Thursday, October 20, 2011

Race, Gender and Media 10/22



                     Today in class we talked about how advertising influences our perception of body image. Of everything that we talked about in class my perception of who I am was most influenced by body image in advertising. I first became self-conscious about my weight when I moved to Texas in 6th grade.
               The picture above on the left is me in 6th grade about four months before I moved to Texas and the picture of me on the left is me a couple of weeks ago at the age of 21.
              I was always in sports and had a lot of friends and even boyfriends! I started to compare my self in Texas to other girls in middle school. I think the difference was the demographic region. In Oklahoma I went to a very diverse school and looking different was normal. When I moved to Texas I was going to a predominately white school where everyone wanted to have long hair and be a size 0. I remember being on diets in middle school and I always stayed active. The show FAT CAMP came on MTV and I always wished I could go, so that I could be transformed over the summer. I know that this mindset could have been influenced by nothing else than advertising. My mom, sisters, friends never said anything about me being bigger or not good enough. I got these ideas from TV mainly. I wanted to be thin, popular, and the star of the anything like all the girls on the Disney channel.
               In high school I got taller and I was on the basketball team, so I thinned out. In my mind it wasn't exactly what I wanted but because I was involved in several sports I just told myself I may be bigger but I bet you I can run longer, throw longer and jump higher than the skinny girls! I had boyfriends and of course that's all I was thinking about in high-school was basketball, and boys.
              Now thanks to the healing grace of the Lord my mind has been transformed and know that my self worth is determined by me and no one else but me. I now would rather have a compliment on my intelligence and int intellect than my physical appearance. I am what the Lord says I am, I was made in His image.

I am Lovely.
   
                

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