L/O:To identify how to answer the question using1/2 of the case

studies.

Representation of Issues: Body Image

Quick Fire

Leveson stated that women were relegated to five roles in the media…

1. Sex objects2. Wives and mothers3. Passive4. Relatively invisible5. Too fat/thin or too old/young

According to The Leveson Inquiry (2012) women’s roles in the press are limited to five roles• Sex Objects A report by Object and three other women's campaign

groups surveyed 11 British newspapers over a fortnight in September. It found "excessive objectification of women in some parts of the press, reducing them entirely to sexual commodities in a way that would not be broadcast on television, nor allowed in the workplace because of equality legislation".

• Wives and mothers "Stories, when they appear, portray women in stereotypes, emphasising the importance of women looking attractive and of being a good wife and mother, sometimes backing up support for traditional roles or for promotion of deemed attractiveness with dubious science.”

• Passive roles Campaigners have long complained that there is a pronounced tendency across the whole of the media for women to disproportionately appear in passive roles - perhaps as victims of crime - instead of actually doing something.

Leveson Inquiry (2012)

• Relative invisibility Research by Women in Journalism this year, looking at a month of national newspaper newspapers, found that men wrote three quarters of all front-page articles and 84% of those mentioned or quoted in lead pieces were male. The most pictured males were Nicolas Sarkozy, Simon Cowell, and Prince William. The only females regularly pictured were the Duchess of Cambridge, her sister Pippa and Madeleine McCann.

• Too fat/thin/old/young Earlier this year, an MPs' report recommended that school children should take part in compulsory body image lessons. More than half of the public have a negative body image, "driven by the proliferation of media imagery portraying a so-called 'perfected ideal' that is entirely unattainable for the vast majority of people", said Jo Swinson MP, chairwoman of the All Party Parliamentary Group.

Leveson Inquiry (2012)

Body image and beauty

• We have become a society obsessed with the way we look and what constitutes beauty.

• The definition of what is considered beautiful has narrowed and focuses solely on being white, thin and perfectly formed.

• The image of body image is represented across a range of media texts including…

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S5pM1fW6hNs

Unrealistic images of perfection for both men and women in magazines

Gossip magazines where imperfections in the bodies of celebrities are highlighted and ridiculed

Documentaries raising awareness of the issue

Newspaper images of catwalk models that are a size zero

Online Media articles commenting on the concern of the beauty cult that means only thin is beautiful

Advertisements for products that aim to make us more beautiful less wrinkled and more flawless

Naomi Wolf – The Beauty Myth• Wolf argues that women are oppressed by

the pressure to fit into a myth or false ideal of beauty. Feminism may have won new rights, but they are still held back by an obsession with physical appearance and a very narrow definition of beauty, which is defined as white, thin and made- up.

• This beauty myth is socially constructed and helps to maintain patriarchy, where men still have power in society. Women buy into this myth, helping to create hegemony, where the values are accepted even by those that are harmed by them.

Naomi Wolf – The Beauty Myth“the gaunt, youthful model [has] supplanted the happy housewife as the arbiter of successful womanhood.”

• Beauty is about behavior, not appearance. The qualities labelled “beautiful” in women in any given time period are no more than symbols of female behaviour considered desirable at that time.

• Besides weakening women psychologically, the beauty myth feeds a multibillion-dollar cosmetics industry, and keeps women from rising too high in the workplace by offering a way around antidiscrimination laws.

Statistics: YMCA UK Survey (2012)Adults• 1 in 4 adults feel depressed about their bodies. • 36.8% of men and 50.4% of women report that they compare

their bodies to people on TV• 42.4% of men and 30% of women would like their bodies to

look like models who appear in magazines

YOUNG ADULTS • 54.1% of girls admitted to body image problems• 23.7% of boys think that they have body image problems.• 25.4% of girls compare their bodies to people on TV • 35.2% of girls would like to look like the models who appear in

magazines

Body Image

• Body image as an issue is represented across a range of media texts

• How the image is represented depends on the audience

• In magazines women are sold an idealised version of themselves and aspire to attain the unobtainable *False consciousness/ False needs

Body Image

• Some programmes tackle the problem of body image from a range of points of view

• It may be through plastic surgery or general dissatisfaction with body size

• Most of these programmes are aimed at a female audience

Body Image

Task

• Watch and analysis – How have they represented the issue – Selection, Construction, focusing

• Who is the audience?• Who is in control of the text? Whose ideas and values are

expressed through the representations? – eg. BBC? Research remit and values

• What mode of address is being used?• What ideologies / messages might be contained within

the representation?

Body Image

BBC3• BBC Three offers audiences fresh perspective on body image with

new season of documentaries

• Following the continued success of factual programming on the channel, Zai Bennett, Controller of BBC Three, today unveiled The Body Beautiful, a new season of programmes exploring the topic of body image.

• Body image is a big issue for our audience on BBC Three so in The Body Beautiful - a challenging and penetrating season of programmes - asking whether changing your body can really make you happy.” Zai Bennett, Controller, BBC Three

• Date: 06.08.2012 Last updated: 18.03.2014 at 18.03• Category: BBC Three; Factual

• “Body image is a big issue for our audience on BBC Three so in The Body Beautiful - a challenging and penetrating season of programmes - we’re asking whether changing your body can really make you happy.“

• Zai Bennett, Controller, BBC Three

Heat magazine

Constant focus on body image

Male gaze

Women are judged by men

Focuses on imperfections – consumerism?

Questioning women to be unhappy

Take heart that celebrities have similar issues

Music video - RTW

Run the World – Body issues• The emphasis on Beyoncé's body in Run the World (long shots) reinforce a

homogenous idealized body image-narrow waist, feminine curves, long flowing hair, perfect flawless skin etc.

• Beyoncé has been criticized for 'white-washing' her image e.g. her bleached straightened hair, her shrinking figure reinforcing hegemonic beauty.

• Run the World features and celebrates women with a range of ethnicity challenges the white beauty myth.

• Beyoncé understands that her body image is as much as a selling point as her music.

• Her energetic performances are enhanced with a range of spectacular outfits and iconic. Choreography- all of which display her body.

• The feminist rhetoric of Run the World also makes reference to the physical strength of which in terms of maternity.

• Beyonce's Body Image: Her all female army is a fairly homogenous they are all similar bodied. Maybe this represents a type of body fascism. as it is intolerance of those who don't conform. Centainly the emphasis on Beyonce's body reinforces a homogenous idealized body image.Body fascism: Intolerance to those whose bodies to not conform to a view of what is desirable.Homogenous: consisting of parts or people who are similar to each other.

• Lyrical meaning towards Beyonce's personal life/career. The feminist rhetoric of Run the World also makes reference to the physical strenght of women.

• Beyonce only took a short break from her career during the time of her giving birth. "Strong enough to bear these children then get back to business"

• 'Y'all have no idea how hard I worked,' the 30-year-old told her fans. 'I had to lose 60 pounds. They had me on that treadmill. I ate lettuce!’

effect

Alternative Dove’s lotion firming ad

Tokenism (Black Girl/ Stereotypical ‘Scary Spice’)

A More Natural Beauty

• Dove’s mission is to make more women feel beautiful every day by widening the stereotypical view of beauty and inspiring women to take great care of themselves.

• .

• has six diverse women posing together in a very confident way (gesture/ facial).

• These women are posing in their undergarments making it seem like they have a high self-esteem about their natural womanly curves.

• All these women seem to have been selected from those in an everyday society instead of celebrities. Is the message these advertisers trying to send going to leave a positive influence on members of society or can they portray a more natural beauty?

•

• targets their viewers’ emotional appeals • no distracting background colors or objects in the ad so that the viewers’

focus is solely on the appearance of the women. • White = symbolize that with Dove you can look forward to a brighter

future• LS in order to show the whole body image of the individuals and their

natural curves. This leaves the audience to think that their curves could be just as beautiful if they were to try Dove’s lotion products.

• looking directly at the camera so they can imply a sense of power to their audience.

• The ad includes women who come from all different ethnicities in life so that the viewer can see that beauty is universal and comes in all different forms.

• Finally, the use of little clothing implies sexiness and can leave the viewer wishing they could also feel that way in little clothing. Many of the elements in this ad will have a strong emotional appeal to their audience.

•

But…• Although the ad focuses on the element of universal beauty,

they fail to put their focus on inner beauty and seem to focus just on the outer beauty. Selling anti-cellulite lotion!

• according to the May 12, 2008 issue of The New Yorker, ads digitally manipulated . It’s mentioned in a Lauren Collins profile of the toucher-upper himself, Pascal Dangin, who works regularly for Vogue, Dior, Balenciaga, “Do you know how much retouching was on that?” He asked. “But it was great to do, a challenge, to keep everyone’s skin and faces showing the mileage but not looking unattractive.”

• Dove's parent company Unilever not only produces the Lynx Body Spray – not exactly a bastion of female empowerment – but actual skin lightening creams for women of color ‘Fair and Lovely’ and Slim-fast. Love your body ... so long as you're white and slim!!!

Representation of an Issue– The Sexualisation of Children

• This looked at concern over how overly sexualised images of women may adversely affect young children

• Various music videos – Rihanna’s S and M; Shakira She Wolf; Miley Cyrus Can’t be Tamed

• Beyonce’s Who Rules The World (Girls) – all promoting this as a positive role model for children

• News articles from BBC website – Don’t Sexualise Children and Daily Mail How Pop became Porn (both outraged at the negative effect of such videos)

Size Zero/ Body Image and

Royals/ Privacy Debate

• http://ms1slumdog.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/Representation%20of%20Issues

Good answer

• Specific examples to illustrate how images, language, visual codes and modes of address construct the representation of an issue.

Writing up - Discuss how two issues are represented in the

media? • Body Image - Discuss what the representation is

stereotypically in the media – start by mentioning The Leveson Inquiry (2012) and back up with models, advertisements and magazine covers – be specific!

• Case studies - Discuss why the media constructs these images this way (Use Naomi Wolf’s to support and discuss Miss/Representation).

• Discuss the impact this has on the audience (include statistics from YMCA 2012).

• Discuss how there are emerging ‘positive’ messages in the media (Dove, Miss/Representation, Cherry Heeley)

• Then move onto the second issue immigration