Gender and The Media

I am a huge supporter for Dove's campaign for self-esteem. I can absolutely see how the media has influenced girls to be skinny, perfect, and self-conscience. We see so many commercials in our lifetime and the majority of them have these perfect models or at least use words like thin, skinny, perfect in them. Unfortunately, girls don't recognize that the people they see on TV and the ads they see in magazines aren't even real. These people are photo-shopped to hide all of their imperfections. Recently, a Ralph Lauren model Filippa Hamilton was fired for being too fat when in all actuallity she is still very skinny for her height. She is 5 foot 10 and 120 pounds. She was fired because she didn't look the same in her ads as she did on the runway. That was only because her photos were extremely photo-shopped to make her look very thin.

Now, the media doesn't just influence women, it also plays a huge role in men. Men think that have to be strong, independent, powerful, and tough in order to be a real man. In order to assert one's manhood, some turn to violence. They see violence as a way to earn respect. Most school shooters are men and there is a reason for that. These guys usually feel left out or picked on. Thus, they feel that if they bring a gun to school people will be scared of them and stop. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S3G2zSP32_A
Copy and paste the link above to see youtube video for an example of a school shooting (One Tree Hill episode)