitely different standards in High School than in the outside world. High School kind of exists in its own little bubble where it doesn't (generally) take the time to examine what’s really going on. High School, at first, affected me fairly strongly as far as my body image goes, and it has influenced my clothing style, but now it doesn't really affect me. I'm comfortable with who I am and that’s all that matters to me.


Hope I was able to help!

hannahl said...

Molly, I think all of these questions can be answered at once, so I won't split them up. For me, Hollywood has nothing to do with my self-image. Mainly, I have issues becuase I am a dancer, which has nothing to do with seeing skinny girls walking down the runway. Personally, I wouldn't care what I looked like if it weren't for my dancing, I would be fine just as long as I was a reasonable weight and not obese. For many girls though, seeing actresses, whom they usually look up to, skinny and tall at an unatainable weight for a healthy teenager, they automatically teach themselves that that is how they must be as well. It is a problem that's root lies in the over-emphasis of entertainmetn and hollywood. If girls didn't spend so much time watching television and looking in fashion magazine, they might in fact experience the real world, which is filled with average women. The wonderful thing is that if they simply picked up a book, they would never have to see an anorexic character if they didn't want to, because it is a personal visualization, not that of someone else.

Wow, I digressed a lot. Sorry, but maybe you can use something from that.

Unknown said...

Things that hollywood does makes everything look like perfection. It makes everything look right. I think that when (mostly) teenage girls see those perfect women on the magazine covers and in movies then they think that they too have to be that way. Anyways, those women aren't even real. A lot of them is photoshoped and they give the wrong impression to a lot of people. I have never struggled with it myself but I know other people that have or do still. Secondly, high school is freedom compared to middle school but the standards are so much higher. However, even though I am surounded by (literaly) thousands of kids I don't let them put me down anytime. I don' let them set my standards. But I know that peer pressure and fitting in can be tough to deal with sometimes. Well, that is pretty much it. Good luck with your paper!

mattw said...

1. sometimes, like bulemia or whatever it's called, is used to get REALLY skinny. But there are some celebrities that are in great shape, and that's sometimes unattainable but not unhealthy.

2. Not me because I'm already freakishly skinny, but those ads just seem disgusting. Like the "Lap-band" or whatever. They cut you open and put something in that contracts around the entrance to your stomach, and its supposed to keep you NOT hungry.

3. It kind of makes me feel like a freak when I act like "myself", because "myself" finds them all really boring. I'm not weird... they're just average. Not really, because outside of school, you can choose to be around people who accept you.

MollyS said...

thank you all so much! ahh you are wonderful melissa morgan hannah liz and matt! you just made my day!