{"id":914,"date":"2014-05-22T20:56:14","date_gmt":"2014-05-22T20:56:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mlecharbinger.wordpress.com\/2014\/05\/22\/its-not-the-medias-responsibility-to-make-us-feel-good-about-ourselves-by-julissa-higgins\/"},"modified":"2014-05-22T20:56:14","modified_gmt":"2014-05-22T20:56:14","slug":"its-not-the-medias-responsibility-to-make-us-feel-good-about-ourselves-by-julissa-higgins","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mlecharbinger.org\/?p=914","title":{"rendered":"It\u2019s Not the Media\u2019s Responsibility to Make Us Feel Good About Ourselves by Julissa Higgins"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Jessica Alba on the latest issue of Cosmopolitan France.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Put into simplest terms, magazines make money off of models, and if having thin models or digitally altering them sells, then it\u2019s good for business. And if you really start thinking about the science behind this, it\u2019s genius. It doesn\u2019t mean it\u2019s morally or ethically right, but from a strict, business standpoint, it\u2019s genius. We can\u2019t sit around blaming magazines for who they put on the cover if it\u2019s what people are paying to see.<\/p>\n

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People have a natural inclination towards wanting to see \u201cpretty\u201d things, and because our society perceives pretty women as only being thin, then that\u2019s what\u2019s going on the cover. Businesses don\u2019t control the media, we do. We decide what we want to buy, and because businesses exist to make money, they will put on the cover whatever sells. It\u2019s that simple.<\/p>\n

Though I see how it may not be morally correct to digitally alter someone\u2019s body, I think there is a more important issue here. If we have the power to control what we think, then we have the choice to control how we feel about what we see. Chances are we are always going to see magazines and we are always going to see \u201cperfect\u201d girls on the covers of these magazines, but why should that matter?<\/p>\n

Why should we need to be petitioning companies to edit what they do because the vast majority of people- women in particular- don\u2019t know how to feel comfortable in their own skin? We can\u2019t control how society or the media perceive women but we can control how we perceive ourselves, and nothing is more important than feeling good about oneself.<\/p>\n

The bottom line is that we cannot wait until Vogue decides they are going to put \u201caverage\u201d women on their cover. We cannot expect others to change their minds about what they think are ideal beauty standards if we, ourselves, are not comfortable about accepting more \u201caverage\u201d beauty standards. The fact of the matter is that we aren\u2019t sure ourselves. Most women will try to argue against this while still drooling over how great Jessica Alba looks on the cover of the newest issue of Cosmopolitan.<\/p>\n

Part of the problem is that many of us become outraged when we think about how magazines are digitally altering people, but we buy into it because we, whether subconsciously or not, like it \u2013 it looks pretty. It does not matter that we think it\u2019s wrong because our eyes want to see what looks \u201cgood.\u201d If \u201caverage\u201d women were placed on the cover of magazines, we wouldn\u2019t be satisfied or attracted to it because that\u2019s not what we\u2019ve been taught to like. I\u2019m not suggesting that this is right or that it can\u2019t change, but only that it does happen.<\/p>\n

What we have created is a superficial and insecure society that protests against what we have no immediate control over. We can petition a magazine to not put a model on their front cover of one issue, but it doesn\u2019t mean the masses will collectively think she is as pretty. We, as individuals, on the other hand, have the choice of what we buy into.<\/p>\n

The concern becomes that when we are unsure of ourselves, we allow outside influence to affect how we think. It should not matter, however, that 100 people think I have wide hips, for example, if I love my hips.<\/p>\n

The concern, of course, then shifts to how it is that false ideologies of beauty set by our media are affecting our children. The only real answer is that children who are still very much vulnerable to outside influence cling onto that which media deems is \u201cright\u201d or \u201cperfect\u201d and believes it. The solution is that the education of our children begins at home.<\/p>\n

If we instill in them self-assurance and confidence from an early age, they will grow to believe in those ideas. If we instill in them that true beauty is about how pretty their heart is and not their body, then it won\u2019t matter what the media says. Chances are the media will transform to promote these ideas if that\u2019s how everyone begins to think but, if this is true, we would have, regardless, already won the battle.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Put into simplest terms, magazines make money off of models, and if having thin models or digitally altering them sells, then it\u2019s good for business. And if you really start thinking about the science behind this, it\u2019s genius. It doesn\u2019t mean it\u2019s morally or ethically right, but from a strict, business standpoint, it\u2019s genius. We…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[3,12],"tags":[1264,2178,2972],"class_list":["post-914","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles","category-opinion","tag-editorial","tag-julissa-higgins","tag-opinion"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t