I'm currently in a media and society class. This week we talked about photoshopping pictures. One of the topics of discussions was, "Is photoshopping racist?" This kind of really annoyed me. The examples used were two pictures of OJ Simpson, one on Newsweek and one on Time Magazine, and two pictures of Gabourey Sidibe, one on Elle and one from google images. The picture of OJ Simpson was his mugshot. On Time, the photo was altered to cast a shadow over his face, removing most of the highlights. It also blurred out the edges of everything and darkened the background. Apparently people thought this was racist because Time was trying to make Simpson look more dangerous by making him darker. The opposite was true for the photos of Sidibe. The picture on Elle was considerably lighter than her actual skin color. This, apparently, was racist because it's saying you have to be white to be beautiful.
I'm going to start with my problem with the OJ Simpson pictures. First off, Simpson's mugshot was very red. On the Newsweek cover, it completely washed out the title and headlines, which were also red. Time, which is NOT a breaking news magazine, would be more concerned with the lay out of its cover. Secondly, casting a figure in a shadow is not racist. It is mysterious. Time probably wanted to have a more suspenseful cover. I ask you, if a white man had been cast in shadow, whould that also be racist? No, it would not. So why is a black man cast in shadow racist? Darker skin was not the intent of this photo. The intent was the shadow. A shadow that would have the same effect on a white or black person.
My main issue with picking on photoshopping pictures is actually with Gabourey Sidibe's photo on Elle. In my class, a lot of people were saying the lightening of her skin was saying you can't be beautiful with very dark skin. I completely disagree. Elle is a fashion and beauty magazine. You will never see an extremely dark-skinned person shown with her actual skin tone on the cover of a magazine like that. It's not because dark skin isn't beautiful. It is. However, extremely dark skin hides necessary lines in faces when being photographed. Look at this from the editor of a beauty magazine's point of view. (Note: I am not an editor of a beauty magazine. I just happen to know about design and art. Plus I'm very interested in fashion and beauty so I pay attention to these things.) Sidibe has beautiful eye brows. Women might want to shape their eyebrows like her. How can they if they cannot see her eyebrows in the magazine? Sidibe's face is very nicely shaped, with the shape of her check bones, nose, lips, and chin filling out that shape in a very beautiful and charming way. If her photo had been left untouched, the darkness of her skin would have flattened her face out. Did her skin have to be lightened as much as it was? Probably not. Did it have to be lightened in order to show off the natural beauty that is in the shape of her face? Yes. Real life and photographs are different. Untouched photographs of almost anyone are not going to sell magazines simply because things that naturally occur when mixing skin and cameras will flatten faces, make faces look oily, create a skin tone that is not accurate, etc.
The camera also adds ten pounds. I'm not joking. You can look super skinny in real life one day, but a picture of you will look averagely skinny. Can you blame editors of photos for taking cellulite out of pictures? Is there an easier way to shed those ten pounds? This photoshopping can go overboard very easily in feature articles. However, in advertisements, I don't think this does go overboard. Advertisements are meant to sell a product, not a person. If the height of the model's shoulders will distract from the product, then it is perfectly ok to move them. Some people just have weird proportions. In an advertisement, anything that is proportionatly off will detract from the product. Model's are photoshopped into a "perfect" person in order to detract as little as possible from the product.
This is often criticized as making the standard of beauty unreasonable. While I can see the reasoning behind this argument, I disagree. I will bet you anything that young girls compared themselves to eachother before the camera was even invented. Girls and women have always compared themselves. There has always been someone prettier, someone you could never hope to even compare to in beauty. All photoshopping in magazines has made following celebrities even more seperated that it already was.
Now, I am not a parent, so I am taking a guess here, but I think self image is rooted in the home. While the teenaged years are rough, I believe the poor body image common in these years can be grown out of based what was taught in the home. Parents have more affect on their children than it seems like anyone cares to admit. If the parents of a young woman don't tell her how pretty she is, how her eyes sparkle when she smiles, then that young woman will never believe it when she's a woman and a man is telling it to her. If parents don't teach young girls not to compare themselves to other girls because everyone has their own qualities that make them beautiful, that girl will never stop comparing herself to others even after she is a grown woman.
I'm begging you, consume media responisbly. There will always be something to take offense at if you don't. Understand the type of media you are consuming. Understand the messages the magazines you subscribe to are trying to send. Before you accuse a magazine of being racist or setting a bad example for the yound and impressionable, think of what that magazine is trying to do. Society can't be blamed for all of the problems in the world.
Tuesday, September 18, 2012
Friday, September 14, 2012
Fashion at BYU
It's the start of another school year. As many of my friends know, I tend to rant about fashion I see at school. BYU tends to get more rants from me than other places because of the honor code. I have pretty strong feelings about the honor code. I've heard a lot of complaints about it. I have one response to these people. If you don't like the honor code, go to another school. The honor code is part of BYU and you signed it to come here. Part of the honor code includes groom and dress.
Now that I've said that, I have a list of top ten good things I've seen in the last 3 weeks! I also have a list of 10 bad things I've seen.
The good:
10. Classic maternity shirts. BYU is also fairly unique in the amount of pregnant women there are on campus. I've always thought it was a silly idea to buy trendy maternity shirts. If you do that, you'll have to buy new shirts every time you get pregnant. If there is ever a time to buy classic clothing, it's when you're pregnant.
9. Shrugs and blazers over sleeveless shirts. There are a lot of really cute sleeveless shirts out there. I won't argue this. I think the best way to wear these shirts modestly is with a blazer. Occasionally, a cardigan or shrug is the best way to go. Generally, blazers look sharper. I love seeing the women on campus make their outfits modest this way.
8. Women in button up blouses. I've always loved this look. It's classic and it generally looks good. A classic button up blouse is a staple of every woman's wardrobe. These shirts are so great because they look good with jeans, slacks, or skirts. I think one of the most flattering outfits is a button up blouse tucked into a high-waisted pencil skirt.
7. "Nerdy" tees. I love superhero-themed t-shirts. I also love t-shirts with things from Big Bang Theory, How I Met Your Mother, Star Wars, Star Trek, Pokemon, and Questionable Content. There's an unusually large amount of these types of t-shirts on campus. I don't know if the people wearing them just thought it was funny/cute/awesome or if they actually know what they're wearing, but I think it's awesome how many of these I see.
6. Beater-style tank tops under lace backs. I think shirts with a triangle cut out in the back covered in lace are really cute. I don't think it's OK to wear these types of shirts with a camisole. The back is too low. A lot of girls on campus wear these shirts with beaters. I think this is great! The back is high enough and you still get the look of see-through lace without being immodest.
5. Layered bobs. I love short hair. There are a lot of girls that look the same on campus. The average BYU girl's hair is long, to about the middle of her back, with "beachy waves." I don't like this style. The "waves" look like really bad hat hair. I love seeing girls around campus with short hair. There is a girl in one of my classes that has the cutest layered bob. I love seeing what she does with it every Monday and Wednesday.
4. Men wearing their pants high enough. I've always hated slouchy pants. While there are still guys that wear slouchy pants on campus, there are way more men that wear their pants at an appropriate level. It's wonderful!
3. Intricate braids. I've never been able to braid my own hair. I can barely braid other people's hair. Perhaps that's why I enjoy seeing women around campus with very intricate braids. I'm often impressed by others' hair skills.
2. Matching necklines to make things modest. I've always said, if you're going to layer shirts you have to match your necklines. Because of this, I've often told girls to avoid one shoulder shirts. This week, I saw a girl wearing a one shoulder shirt that actually looked good! She matched up the neckline so that the point of the v-neck t-shirt was at the exact spot the one-shouldered blouse crossed the neck line. It was really cute!
1. Men in shirts and ties. Perhaps it's because of the prestige of BYU's business school or maybe it's just a large amount of guys returning from missions that aren't used to normal clothes yet, but there is a very large amount of men wearing white shirts and ties on campus. It's amazing.
The Bad:
10. Wearing ear warmers as headbands. I am a huge fan of using clothes as they are intended. You don't wear pants as shirts or socks as gloves. Ear warmers were meant to keep your ears warm. Once you go inside, they should come off, just like the rest of your winter clothes. Also, it's not winter yet.
9. Over-sized glasses. Very few people can pull these off. My problem with these over-sized, black, thick-rimmed glasses is mostly with noses. If you have a very small bridge or a very small nose (think of Asian noses), these glasses make your face look flat. I actually think these glasses make people with small noses look like muppets. If you have a large nose, these glasses make your nose look HUGE! There is a very small number of people with the right sized and angled nose for these glasses to look good.
8. Knotting shirts in the front. Just tuck your shirt in! Good grief! Knots in the front of your shirt are NOT flattering AT ALL. Also, if it's a big one, which I see a lot, it kind of looks like a weirdly placed third boob.
7. See through shirts. Just because a shirt has sleeves doesn't mean it's modest, by honor code and LDS terms. If you want to wear a see through shirt, you have to wear a t-shirt under it.
6. Skirts that are blatantly too short. It's one thing to have a skirt that's too short when you're sitting but not when you're standing. If your skirt doesn't reach your knees when you're standing, get a new skirt. That is obviously not up to honor code standards.
5. Wearing out-of-season clothes. My favorite clothes are sweaters. I LOVE sweaters. That does not mean it's appropriate to wear sweaters in the summer. My sweaters aren't even appropriate for fall; they're much too thick. When you wear clothes out of season, you look like you live under a rock and have no idea what the weather is.
4. Wearing too many clothes. You look like you're suffocating. There was a girl in one of my classes this week that wore a lace, empire-waist vest and a scarf. The scarf was cute, the vest was cute, but they were not cute together. Sometimes, you just have to pick one or the other. It's the way of life. There are a lot of people I see that wear way too many clothes. I want to rip something off of them in a completely platonic way!
3. Men cuffing their pants. First off, if you're going to cuff your pants make sure they're the same height. Secondly, make sure your socks match. Black jeans with navy socks and blue shoes is the worst idea ever! Also, men don't have pretty ankles. Cuffing your pants either makes your bony, chicken leg ankles look skinnier or makes your ankles look like kankles.
2. Wearing sleeveless blouses over t-shirts. See number 9 of "The good." This looks tacky.
1. Buns on the top of heads. I'm sorry, but you look like a tee with a baseball ready to go on your head. If you wouldn't wear a pony tail there, don't wear a bun there. Especially a loose bun! What is the point? I thought loose buns were what you did when your hair got in the way. Let me tell you something, having a bun flopping around on the top of your head looks ridiculous and your hair is definitely not out of the way. Can you tell that this is my biggest fashion pet peeve? I'm aware that top-of-head buns are being used on the runways. Those buns are tight, stylized, and obviously meant to be there. When you just knot your hair on the top of your head in a couple second it looks like you weren't paying attention to your hair placement and missed.
Now that I've said that, I have a list of top ten good things I've seen in the last 3 weeks! I also have a list of 10 bad things I've seen.
The good:
10. Classic maternity shirts. BYU is also fairly unique in the amount of pregnant women there are on campus. I've always thought it was a silly idea to buy trendy maternity shirts. If you do that, you'll have to buy new shirts every time you get pregnant. If there is ever a time to buy classic clothing, it's when you're pregnant.
9. Shrugs and blazers over sleeveless shirts. There are a lot of really cute sleeveless shirts out there. I won't argue this. I think the best way to wear these shirts modestly is with a blazer. Occasionally, a cardigan or shrug is the best way to go. Generally, blazers look sharper. I love seeing the women on campus make their outfits modest this way.
8. Women in button up blouses. I've always loved this look. It's classic and it generally looks good. A classic button up blouse is a staple of every woman's wardrobe. These shirts are so great because they look good with jeans, slacks, or skirts. I think one of the most flattering outfits is a button up blouse tucked into a high-waisted pencil skirt.
7. "Nerdy" tees. I love superhero-themed t-shirts. I also love t-shirts with things from Big Bang Theory, How I Met Your Mother, Star Wars, Star Trek, Pokemon, and Questionable Content. There's an unusually large amount of these types of t-shirts on campus. I don't know if the people wearing them just thought it was funny/cute/awesome or if they actually know what they're wearing, but I think it's awesome how many of these I see.
6. Beater-style tank tops under lace backs. I think shirts with a triangle cut out in the back covered in lace are really cute. I don't think it's OK to wear these types of shirts with a camisole. The back is too low. A lot of girls on campus wear these shirts with beaters. I think this is great! The back is high enough and you still get the look of see-through lace without being immodest.
5. Layered bobs. I love short hair. There are a lot of girls that look the same on campus. The average BYU girl's hair is long, to about the middle of her back, with "beachy waves." I don't like this style. The "waves" look like really bad hat hair. I love seeing girls around campus with short hair. There is a girl in one of my classes that has the cutest layered bob. I love seeing what she does with it every Monday and Wednesday.
4. Men wearing their pants high enough. I've always hated slouchy pants. While there are still guys that wear slouchy pants on campus, there are way more men that wear their pants at an appropriate level. It's wonderful!
3. Intricate braids. I've never been able to braid my own hair. I can barely braid other people's hair. Perhaps that's why I enjoy seeing women around campus with very intricate braids. I'm often impressed by others' hair skills.
2. Matching necklines to make things modest. I've always said, if you're going to layer shirts you have to match your necklines. Because of this, I've often told girls to avoid one shoulder shirts. This week, I saw a girl wearing a one shoulder shirt that actually looked good! She matched up the neckline so that the point of the v-neck t-shirt was at the exact spot the one-shouldered blouse crossed the neck line. It was really cute!
1. Men in shirts and ties. Perhaps it's because of the prestige of BYU's business school or maybe it's just a large amount of guys returning from missions that aren't used to normal clothes yet, but there is a very large amount of men wearing white shirts and ties on campus. It's amazing.
The Bad:
10. Wearing ear warmers as headbands. I am a huge fan of using clothes as they are intended. You don't wear pants as shirts or socks as gloves. Ear warmers were meant to keep your ears warm. Once you go inside, they should come off, just like the rest of your winter clothes. Also, it's not winter yet.
9. Over-sized glasses. Very few people can pull these off. My problem with these over-sized, black, thick-rimmed glasses is mostly with noses. If you have a very small bridge or a very small nose (think of Asian noses), these glasses make your face look flat. I actually think these glasses make people with small noses look like muppets. If you have a large nose, these glasses make your nose look HUGE! There is a very small number of people with the right sized and angled nose for these glasses to look good.
8. Knotting shirts in the front. Just tuck your shirt in! Good grief! Knots in the front of your shirt are NOT flattering AT ALL. Also, if it's a big one, which I see a lot, it kind of looks like a weirdly placed third boob.
7. See through shirts. Just because a shirt has sleeves doesn't mean it's modest, by honor code and LDS terms. If you want to wear a see through shirt, you have to wear a t-shirt under it.
6. Skirts that are blatantly too short. It's one thing to have a skirt that's too short when you're sitting but not when you're standing. If your skirt doesn't reach your knees when you're standing, get a new skirt. That is obviously not up to honor code standards.
5. Wearing out-of-season clothes. My favorite clothes are sweaters. I LOVE sweaters. That does not mean it's appropriate to wear sweaters in the summer. My sweaters aren't even appropriate for fall; they're much too thick. When you wear clothes out of season, you look like you live under a rock and have no idea what the weather is.
4. Wearing too many clothes. You look like you're suffocating. There was a girl in one of my classes this week that wore a lace, empire-waist vest and a scarf. The scarf was cute, the vest was cute, but they were not cute together. Sometimes, you just have to pick one or the other. It's the way of life. There are a lot of people I see that wear way too many clothes. I want to rip something off of them in a completely platonic way!
3. Men cuffing their pants. First off, if you're going to cuff your pants make sure they're the same height. Secondly, make sure your socks match. Black jeans with navy socks and blue shoes is the worst idea ever! Also, men don't have pretty ankles. Cuffing your pants either makes your bony, chicken leg ankles look skinnier or makes your ankles look like kankles.
2. Wearing sleeveless blouses over t-shirts. See number 9 of "The good." This looks tacky.
1. Buns on the top of heads. I'm sorry, but you look like a tee with a baseball ready to go on your head. If you wouldn't wear a pony tail there, don't wear a bun there. Especially a loose bun! What is the point? I thought loose buns were what you did when your hair got in the way. Let me tell you something, having a bun flopping around on the top of your head looks ridiculous and your hair is definitely not out of the way. Can you tell that this is my biggest fashion pet peeve? I'm aware that top-of-head buns are being used on the runways. Those buns are tight, stylized, and obviously meant to be there. When you just knot your hair on the top of your head in a couple second it looks like you weren't paying attention to your hair placement and missed.
Friday, September 7, 2012
Put your behind in your past
Yesterday I had a conversation with a friend about loving yourself for who you are. Once again I had too many thoughts to say in one conversation so I'm going to put them all up on the internet! That's what the internet is for, right?
Way too many people use "love yourself for who you are" as an excuse. I think the meaning of this has been twisted by society. There has been such a focus on condemning models and celebrities for giving us a skewed idea of beauty and it drives me nuts. As I told a friend once, models are picked because they wear the clothes well. A fashion designer doesn't want everybody looking at the model, they want everybody looking at the clothes. The fashion industry knows this. The designers that design for people shaped like a model rarely go far. Girls like me have a hard time finding clothes that fit, not because clothes are designed for models, but because the average girl has considerably less curviness to their bodies. If clothes were produced for girls shaped like me more girls would complain about how they fit. Instead of hearing girls complain about how they can't wear button down shirts or they have to wear baggier shirts to fit their hips, we'd be hearing more girls complaining about how they can't fill up the tops of shirts, how everything is baggy and will only fit them around the waist.
Why does this matter? Because I want it to be somewhere on the internet that says you can love yourself for who you are and still want to look better without it being unhealthy. "Love yourself for who you are" doesn't mean accept the hand that has been given you. I truly believe it means love your personality and body type.
I feel I can use myself as an example of loving yourself for who you are because I have struggled with this and come out on top. I love myself for who I am. I don't wish I had another body, but I work hard to make sure my body looks as good as it can. The biggest thing I struggled with was my skin. I was born with skin that is prone to acne and boils. I had skin that hurt for a long time. Over the counter acne treatments would help for a little while but none of them lasted. If I had decided to "love myself for who I am" as it is understood by many people today, I would still struggle with this constantly. It has not gotten better as I've gotten older and in fact has gotten worse. I decided it was worth it to take the extra time to take an antibiotic and my skin has cleared up considerably.
This might not be the best example because that is skin and this is normally aimed at weight. I would like to point out that I started the antibiotics because of comfort, not looks. When you're a healthy weight you feel better. I have never heard someone say "I wish I was fat again." When it comes to looks, love what you have and work so you can love what you don't love. I'm not saying get plastic surgery or something. I'm saying if you're over weight, work to be a healthy weight. If you are a healthy weight and you don't like the shape of your body, find flattering clothes. Remember that no one can wear every style, not even hour glass shapes (for girls) or extremely v-shapes (for guys). I'm hour glass shaped and many people seem to think hour glass shaped girls can wear anything. This is false. I cannot wear shirts that are baggy and then come in around the hips or most empire waist things. I also look horrible in yellow. I don't know why cause my skin tone should look good in yellow... I know this, so I don't wear those types of shirts no matter how much I like the shirt/dress. Clothes really can help body image.
The same thing goes for other features you may or may not like. For example, I love my eyes and lips but I hate my nose. How do I not fret about my nose? I accentuate my eyes and avoid makeup styles and glasses that might bring attention to my nose.
Now that I've spent so much time on physical appearance, it's time to say what I think that phrase really means. I don't think it's supposed to be about our bodies. I think it's supposed to be about out personalities. I don't think I'm alone when I say I could spend hours listing my faults. Everyone has them, no one has exactly the same faults as anyone else. I think "love yourself for who you are" means to love yourself even though you have faults. Again, this doesn't mean you shouldn't work on yourself. I just think it means love yourself while you strive to make yourself a better person. There is no reason you should hate yourself. You might hate things that you've done, but that should never keep you from loving yourself. Rafiki said this better than I ever could.
Rafiki was teaching Simba to love himself for who he is. That's really what The Lion King means to me. Simba still has his faults at the end of the movie, but he doesn't hate himself anymore.
Way too many people use "love yourself for who you are" as an excuse. I think the meaning of this has been twisted by society. There has been such a focus on condemning models and celebrities for giving us a skewed idea of beauty and it drives me nuts. As I told a friend once, models are picked because they wear the clothes well. A fashion designer doesn't want everybody looking at the model, they want everybody looking at the clothes. The fashion industry knows this. The designers that design for people shaped like a model rarely go far. Girls like me have a hard time finding clothes that fit, not because clothes are designed for models, but because the average girl has considerably less curviness to their bodies. If clothes were produced for girls shaped like me more girls would complain about how they fit. Instead of hearing girls complain about how they can't wear button down shirts or they have to wear baggier shirts to fit their hips, we'd be hearing more girls complaining about how they can't fill up the tops of shirts, how everything is baggy and will only fit them around the waist.
Why does this matter? Because I want it to be somewhere on the internet that says you can love yourself for who you are and still want to look better without it being unhealthy. "Love yourself for who you are" doesn't mean accept the hand that has been given you. I truly believe it means love your personality and body type.
I feel I can use myself as an example of loving yourself for who you are because I have struggled with this and come out on top. I love myself for who I am. I don't wish I had another body, but I work hard to make sure my body looks as good as it can. The biggest thing I struggled with was my skin. I was born with skin that is prone to acne and boils. I had skin that hurt for a long time. Over the counter acne treatments would help for a little while but none of them lasted. If I had decided to "love myself for who I am" as it is understood by many people today, I would still struggle with this constantly. It has not gotten better as I've gotten older and in fact has gotten worse. I decided it was worth it to take the extra time to take an antibiotic and my skin has cleared up considerably.
This might not be the best example because that is skin and this is normally aimed at weight. I would like to point out that I started the antibiotics because of comfort, not looks. When you're a healthy weight you feel better. I have never heard someone say "I wish I was fat again." When it comes to looks, love what you have and work so you can love what you don't love. I'm not saying get plastic surgery or something. I'm saying if you're over weight, work to be a healthy weight. If you are a healthy weight and you don't like the shape of your body, find flattering clothes. Remember that no one can wear every style, not even hour glass shapes (for girls) or extremely v-shapes (for guys). I'm hour glass shaped and many people seem to think hour glass shaped girls can wear anything. This is false. I cannot wear shirts that are baggy and then come in around the hips or most empire waist things. I also look horrible in yellow. I don't know why cause my skin tone should look good in yellow... I know this, so I don't wear those types of shirts no matter how much I like the shirt/dress. Clothes really can help body image.
The same thing goes for other features you may or may not like. For example, I love my eyes and lips but I hate my nose. How do I not fret about my nose? I accentuate my eyes and avoid makeup styles and glasses that might bring attention to my nose.
Now that I've spent so much time on physical appearance, it's time to say what I think that phrase really means. I don't think it's supposed to be about our bodies. I think it's supposed to be about out personalities. I don't think I'm alone when I say I could spend hours listing my faults. Everyone has them, no one has exactly the same faults as anyone else. I think "love yourself for who you are" means to love yourself even though you have faults. Again, this doesn't mean you shouldn't work on yourself. I just think it means love yourself while you strive to make yourself a better person. There is no reason you should hate yourself. You might hate things that you've done, but that should never keep you from loving yourself. Rafiki said this better than I ever could.
Rafiki was teaching Simba to love himself for who he is. That's really what The Lion King means to me. Simba still has his faults at the end of the movie, but he doesn't hate himself anymore.
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