Self Image

After reading Bordo's essay "The Empire of Images in Our World of Bodies," it has become even more clear to me how the media has tainted the way we view ourselves. From magazine advertisements to billboards to the shows and commmercials we view on our t.v. screens, appearance often seems to be the most significant thing portrayed to the audience.
We live in a world where we live to hear the latest celebrity gossip among those like Britney Spears and Lindsey Lohan, yet we don't stop to see how this is an unhealthy sickness in a sense. Instead of focusing on our own lives and the situations we face, we would rather thrive on the lives of those in the spotlight. How unrealistic is this? Do we honestly care more about these idealized figures more than we care about ourselves? Isn't there more to life than scanning through the weekly Us magazines? As much as it seems to be ridiculous, we all do it. Some people's obsessions are just on a higher level than others.
Just merely immitating what we see on the television screen, like buying the latest fashion brands, isn't what is hurting the economy though. Instead, it is the young girls who obsess about their images every second of the day which is creating an uproar, though not a very loud one, from the people. The teenage girls who fantasize about one day fitting into those size zero jeans and strutting their stuff down the runway. Anorexia is spreading throughout the country at a rapid pace and it feels as if the media is doing nothing but adding to the dilemma. The air-brushed photographs of perfect bodys spotted in the magazines have an effect on the sad-eyed girls staring at it in awe. We all long to look like them, but in reality, who really does? This is why I believe that sicknesses such as anorexia seem to attract and target younger people, since they are not at a maturity level to understand that these images are unreal. Even when you flip over to the Disney channel, popular idols for kids such as Hannah Montanna are excessively done up in make-up and wear revealing short skirts. Are these really good role models for our 10 year old daughters? Soon they will start immitating what they see, dressing more sexual and forgetting about the more important things they have to offer the world.
All in all, I find this situation very sad and it seems as though the way we percieve ourselves is never going to be good enough for anyone.
"Be more concerned with your character than with your reputation, because your character is what you really are, while your reputation is merely what others think you are." (John Wooden)