Sign full name.Last month, Congresswomen Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) and Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV) introduced H.R. 4925, The Healthy Media for Youth Act. The bill, which draws on research by Girls, Inc. and the Girls Scouts Research Institute, among others, focuses on the most harmful aspects of media, including unrealistic representations of female beauty, sexualized images of young girls and teens, and violence against women as entertainment.
The bill, which has been referred to committee, proposes a three-pronged strategy to combat potentially dangerous media images: Media literacy, further research on the impact of consuming media that depicts women and girls in a less than positive light, and the formation of a national task force, run by the NIH, on girls and women in the media. You can read the whole bill here.
Is this bill legislating morality? Or, given the many studies confirming a link between self esteem and adds that show women only with idealized bodies and being both only sexual and innocent at the same time, is this bill really about supporting women's health?
Please comment, but support your opinion with facts from the blog post and from Killing Us Softly 3.
Also, consider that while the media tells women that they should be unrealistically skinny, the media also tells everyone that they should be eating more junk food, and that happy people eat junk food. When was the last time you saw an ad for just plain apples or carrots?
I think that the bill that was passed is good but but good enough for women to look and do as they pleased. They have to be shaped as coca-cola bottle or a beer bottle to in order to be on magazines. Women would also have to look younger and do sexual positions to be in magazines or commercials. It plays back to the conversation and video we had watched last week. But I feel that some people are sexist and need to wake up and smell the coffee.
ReplyDeleteNyles Wortham
I think that France an Britain are on the right track saying that their should be labels stating that the imagine has been altered...seriously too many young women and young girls believe that the images seen on magazines are real. In actuallity many of them have been alter to appear "perfect." Also there is an issue that was surrounded throughout killing me softly three. It is brutal to be a woman in this day in age when there is so much emphasize on women's body images.
ReplyDeleteKelsey Michelini
I think that France an Britain are on the right track saying that their should be labels stating that the imagine has been altered...seriously too many young women and young girls believe that the images seen on magazines are real. In actuallity many of them have been alter to appear "perfect." Also there is an issue that was surrounded throughout killing me softly three. It is brutal to be a woman in this day in age when there is so much emphasize on women's body images.
ReplyDeleteKelsey Michelini
I think that what the media calls a "perect" body is what only a few percent of women actually look like. Why do we have to look at magazines with these types of women on there. They need to put women on covers that have curves and more than 1% body fat to show the rest of the women that they have they can be proud of how they look.
ReplyDeleteI do believe that the bill being proposed is indeed good. I think that it is morally right legislatively and infact a healthy way for women to cope with the obession to be skinny. I think that if there were pictures of all women in different shapes and sizes, then many of the women who feel pressured to be thin would ultimately have their self-esteem back. I personally believe that if this bill were passed then the percentage of women suffering from eating disorders would drop. I also think that in "Killing Us Softly 3," the speaker says it right when she says, "Women are only seeing photoshopped, made-up women who don't even exist." I truly believe if this bill were passed then women would feel twenty times better about their bodies.
ReplyDeleteI think the bill is a good idea. More and more emphasis is being put on looking like models in the magazines and on tv, which is usually not healthy. It is not healthy for the bodies or minds of women today. Granted, ads do exist that have plus-size models and do not alter the looks of the models. These are limited, though.
ReplyDelete-Laura Curtin
I agree with this bill. For years women have had to look and weigh a certain weight to even get on a cover of a product. Women should be looked beauty and not by the size.
ReplyDeleteAndrew Schaad
I think the bill is good because woman should look like the way they want to look like. Its about what's in the inside not what its necessarily on the outside. Everyone is different in their own way and not only by their figure.
ReplyDelete-Jason Renacido