Comments on: Perceptions of Beauty, PhotoShop, and Media Literacy

By: Serena Cain

Serena Cain — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 23:44:00 +0000

I completely agree. I saw this ad in my college literature class freshmen year and it spoke to me. I am not writing my thesis paper on it and how marketing is becoming fake and there is way too much photo manipulation in today’s ads and yet I know this and still I believe the perceived ads as real and my aspiration is to look like them even though I know they are fake. Women do this to themselves and ads and marketers know it is not good and yet we fall for it every time. The moment we stop falling for it is the moment they will stop using is against us. The even bigger picture is that we women still aspire to look like these pictures because the men in our lives think they are gorgeous so by definition we want them to think about us that way and so the cycle never ends. I am very passionate about this topic and cannot wait to learn more about it.

By: Kate Tabor

Kate Tabor — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 14:23:30 +0000

We used the Dove videos successfully along with the work of Jean Kilbourne Killling Us Softly. Here is a blog post about the work that we did last year with junior girls. The things we LIKE are complicit in the things we DON’T… The girls got it right away. The boys needed some convincing. "Hey, she's hot..."

By: David Gran

David Gran — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 15:48:05 +0000

Thanks for that post Wes! I showed that video for the past few years to both my video and photography classes. I also show them the one below – If you ignore some of the advertisements (ironically), this video touches also on the idea of manufactured beauty, but it also addresses media literacy in a more comprehensive sense…. in the sense that anything that you see on screen should be questioned:

“Everything You See is Fake”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HAFp4CaeDqU&feature=player_embedded

By: Bill Farren

Bill Farren — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 17:08:10 +0000

Thanks for writing about this important topic. Here’s a video that’s been in my “favorites” for a while now: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=odI7pQFyjso
I show it after playing the Dove ad mentioned above. It allows for another level of analysis, begging the question: At what price beauty?
Many find an intact natural landscapes beautiful. I believe it’s the same beauty manifested in human beauty, nature’s way of saying, “I’m healthy, I’m conducive to life, I’m nourishing, I’m good for you.”

By: Julie

Julie — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 08:08:17 +0000

Thanks for a great post and even though that clip is now a number of years old I still believe it to be the most powerful ‘media literacy’ lesson I have seen to date.

By: Wesley Fryer

Wesley Fryer — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 03:13:44 +0000

You have any to add to the list, Chris?

By: Chris Lehmann

Chris Lehmann — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 03:06:18 +0000

Three great choices on the books… all are very much must reads in my book.