Post #2: Our Perception of Beauty

The media has destroyed our perception of true beauty. The industry sets standards for beauty unrealistically high, which leads to many women and even children dissatisfied with themselves and with lower self esteem. 

The two videos on http://mwardmediaarts.blogspot.ca/ Post #2 are from a campaign by Dove that relate to media-influenced beauty. They both send out very powerful and important messages. The first video "evolution" shows the long process a model goes through before making it onto a billboard. first she must "enhance" the way she looks with make-up, but then alter the way she looks even more using a computer, changing things such as the placement of her eyes, eyebrows, mouth, neck, shoulders etc. This shows that being beautiful in the eyes of the media driven society and culture is virtually impossible. What Dove is trying to do is show women that they already are beautiful and that what the media portrays as beautiful is completely false. 

The second video "onslaught" show how women, especially young girls and teens lose their self confidence/self esteem and how their perception of beauty is so heavily influenced by the industry. The quick edits in the video and the onslaught of different images represent how women are constantly exposed and bombarded with advertisements that show fake, computer generated beauty.

What women see in the media influences their image of the "perfect" body, and  in the media they are portrayed falsely leading to many problems among women.