Who do you think you are?

POST 1 on the class blog: 
Who do you think you are? 

The media is everywhere and has infiltrated my life in an invasive way. It's the way you communicate, but also the place I look for information and entertainment. I do try to stay away as much as possible from the social media and only use it when it's convenient, not to broadcast my whole life and ideas to the world. I do watch a lot of movies and this makes that the power of the media and the way they represent women has been a major influence and shaping force in my way of thinking about what it means to be,  look and behave as a woman.

Still there are so many advertisements, television shows, movies etc. that put females in a passive, submissive position and seeing that time and time again leaves a mark, especially if you aren't aware of that fact (like when you are still young and take everything for the truth).  I grew up watching Disney movies and although I still think that they teach valuable lessons, the way they represent women is as the passive damsels in distress just waiting for their men to show up and rescue them. With the time the movies have changed and the role for women has changed and I am happy to see that it got better. You still don't see women with the same agency as men, but the recent films have been a step in the right direction. 

As I said before, what also has been influenced is the idea how you should look. The perception of beauty is definitely shaped by all the pictures of women in the media and they also show what femininity looks like. You should be tall and skinny, and wear dresses, make-up and heels to be truly beautiful. If you are surrounded by these images all the time they will almost convince you to convert to this, but luckily if you take a step back and really look at these media objects you can see what they are really doing: simply supporting a capitalist society.   

How the media failed women in 2013

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NswJ4kO9uHc

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