Blogpost 1 - Media Madness

Warning: The following content discusses eating disorders and may be disturbing to some audiences.

Ever since I was younger I have always dealt with my weight. It got even worse when I discovered magazines such as Seventeen and Teen Vogue. I used to constantly scroll through images of thin celebrity women that I wished I could be. This is probably where I would pinpoint the establishment of my role in media as an easily influenced consumer. Not only did media create the beauty standards that I felt were the only ones acceptable to society, but it influenced my young self to develop in a way that upheld these falsehoods. My obsession with being seen as “beautiful” reached the extreme my doctor named as anorexia. Every night at dinner I would take a spoonful of food, excuse myself from the table and feed my grumbling stomach with more magazine reading to keep me full.

Jenna Rose Simon, Eating Disorder Sketch 2017

I was an easy target for media especially since I was so young. However, I believe that a good majority of the world is exactly like this younger version of me because of the vulnerability factor that comes into play. Media in itself is a business that seems to be ever increasing in popularity and accessibility within society today. Through outlets such as Facebook, Instagram Snapchat and Twitter, the media goes beyond body shaming and towards objectifying its consumers, especially women. Nowadays, the amount of likes or comments that an image is likely to get is more important than just having a documentation of a specific event, place or time. Even advertisements such as plastered posters on NYC subways are involved in the inappropriate display of women. An example of a train ad I’ve personally witnessed was of breast augmentation where a woman’s enlarged breasts are the center of focus with the face of the model intentionally cut off to play upon the fantasies of men. Whether it be consciously or subconsciously, the media is exposing the minds of people to its ideals which in turn affects their judgement skills. The media makes it seem as though people can accomplish their dream but with the catch that it has to be according to its guidelines. Overall, the dream/ideal woman that the media has portrayed to me has to do with everything I am not and everything that I do not have. This is the “true beauty” that the younger me would have accepted without question.  

Now that I am older, I am learning about the ways in which the media can operate. Lately, what I have been doing to go against the media is simply embracing the naturalness of my curly hair, tanned skin and bare face. As for my weight, I try not to compare myself to others anymore but rather focus all my energy into understanding my own body so that I can eat and workout in a way that is suitable for me. What I’ve discovered is that the media at one point made me feel the need to be a copy of someone else, stripping me from all the things that actually made me unique and different from the rest of the world.