staff editorialThe Reporter • October 2011

6(opinion)

We love you, but... Media sends unrealistic messages about body image

The next time you’re asked to say one word to describe American marketing, try this one:

Snuggie.Yes. Snuggie. But before you scoff and turn the page

or burn me an effigy, let me recite a rule of sales;

See a need and fill it.Or for those really profitable sectors;Make a need and fill it. Or better yet,

we make products for problems you didn’t even know existed.

Snuggie, right? Who knew doing mundane tasks while using a blanket was so incredibly difficult?

In one episode of “The Colbert Re-port,” Stephen Colbert makes fun of the hypocrisy behind Unilever, the parent company of Dove.

Between its commercials promot-ing Dove Real Beauty (which encour-ages women to accept their “inner beau-ty”), they began to sell deodorant that promised to “make your armpits more attractive.”

Colbert humorously points out that women’s armpits were not considered unattractive to begin with until Dove in-vented the insecurity.

Ironically enough Unilever also makes the Slim-Fast products. So much for encouraging the acceptance of inner beauty.

Insecurities are a part of life. Much more so in the world we live in. While ancient societies worried about basic needs of survival, today we have the opportunity to focus less on where our next meal is coming from and on more prudent things, like armpit improving deodorant.

The media constantly bombards us with messages of improving ourselves or achieving the perfect body. Everything from hair roots to toenails is fair game for criticism.

According to the National Eating Disorders Association website, a study in 1992 revealed that 1 out of 3.8 TV com-mercials sends some sort of “attractive-ness message” that tells viewers “what is or is not attractive.”

It’s estimated the average teenager sees more than 5,260 “attractiveness messages” per year.

The study is old, but think how much that number has increased in 19 years.

With so much time de-voted to looking at our-selves, it’s no wonder we start comparing with oth-ers. And with the insatiable greed of marketing, it’s no wonder we start to find faults in ourselves we didn’t know existed.

Too fat, too hairy, too knobby, too wrinkly. Too much everything.

The National Eating Disorder Asso-ciation also gives another statistic: 1996 fashion models were thinner than 98 per-cent of American women.

According to the Rader Program website, an organization for helping in-dividuals struggling with eating disor-ders, supermodels Niki Taylor and Elle MacPherson meet the Body Max Index criteria for anorexia.

Unhealthy. Unrealistic. All in the name of conforming to what society deems “attractive.”

“It’s like fast food,” counselor Debo-rah Baldwin said. “They promise more for a cheaper price, but it’s not healthy.”

Baldwin said there are three sides to the health triangle: physical, personal or social and mental or emotional. During health classes she would give students various scenarios describing two differ-ent people.

One, a slightly overweight person, who had good social relationships, didn’t worry about managing his or her weight.

The second, a person who was physi-cally attractive and fit and constantly went to the gym, but isolated his or her-self from others. Then the students would have to decide who was the healthiest.

They often got it wrong, Baldwin said, because they were surprised that the first person was actually healthier than the second.

“It’s very clear that one person may have one side of the triangle, but if they don’t have the other two, they’re not very healthy,” she said. “We’d also have the students do self-assessments on things they were unhappy with their bodies. Then we asked if there were things they could change, leaving plastic surgery out. If they couldn’t change it, we talked about ways of accepting it.”

“Acceptance can be achieved through positive reinforcement,” Baldwin said. Having good personal relationships, a support group either in peers, family or even an outside source, is important as well, she said.

But acceptance is easier said than done.

“We are our own worst critics,” Bald-win said.

Einstein’s definition of insanity is doing something over and over again and expecting different results.

I believe insanity is doing something over and over again expecting to change something that is beyond your control.

You will never fit in. It doesn’t matter if you’re the most popular kid at school or the least. It doesn’t matter if your thin as a rail, blonde haired, perfect skin, whatever.

No matter what we do, the market will keep cutting you down until it bleeds out the last penny. They won’t stop tell-ing us to improve.

But what you can do is draw a line. Work on actively recognizing adver-tisements and promotions for what they are.

Be aware of the limits of your body. Stop comparing yourself and end unre-alistic expectations. Trying to achieve perfection (which is never achieved by the way) is both mentally, physically and emotionally exhausting.

Once the illusion is dropped, so is the misery.

If you see a friend or a classmate who is struggling, reach out to them.

“Let other people know they’re not alone,” Baldwin said. “Tell them you may not understand what their feeling now, but you’ve been through a similar situation. Validate their feelings.”

We all know the feeling of insecu-rity, of feeling down on ourselves. But at least by experiencing this we can draw on empathy.

“We’re not going to change the world,” Baldwin said. “But one good deed could help someone feel good about themselves. Everybody wants ac-ceptance, to feel that someone cares.”

But if in the end that isn’t enough for you, consider this; in the book, Organi-zational Communication for Survival by Virginia Richmond and James C. McCrosky, they write that beauty may be valued in a first impression, but only for so long.

Once that impression is over, if beau-ty is the only good quality that person possesses, their physical attractiveness will decrease in the eyes of the person who is socializing with them.

The opposite is also true. An unat-tractive person becomes beautiful over time, the more you get to know them.

So on the risk of sounding cliché, it’s what’s inside of you that matters.

So when your inner doubt screams that society says otherwise, that it’s the outside that really counts, do yourself a favor: remember the Snuggie.

And be assured.

Prices are shooting up every-where, gas is up to almost $3.50 a gallon, and minimum wage has also gone up. It affects us every-where, even in our own school. The price of cookies has gone up from 50 cents last year, to 65 cents

this year. The following are some of the most popular food

items from the snack bar sold and their prices: Pizza Sticks- $1.00 Bosco Sticks- $1.00 Cookies-65 cents Marble Bars- 65 cents Cinnamon Rolls- 95 cents It’s disappointing that these prices are climbing,

especially on our favorite snack foods. Prices are going up everywhere, and everything

costs money. Prices on all foods here at Paola High School have gone up ten percent. The district also has had to pay for new things inside the kitchen, such as; laborers, and for the food. Eventually, it all adds up.

Some students are upset about these prices going up.

“I think it’s ridiculous, and I know they aren’t making any more money because there are a lot of people that don’t buy stuff there anymore,” said Mi-chelle Wilkes, sophomore.

I understand that inflation plays a huge factor in all of this, but why do the prices go up? What’s the point? Someday when we’re grown up does this mean it’s going to be $3 dollars a cookie?

Since prices on everything are going up, it’s going to be harder on teens. While some of us have jobs, and have extra money in their pockets, the reality of it is that not everyone does have a job at this age. Not everyone has spare money. So, of course, things will only get harder for those without jobs as the prices increase.

Everything costs money, and prices are always fluctuating, so we’ll just have to become accustomed to this, and learn to spend money wisely on things we really need, not just the chocolate chip cookies.

PinchingpenniesIncreasing prices puts needs over extras

katey colwell reporter

Cartoon by Jenna Ratzlaff