Media and Advertising (Reflections)

I chose to post this article because it takes a very in depth look at what this novel is all about. It addresses how mass media changes the way people think and feel. It drills images into peoples' minds and forcefully creates social norms. This article also suggests that people become aware of the ways that the media are doing these things. They use programs such as Photoshop to make models more beautiful than they truly are and this forces people to believe that they must look like that as well.

          I believe that this whole issue relates to the novel quite nicely, especially because at the beginning of the book you realize how self-deprecating Tally was to herself. She constantly talked about her flaws and even the flaws of others, however it seemed like she didn't quite realize what she was doing. In her mind being Ugly was just a stage in life, like nature intended for "the operation" to be done on all humans. Her whole mindset was the opposite of what one would want to think, she thought, "I'm Ugly, you're ugly, we are all ugly but we won't be for long" but the ideal mindset for someone is, "We are all beautiful" but no one in the book had that mindset. Similarly in real life, many teens are feeling the same way about themselves, feeling hopeless as all that the media presents to them are models that look more beautiful than they really are. However in my opinion the biggest problem is that this issue isn't a new one. Everybody knows that it goes on and anyone who deals with problems like eating disorders or just bullying in general are too ashamed to speak up. Someone who hates how they look isn't going to tell the whole world, they are going to keep it a secret and if no one knows that they feel that way, no one can help. So overall this article not only brings awareness to the issue, but addresses that this is happening to people in your life! Not only those people you might see on Dr. Phil, but people you see every day. you just don't know it, so I think that this issue should be brought up more in schools but on a more personal level.