Guys have body issues too???

   Yes, it is true guys do feel insecure about their body too. Guys stare at their bodies a lot and look at their flaws. Some people believe that it's not as bad as girls, but i think they are right. If guys cared more about their looks than why would they "let themselves go" when they are old. Females are always worried about their weight even if they pretend they don't. However, why do guys have issues? Well, it's TV shows like Jersey Shore, The Hills, Athletes, Models, and Celebrates who look amazing and make guys feel insecure. They are not the average guys, but girls are attracted to them. Guys want to feel good about themselves and want to get heads turned. Sound familiar? Guys and girls go through the same thing. However, we approach it differently. Guys work out on average three to four times a week. While girls go on diets and barely work out. Anyways, the ideal guy is the "ken barbie": hot, tall, nice tan, muscular, washboard abs, firm butt, full head of hair that you can run your fingers through, and a smile that last a lifetime. People like: Usher, Will Smith, Chad Michael Murray, Kobe Bryant, Channing Tatum, Johnny Depp, Justin Timberlake, Michael Sorrentino (aka The Situation), and Paul "Pauly D" DelVecchi are looked upon as hot guys today. These are some of many guys that are considered "hott" because they have some of the stereotypical characteristics that a guy apparently should have. I'm not going to lie i love my men to look like that; especially if he is an athlete. But just because he is "hott" doesn't mean he is a good guy. He can be an amazing athlete that is self-absorb; that is a turn off ladies and gentlemen. I get it; your hot, you know your hot, but there is a limit to everything. So this might be the "ideal" guy for many girls, but is that fair? Ladies try to look outside the outside; if that makes sense. There are the "average" guys that are sweet, kind, funny and i fall for them easily as do many other girls. I love to laugh and joke around and if a guy can make me laugh, he is one step closer to my heart, even if he's not an athlete. I believe every guy is cute in someway. I think we should help each other out; men and women by looking past of what you imagine your guy or girl to be. As long as your happy and healthy. If you are not healthy; go out and help yourself first because your health is extremely important. I am not saying to look like a barbie doll or GI Joe; just healthy. Don't give up on happiness; we all deserve to be happy. But by doing that we should get rid of what the "ideal" person and be happy with your body. As long as you can look at a mirror and say to yourself "damn i look good" that is all that matters. If you say "ahhh i look good, but just maybe loose a few pounds and look HOTT" than go for it. Key thing is to be healthy and maintain a healthy weight for as long as you can. It is also good to go twice a year for a physical check up with your doctor; it's not going to kill you, but might save you. So in the end ladies and gentlemen both sexes deal with the issue of body image, but don't let that stop you from being who you are.

What is Beauty?

Hey everyone, it's Brittany. I was thinking about body image and I think because of the media every girl feels insecure about what they look like. I know I have felt like I didn't like my body. I have always thought I was too skinny. I don't like being a stick, I would rather be a little bit bigger. I know people would die to have my body because of models who are sticks. It doesn't matter if you are skinny or fat, people are going to think their body isn't great and want to change it. But I've realized that the media doesn't know what beauty is. I learned that beauty is truth. My Chicano studies professor taught me that. We were talking about what beauty is and he asked a couple girls including me if we thought we were beautiful and each and everyone of us said no. He finally asked the class if anyone thought they were beautiful and one girl spoke up and said that she thought she was beautiful. She was getting choked up because so many of us didn't think we were beautiful. Because I learned the real definition of beauty and because of her reaction, I have really thought about what beauty means to me and accepting that I'm beautiful. It's still hard thinking I'm beautiful sometimes though, I still have insecurities but because of that one conversation, it has changed my perception about beautiful things. I want other girls to realize that and stop worrying about what they look like, I think there would be a change in what the "beautiful" woman would be. It would be every type of women, big, tall, skinny, big. If that would have a big impact on other woman and I think their would be a decrease in eating disorders.  

You are BeaUtiFUL

When you are feeling low about yourself; 
When you are not pleased with what you see in the mirror; 
When you feel embarrassed or even ashamed;
When you feel like your the "ugly duckling;"
When you start to get depressed;
When you are thinking about starving yourself;
When you start questioning everything about you;
When you HATE your body.
This is when you need to STOP and realize that you are NOT the "ugly duckling," but a beautiful person... Many people especially teenagers both skinny or curvy have thoughts like this at least once... There is NOTHING wrong with your body... When you look in the mirror, DON'T think about what you don't like, but what you LOVE about yourself... Like what Christina Aguilera said "you are BEAUTIFUL no matter what they say, Words can't bring you down..." This song was made to inspire people (teens) to be happy and comfortable with their body... People need to realize that we all have different bodies and body types; we all should be okay with it...  There are many people like Tyra Banks who has been working so hard on changing the definition of what "beauty" means because everyone's beautiful inside and out... The people you see in magazines such as "People," "Us weekly," "Life&Style," and "In Touch" show pictures of  celebrities NOT the average person... But magazines like "Avantgarde," "Shape," "Cosmopolitan," "Allure," "Girlfriend," and "Essences" that empowers people of all shapes and sizes to love their body... Down below are some of many quotes that you should read and believe before doing or thinking about anything you might regret...

QUOTES:


Beauty is not in the face; beauty is a light in the heart. ~Kahlil Gibran


Beauty comes as much from the mind as from the eye. ~Grey Livingston


Beauty?... To me it is a word without sense because I do not know where its meaning comes from nor where it leads to. ~Pablo Picasso


Fashion is merely a form of ugliness so unbearable that we are compelled to alter it ever six months. ~Oscar Wilde


I think that whatever size or shape body you have, it's important to embrace it and get down! The female body is something that's so beautiful. I wish women would be proud of their bodies and not dis other women for being proud of theirs! ~Christina Aguilera
“Everybody is unique. Compare not yourself with anybody else lest you spoil God’s curriculum.” ~Baal Shem Tov


I'd much rather be known as some curvy Kate than as some skinny stick.
~Kate Winslet


I think scars are sexy because they mean that you made a mistake that led to a mess. 
~Angelina Jolie


I rejected some gorgeous publicity shots because they just didn't look like me. I won't wear skanky clothes that show off my booty, my belly or boobs. I have a great body. I could be Britney. I could be better than Britney. 
~Avril Lavigne

Work Cited

"Famous Body Image Quotes." Famous People and Pop Culture Website. Web. 24 Feb. 2011. <http://www.popmonk.com/quotes/body.htm>.

Robinson, Liz. "Body Image Quotes." Funny Quotes, Author Quotes and Quotes from Famous Celebrities. Web. 24 Feb. 2011. <http://www.saidwhat.co.uk/members/viewbook.php?id=309>.

Ruud, Maddie. "Inspirational Quotes About Beauty - Body Image Quotes." HubPages. Web. 24 Feb. 2011. <http://hubpages.com/hub/Quotes_on_Beauty>.

Sturges, Cassandra. "Body Image Quotes - Body Image." BellaOnline -- The Voice of Women. Web. 24 Feb. 2011. <http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art29293.asp>.

The Effects of Body Image

This video is an example of Remediation analyzing one's body image.

This picture is an example of Hypermediacy exploring one's body image.

This video is an example of Immediacy investigates one's body image.

        In the first video we stepped into the real world of body image and we observed it's effects on today's youth. We noticed how it effects all age groups, races as well as genders. This not only effects young adults and teens, but children too. Typically little girls tend to play with Barbie dolls and little boys play with action figures. This to them is the ideal body image and what they should look like when they are older. However that is not reality; people really don't look like that. Most people that do look like Barbies or GIOs tend to struggle with some type of disorder. As the video above shows, Tyra Banks experiences a first hand look into recovery process of an eating  disorder. As you can see it's out of their control, but at least they are trying to get some help. 

Modern Media vs Older Media

Remediation is a book that precisely focuses on media's affect on the individual and in the first chapter Bolter and Grusin mainly focus on the media in technology such as computers and television mean while  also discussing it in photographs and in written form. One word that provides a great example of the media's effects is photorealism. It compares a photograph to a graphic design and the authors show how both ultimately have a cause the same effect, but through a different means. Is this the same for all media? We can't say they all have the same cause, but they do in deed have the same purpose. Bolter and Grusin compare and contrast the modern digital technologies such as the internet, virtual actuality, and computer graphics to earlier media which is a new set of aesthetic, artistic, and cultural values. In the dictionary remediation is a correction of something bad or flawed.  Does this mean our modern media is defective? It simply means new medias try and do better than past medias. Society in modern times wants to "both multiply its media and erase all traces of mediation."(25) It's almost as if one media is growing out of another. Examples of the media can be immediacy and hypermediacy. Although immediacy is seen as the direct content of the mind as distinguished from representation and hypermediacy is a more subtle and free concept, immediacy leads to hypermediacy. Bolter and Grusin price how there is much more to media than just being older or newer and how it affects us in many more ways than we can possibly imagine. Immediacy, hypermediacy, and remediation may all have one word in common yet they are three different concepts that shape who we are as individuals and who we are as a society. 

Bolter, J. David, and Richard A. Grusin. Remediation: Understanding New Media. Cambridge, MA: MIT, 2000. Print.

Welcome

Hey guys its Jessica, Brittany, and Lori. Our main concern which we will be discussing in this blog is media. We may think that the media isn't important but it is the one major object that affects us every single day, from what we eat, to what we wear, to what we like and don't like. We find the media everywhere from our televisions to our computers to newspaper articles and magazines. It is inconceivable how we are consumed by the certain standards we are expected to follow and if we aren't following new media by wearing the outfits or simply the hair the media tells us that we don't fit in. Our life choices are decided by technology and our society is so obsessed with being "cool" that we let the media control our lives and let it make and shape us the way it wants us to be.