Too Young For Social Media

Facebook is a very popular website that has been being used all over the world for years now. It provides a way for people to connect to friends and family. It also allows those people to share what's going on in their life with everyone and share pictures/videos. But now, there is a problem that teens are facing using this social media. Stupidity.

Teens have been using the social media to post pictures that won't look so good in the future. A guy saying his crush will have sex with him if he gets a million likes? And she's willing to do it if it happens? It has gone to a level of worse when these type of "challenges" arise. It shows how consumed and addicted to social media teens are. To be willing to share your body for enough Facebook likes.

Social media has now been the place that underage teens post evidence of them participating in illegal activity. Like getting drunk underage or smoking weed. Something that future job seekers can be denied for. A company can look them up and find pictures of potential employees and deny them based on what they find on the internet about them. Once a picture is up, the picture then belongs to Facebook or whatever social media it is posted. Privacy features only protect so much so you are never going to be completely private to just your friends.

Kids now are getting introduced to Facebook at younger and younger ages. Again, the million likes challenge is displayed with children that look like range from ages 1 or 2 to 10. This would provide children with the confirmation that Facebook is a good thing to use and think that it is safe. Children do not know what they should or shouldn't say or post. They also may be hurting their friendships because they aren't getting a automatic response.

This is the kind of practice that should be shown to children. A teacher had posted this to see how many shares and likes it would get. Unfortunately, I could not find out how many likes she ended up getting but I can almost guarantee it was a lot. I have seen pictures like this circuiting around Facebook before. I believe this is a great way to show children how they need to be careful with Facebook and other social medias. Things can and will be shared all over the world. They can even become searchable on Google, just like this picture.

The Advertising Problem

Advertising is such a huge subject in society today. We are exposed to so much and now even children are being bombarded with these ads more and more. With the government having no restrictions on who these companies can advertise to, children are having more parents pay for all these cool toys. That being said, psychologist say how wrong this is considering children under the age of 8 can not comprehend that people are just trying to sell items, it won't make them cool.

Many of these marketers go through a ridiculous amount of work before letting a commercial hit the television to advertise to children. Cereal boxes even have their characters looking down because they assume that it pushes the product on children who have to look up to them. Many places run samples for commercials and television shows, using the amount of times that a child blinks to indicate whenever or not the advertising is working or if the television show is interesting enough.

All these advertising make it hard for some children. It's a new perception that cool is now associated with expensive. A lot of ads I have seen myself, the children have better clothes than me. This is causing a strain on parents because they are constantly except to be buying their children the newest things but if your family isn't completely rich, you can kinda screwed. Children now a days have Ipods, Ipads, Iphones, and mac books causing them to play a lot less outside. When I grew up we played outside till the street lights came on, but now just taking away your child's electronics is enough because they are not used to playing outside. They really don't know what they're missing. Advertising is just making this problem worse, making children believe that they won't have friends which such items, causing children to throw more fits when it comes to getting these items.

Porn for Tuition

Belle Knox is a freshmen at Duke University that is apparently trying to pay for her tuition by doing porn. She is just 18 and has 25 to 30 movies already filmed of her having sex. She claims that she not only a feminist but a 'for sex' feminist. Meaning that she believes in women should be legally able to prostitute themselves, supporting the legalization of prostitution. Of course, she has faced many people on the opposing side of her action. She claims that women on her campus discriminate her more than the men, but still get the 'slut shaming' from the men for making porn. Her goal is to be able tp graduate from university debt free and become a lawyer. She also claims that the porn industry and her having sex on camera is empowering and liberating for her.

Sadly, Belle has received many death threats and other threats from people all over the campus. To me, that would make me feel a lot less empowered and a little ashamed. All these people judge her from her doing something that she claims makes her feel good and she wants to do this for her education. There have been rumors that she dropped out because of this, but she told twitter that she was coming back. This all stemmed from a pledge boy that was on campus outing her to the school about her films. She didn't think anyone would recognize her but the boy now says that he regrets it.

Even though Belle says she is only doing porn to pay for her college tuition, many believe she is already in too deep. She even expressed her excitement over Twitter about her sex toy line that she is having launched. Others worrying about how her first interview in the corporate world will go considering job can able to look at social medias. The belief is that they will know that she has made adult films and the interview will not go at all like the young adult thinks. They think she is only thinking about what's going on now instead of the consequences of her actions in the future affecting her personal and professional life. She was also featured on The View.

Two Ages

 There are many things that go into pornography. Age being one important factor of making money. Most pornography is of "just 18" performers. According to the pornography industry, there is a huge amount of 18 years old in their business. This can make it hard for women to feel any kind of positive connect to pornography because to them it is not relate able and makes them feel bad. Most people in the industry is classified as either 18 years old or as a M.I.L.F. (mother I would like to f**k). Pretty much making it like they are either completely innocent or they have been around.

There is also a common face in the industry. Most of the women have the same trim body and same looking faces. To the right is the most average faces in the pornography business.

Lovelace is a movie that was what it was like in the pornography industry. She started off making porn with her husband than he pretty much sold her out to make money. It shows the struggle of her life in the industry and how much she wanted to stop but her abusive husband wouldn't let her. She finally got out and moved away to have a new family and have kids.

In all, parents just need to keep an eye on their children when it comes to the internet because it is super easy for anyone to find pornography online. Most of the websites are also free and accessible.

Celebrities and Body Image

There is a surprisingly a great number of celebrities that have incredible views on body images. This shows girls that they are perfect the way they are and gives Hollywood a better look when they have so many celebrities with such outlooks.

Jennifer Lawrence is known for her open opinions about the unrealistic body standard and the body images that women have. She has been noted in refusing to loss weight for movie roles. Also, She wants to give girls someone to look up to so she fought to be in The Hunger Games to set a more realistic body image for the character.

 


Rebel Wilson is by far my favorite celebrity and in my mind, one of the best role models. She is obviously not a size 2 and she is not mad about it, but proud. She has such a good attitude about her weight and is not afraid to let you know. She has had many big movie parts and been hosts for different events. She was even rumored to be the next spokesperson for Weight Watchers but she quickly made it known to be just a rumor. Rebel even stated, "When it comes to body image, I don't care what I look like that much, and I think women out there should just be happy with the way they look. They shouldn't really try to conform to any kind of stereotype. Just be happy and hopefully healthy."

Even Miley Cyprus knows how the media and the beauty standard. She has even said that "I'm either boring or I'm a slut." This was due to when she dress in a covered outfit and there were comments everywhere, saying she was boring. And of course, we've all seen the comments or at least known of them when she wears almost nothing. She as seen a lot of critiques about her body image, her changing look and her lifestyle. This makes her no different from anyone else.






Women like this are people we should be looking up to. Women need to know they are sexy no matter what the media says or what the society sees as beautiful. You are beautiful the way you are.

Role Reversal

It is known that women get sexualized in everyday media and in advertising, but what happens when men are the objects in the same situation? Things take a turn when men are objectified just like women in advertising.

Many women and men found it offensive and did not shy away from expressing their "disguised" attitudes towards this advertising. Just like this person's post:

Even in an article by Lisa Van Houten called Attn. Kmart Shoppers, she talks about how this is seen more as porn.

Therefore, I went on Youtube and wanted to prove how ridiculous this people are considering women are treated like this everyday. What I came upon was pretty comical, entertaining, and shows the real difference that men and women deal with when it comes to advertising.

This is just an excellent portrayal of the way women are to look in advertising but of course if it is a man in the commercial it seems more ridiculous and less "sexy."

Average Barbie

There has been many different times were barbie was compared to a normal woman to see if he body measure would even be possible. The picture to the left shows the measures of the average women versus the measurement of what barbie would be, if she was a real person. But these standard have made many girls and women feel bad and try to strive for the body image of barbie. This made it possible for a guy to make a barbie called the "average" barbie.

This is the comparison of the of the original barbie versus the new "average" barbie. The new "average" barbie has the same measurements of the average women, while not being fat or anorexic.This barbie is a prototype of what the barbie would look like. This would help with girls who feel the impossible pressure to be more like barbie, a body type unable to be achieved without hurting yourself.

This is the real "average" barbie that is named Lammily. She promotes a healthy lifestyle and is active. She was made to make girls realize that average is beautiful and that they are great the way they are. They also plan to make this barbie in different ethnicities and different body types.

Too Young to be Sexualized

I actually saw this image on Facebook while trying to come up with an item to present as this week's blog. When I saw this picture it made me laugh at first than it hit me about how true this post is. I have seen girls in middle school that wear more make up than me. What has all these little girls wanting to grow up so quickly? And what are we doing about this current situation? With 30% of girls' clothing being sexualized, according to LiveScience.com girls are seeing themselves as sex objects at a very young age. 

Toddlers & Tiaras has been a very huge success as a show while still making a ton of publicity about their controversial nature of the show. Dressing little girls up, tanning their skin, wearing tons of make up, and even wearing fake teeth. At the age of 3? This is perceived to be okay for little girls because they are involved in a competition. But how many little girls actually try to look like this because they see it on TV? A little girl at the age of 3 has not chance of looking completely flawless like this in real life without having to use tons of things to make her appear this way.

Little girls everywhere are suffering from eating disorders because they think this is the way they are supposed to look. There has been eating disorders around for a long time now but they are now starting with girls who are younger and younger. These kind of standards are unreachable and impossible to live up to.

Honestly, I am completely disguised that this is allowed on the internet and is not considered child pornography. I would not even want to see a supermodel wearing this because it is so inappropriate. This bathing suit covers barely what he needs to and it even looks like she is in some kind of fashion show. I must comment that I give them props for not doing her face up to make her look even older but the bath suit is not the right size and is inappropriate for her age.

Rules of Engagement

Rules of Engagement is a television series that has been on since 2007. It shows different people in different stages of relationship: one couple is married, the other couple is engaged, and there is two men who are single. It has typical representations of men and women in modern relationships.

Television has a way of making stereotypes more acceptable and reinforces peoples' thinking to these types of stereotypes. Media makes it seem like working class men are dumb and that they need to depend on their wives a lot in order for the women to keep the men in check. This has been good for women because they are seen as more independent and important but makes the men look not as smart because they are working class.

Jeff is a financial manager so he is pretty responsible when it comes to money but still slips up a few times. He is just like the stereotypical man who avoids sensitivity as much as he can and does not like or feel uncomfortable with sharing his feelings and fears. He's the biggest man there is, he likes sports, TV, money, and cars. All the other guys look up to him and none of them will mess with him when he is serious. He is married to Audrey.

Audrey is married to Jeff. She works at a magazine but ending up quitting to be a stay at home wife. She is considered the typical stay at home wife. She spends money on things that they don't need and does not like putting a price tags on items, unlike Jeff. She is very strong willed and has proven many times before how strong and stubborn she can be. She likes trying to prove a point to Jeff when he is wrong to teach him a lesson. Women are seen as irresponsible when it comes to money so this is a stereotype that is seen in the show, also when she spends the money, it is usually on herself, which is another stereotype.

Adam is the typical dumb working class man. He has absolutely no common sense and is super gullible. He is not too smart but he is attractive. He really looks up to Jeff so whenever him and his fiance have issues in their relationship, he asks Jeff what to do. This is a problem because Jeff has been married for many years and Adam is newly engaged so the advice does not really work as well and it usually makes things worse. But he is more feminine than the usual man.

Jennifer has the stereotype of women manipulating men in order for them to get things that they want. She does this to her fiance Adam a lot but always ends up feeling bad about it. She is unlike the stereotype of normal women because she is like a man when it comes to the bed room. She is very sexual and loves being with her man. She is the more dominate person in her relationship and more level headed, she is the one who is responsible and the smarter one.

Russel and Timmy are both single men. Russel is the stereotypical man whore guy who sleeps with anyone he can and tries to put everyone else down so he can feel better. He a boss at a company that his dad works for so he is spoiled and doesn't actually have to work for his money. He is highly unprofessional and does not know when he needs to stop being such a pervert. Timmy on the other hand takes his job of being Russel's assistant very seriously. He is always doing whatever Russel tells him to even through sometimes he does not want to. Timmy is actually pretty smooth with ladies and have many women in his life.

This is one of my favorite shows but it goes to show how much media really does play a role in our society. There are so my stereotypes that are present in this show and there are many of shows similar to this because its what we are said to like. This enforces the stereotypes that we are told about and how we see people that fit our stereotypical ideas.

No Photoshop Required

The use of photo shop on models have been a frequent reminder of how society has an unreachable standard for beauty because of media. What's even worse is that it can go both ways; either you are "too fat" or "too skinny." It is absolutely amazing how much a computer program can change the way you look.

 

This makes it almost impossible for someone to feel comfortable in their own skin. Many women and girls believe they need to have the perfect body and it has also been done to men. But Aerie, a sister store of American Eagle which sells bras and underwear, has had enough and decided to stop the photo shopping and hiring models in their ads to prove to young women that they are not to fall on these supermodel standards. They got the idea from a magazine, Verily, in order to inspire girls that they are sexy, having their new slogan, "The real you is sexy." Sending the real message of how much we are influence through ads every day pretty much telling us that we are not good enough and that we need to be perfect.

 The "change" that they are talking about is definitely overdue and much needed. With the US having an estimated 7 million women and girls that suffer from eating disorders, ads like these could really decrease that number.













This girl has absolutely no retouch on her and still looks beautiful. Confidence is what can make you sexy and being comfortable with your body. This ad will help you realize that you can still be hot without being unhealthy and photo shopped.



This is what our world has come to and it's up to us to fix our perception on this being okay in our society. We do not need photo shop and we should make a stand to help change the standards. Back to more normal, healthy, and realistic body images