Initial Themes To Look At

The representation of body in the media is such an exciting them to base our zines on because it allows us to be expressive and act like an activist for the dozens of arising issues relating to the our own personal experiences with body image, how people we now have been affected, issues that the media causes and issues that the media doesn’t bring up enough. The topic is so relevant and so hard hitting in our everyday live that to create some sort of art about it felt very exciting. I know already in my zine I want to bring attention to the emotions faced while thinking about body image to get the people reading and looking at the images in my zine to related to it and understand where everyone is coming from. I also want some sort of text, poems, articles or quotes highlighting some of the issues presented in the media which are touched upon nearly enough so more people can read and relate to it.

 

Several themes came to mind when the brief was presented to us; the representation in the media of male and masculine bodies and how that can affect men or even young children from the ages of 4-20. This is something that I hadn’t thought about too much before although it’s clearly a massive issue as there is hardy any male opinions of this for fear of showing emotion. The male body is always shown in magazine spreads and editorials with a large amount of muscles, the men are always very tall and have a toned figure as well as clear skin and perfect teeth which naturally doesn’t come for anyone. Representation like this can easily influence the way a male can feel about himself if they don’t look like the toxic images the media is feeding the about how they have to look.

 

This related to another issue I was reading about relating to children playing with toys that subconsciously changes their thoughts on what they’re meant to look like and what they’re supposed to look up yo. If a child is playing with a toy, for example, a barbie, they’re naturally going to come to the realisation that this is what they’re meant to look like, and want to look like as this is the figure that is being sold in shops ad is really popular, as well as also relating to the figures they’re seeing online. The same can happen to young boys too playing with toys such as a GI Joe, for example, which are muscly, ‘typically masculine’, strong and able to fight whereas boys that age can’t do any of those things and naturally won’t represent this body which could always damage their own opinions of themselves because their brain is still developing and growing and they’re still understanding things around them.

 

I also wanted to look at a generalised theme relating to body image in the media, with people’s everyday struggles as it’s so commonly spoken about and very easily brushed off even though this is something that is spoken about every day between people so it would be interesting to research where this is coming from and why.

 

This then leads onto another theme of the corporate businesses thriving off of the lack of self confidence from ot only their customers, by reaching out and guilt tripping other people into buying into their products ad organisations which are feeding off of people feeling not as confident about themselves so they will buy anything to make them feel better about themselves by society’s standards, even if just momentarily until they buy into the business again, these companies range from diet companies who are selling slimming pills, juice and liquid detoxes or’ tea toxes’ which are proven not to work but are lying to people to get the to buy them. These companies could be magazines who are only showing people of a certain size, which are usually unhealthy and unrealistic, with articles based on losing weight or looking ‘better’, once again to society’s standards.