An Example of the Media's Power on a Teen's Health

Today people are surrounded by media images of skinny celebrities and models. So you may be surprised or even shocked to learn that some of the world's most famous paintings show full-figured women. In the 17th century, the nude women painted by artist Peter Paul Rubens had rolls of flesh, dimpled buttocks, rounded stomachs, and curved hips. The term Rubenesque is used to describe women who reflect his idea of beauty. Van Rijn Rembrandt, who also painted in the early l600s, used large women in his work as well, although his models became slimmer over time. Pierre Auguste Renoir, a 19th century artist, is also known for painting nude women with womanly curves. They are not as fleshy as Ruben's nudes, but there is not a bone in sight.

A Teenager's Story

A Lesson on the Media

This is a story about a teacher who opened up my eyes. When Ms. Alvarez told us we were going to be studying the media, I was excited. I figured we'd be watching TV for homework. Cool.

As it turned out, we did watch a lot of TV, and that was fun, but it was also disturbing. Wow! There was a lot I hadn't realized about what I was watching.

This is how a typical class would go. She had started out by showing us something on TV-either a commercial or a clip (a part of a program). Then, she'd ask us to write five things we noticed in the clip. We were looking specifically for two things-what the clip made us want and how the clip made us feel about ourselves. Then she'd turn the sound off and show us the clip again. We would write more observations. Then she had us just listen to what was said without seeing the video, and we'd write our thoughts again.

It took a while for the first class discussion to really get going. I know I didn't want to say what I was feeling in front of everyone. I wasn't about to admit that I would have traded my entire wardrobe to be able to look like the star of the show. Not that I'm fat or anything, but I don't have her perfect body, that's for sure. And when the conversation got going and the guys started talking, it was clear that if I'd had her looks, I could've been dating any guy in the class.

Okay, so that wasn't exactly earth-shattering. But the surprises came when our teacher talked about the observations we handed in-things we wrote but did not say publicly. It turned out that just about every girl in the class felt the way I did-envious of the "perfect body" we'd seen on screen and pretty negative about how our own bodies look. Most of my friends have great bodies, and I was surprised they didn't think they were good enough.

As the unit went on, we saw how the media emphasizes physical beauty and can influence what we think is hip just by adding good music and a popular celebrity.