Lovely and Amazing Film Review

The film Lovely and Amazing follows the women in one particular family. The four women it follows are a mother and three daughters. All the women are trying to find a "place" in the world and better themselves while they are at it. The film shows the struggles that each woman goes through on a daily basis and how that affects their lives and their family's lives.

The first daughter in the film is the youngest daughter named Annie. Annie is adopted and the only African American in the family. Annie struggles mainly with the fact that she is the only African American in the family. She struggles with the fact that she is also a heavier set girl. Annie struggles with her weight and has an unhealthy view of food. She eats things because she doesn't think they are unhealthy when I really feel that the director is trying to show that women that struggle with their weight have a legitimate problem...it can sometimes take them over. Annie is a binge eater that will go through a bunch of food in sitting. She is in denial with the fact that she is doing this to herself. We also see Annie trying to fit in to her white family by straightening her hair as well. Annie shows just how hard it can be for the outsider...even in their own family.

The second daughter in the film is the middle daughter named Elizabeth. Elizabeth is an aspiring actress that seems to have things going pretty well for her...or so it seems. Elizabeth struggles with her own self image. She is skinny and pretty...but just not sexy enough to get the roles she wants in films. She struggles with herself to try and conform to what that industry wants without losing herself in the process. Elizabeth begins to sleep with an actor that she auditioned with who said she wasn't sexy enough for the role. In one scene that sticks out in my mind she asks the guy to look at her naked and tell her everything that is wrong with her body. The actor does and Elizabeth leaves seeming like it did not upset her that much. Elizabeth shows that even women whom seem to have everything going well for them still have self image issues that need to be worked out.

The oldest daughter, Michelle seems to be the one with the most problems. She is married and has a daughter of her own. Michelle does not work but does try to make some money by doing crafts and trying to sell them; although nobody seems to want to buy the things she makes. Her husband and her argue quite a bit because she does not have a job. Michelle finds a job at a photo development store and begins to like a young man she works with. Michelle begins to have an affair with this young boy (I say young because he was all of maybe 17). Michelle copes with her insecurities about her body and herself by sleeping with a young boy. In the end it did not help her with her self image because she ends up getting arrested for statutory rape.

The mother of the film, Jane is the real reason that her three daughters are so messed up. She is a wealthy woman that has done the best she can in raising her children. I do not quite know if she was married but she does seem to have had it pretty rough. She decides to get liposuction because she thinks that if she does she will be more lovable by the men around her. This of course does not work.

I did like the film. The director used a tone of seriousness as well as humor to get the audience to understand that every woman...no matter her age, is subject to the pangs of low self body image. It shows that women deal with this in very different ways. We need to be aware that we too will one day (if you haven't already) have to deal with our own worries about the way we look. The majority of women are not happy with how they look and the movies shows some extreme yet normal ways of dealing with this harsh reality.

Mona Lisa Smile Film Review

The film Mona Lisa Smile is about a young woman professor that takes a job at an all female college. Her goal in taking this job is to teach these women art history. When she gets to the college she ends up being able to teach these girls something more than just art history. The "college" is not really an educational institute...it is more of a prep school for marriage. The young women in the college are given an education but the main thing they are taught is how to find a good husband and once they have found that man how to be a good and proper wife to them. Julia Robert's plays the professor. She ends up seeing what this school really is and is very appalled by what she sees. She sets out to teach these women that they do not have to conform to society's rules, they can be something other than just wives...they can be real women that make a difference in the world.

The film was a good display of why the feminist movement began. Women in that day were taught from a very early age that their whole purpose in life was to become and wife and mother. It shows just how willing women were to follow in the foot steps of every other woman in that time without really thinking about what they wanted. The feminist movement began because of a simple survey and book that was published. The author that did the survey found out that the women of her time were not really happy with their lives; they were just doing what they thought they should be doing. In the movie you see some women shift from doing what is normal to becoming their own woman. They begin to see what life should really be about...and that is being happy and doing what makes you happy. This whole class was centered not just around the idea of beauty in our society but also the different gender roles throughout the years. This is a perfect example of how the whole feminism movement works.

I did like the film. I liked the film because it showed that we as women do not have to conform to society in order to be happy. When I was younger all I wanted to do was fit in...to feel "normal". But as I grew older I realized that the only way I was going to be happy was to do what made me happy...not what made the world happy. As long as I was not hurting any one else in the process of following my own happiness everything would be OK. I have never wanted to get married or have children and many times this has been a very hard subject to talk about with people. People cannot seem to understand my reasoning behind this, but I feel as if they do not have to...it is a personal choice and I am in control of my own life. I think this is why I really enjoyed the movie; because I could relate to it. It has began to show people that women are human beings and we have our own wants and needs and sometimes; if not most of the time; these wants and needs do not conform to what society thinks we should want and need. More movies like this need to be made to bring to light a lot of the issues that women struggle with on a daily basis outside of just beauty.

Blog 10

It will not allow me to post my playlist on here for some reason. Every time I put the code in it doesn't work. So, since I am unable to post my playlist I will list the songs that I decided to put in my playlist. I picked Big girl by Mika, Unpretty by TLC, Fallen by Seether and Get it Together by India Arie. I thought these songs were good because they remind the listener that we do not have to fit into our society's stereotypes for beautiful. We are beautiful in our own skin and we need to be comfortable with that. We need to look at ourselves in the mirror every day and let ourselves know tat we are beautiful and we deserve to be treated as such. It also reminds us that there are people out there that think we are beautiful as well and want to let us know just how beautiful we are. Sometimes it takes songs like these for us to feel pretty and it shouldn't, we should feel pretty all the time.

Media Analysis 1

The first advertisement I chose is an advertisement for PETA (People for the Ethical treatment of animals). It is a picture of the lower part of a woman with wearing small white underwear. Under the underwear the picture shows a bunch of hair coming out from the genital area. Bellow the picture is the saying "Animals Shouldn't Be Fashion Victims". Because of the picture being one of a woman, we can assume that it is targeted at women. At first glance I was not quite sure what the advertisement was trying to promote, but after reading the advertisement, I discovered that it is to discourage the buying and wearing of fur. Although the actual message in the advertisement is for a good cause and does have a valid point, the way it is done is distasteful and offensive. It is hard to actually see what the advertisement is about because all you really focus on is the picture. Aboutface.com has this printed next to the advertisement: "Our society, and many/most others, suggest that if a woman doesn't restrict, mold or control her body she will be overwhelming, out of control, unattractive...animal-like. Why is it ok to demean women while promoting animal rights? Compassion for animals, but not for women who don't conform to the narrow definition of beauty??" My thoughts exactly.
First and foremost the reason this advertisement is so offensive to me is because they have taken the most private part of a woman's body and put an ideal look to it. It portrays that if a woman does not fit into this mold then they will be undesirable to men. As Naomi Wolf states in The Beauty Myth, being desirable to men is the most important thing in a woman’s life. Wolf states “men look at women. Women watch themselves being looked at. This determines not only the relations of men to women, but the relation of women to themselves.”
Our society already has ideals about the perfect figure, the perfect hair color, skin tone, and the list goes on and on...it was only a matter of time before the most private aspect of a woman's life would be scrutinized as well. It implies that if a woman does not keep their genital area properly groomed and perfect that they again fall short of what real beauty is. It is common in our society to see breasts in media, but very rarely do you see anything below the mid-section of a woman. I feel that there has always been an unspoken understanding that women are already very self conscious about that area of their body because it is not the prettiest thing in the world. This advertisement has not only broken that unspoken understanding but has put a beauty standard on something that most women are already self conscious of. Women have enough to worry about when it comes to beauty; we do not need advertisements like this to add one more thing to the list.
The advertisement has put the ethical treatment of animals over the ethical treatment of women. They are so passionate about promoting the proper treatment of animals but what happened to making women feel good about their bodies? What happened to showing women that they are beautiful and they should feel beautiful in their own skin? Have we as a society become so comfortable with the media's portrayal of beauty? This advertisement shows just how influential the media can be on a women's idea of beauty. The woman used in the advertisement has a very slim figure that our society would accept as beautiful, but the advertisement portrays that you can fit the ideal beauty standard, but one imperfection; even if people cannot see it, makes you ugly and animal-like.

Media Analysis 2

The second advertisement I chose is the first page of an article in Glamour magazine. It is a survey where 16,000 women tell their body confidence secrets. It shows pictures of three different women that would not quite fit into society's ideal form of beauty. It targets women of every different shape, color and size. It is implying that you do not have to be perfect in order to be confident. Naomi Wolf explains in The Beauty Myth that most women feel that women's magazines "transmit the worst aspects of the beauty myth", but this article shows that women's magazines are beginning to come out of the conformity of society's idea of beauty and now promoting women feeling beautiful in their own skin. This is the perfect example of what Wolf states, "Cosmopolitan-is indeed revolutionary compared with the earlier service magazines...their formula includes an inspirational, individualist, can-do tone that says that you should be your best and nothing should get in your way; a focus on personal and sexual relationships that affirms females ambition and erotic appetite."
The picture of the first woman is a picture of a woman that has a little more weight on her than the typical woman featured in beauty magazines. By having a woman with a little more weight on her as the picture for the cover of the article is refreshing because it shows that this article is not going to be about the ideal beauty. It gives the appearance that even if you have a little extra weight you too can be beautiful. The picture of the girl in the middle does the same because you see the woman laying on her stomach and you can see that she has what appears to be rolls as her body curves and the last picture shows a women of darker skin showing how you can be beautiful no matter what race you are.
By having normal women with normal imperfections, the advertisement allows normal women to feel more comfortable with their sexuality. Women are shown at first glance of the article that they too; no matter what shape or size or color, can be beautiful. It shows that the culture is slowly opening up, that is slowly starting to embrace more willingly women and girls that go against the traditional feminine type. Popular culture has drilled this idea of the perfect woman into girl's heads for a very long time now but our culture is slowly realizing that it is impossible for women to fit this ideal. We are now starting to embrace the true beauty of women which comes from inside. The advertisement does a good job of showing that with just a little confidence you can portray the beauty that you have within. It shows that women do not have to be perfect any more, we can have little imperfections.
I think our society is moving to this new way of thinking because of all the damage the old way was doing to women. Women have been harming not only their bodies but also their self esteem because they have been trying to be what the media dubs and beautiful and never quite being able to do it. Instead of continuing to promote doing harm to yourself our society is realizing that it is important to first develop women's self esteem first and foremost. Our society is also realizing that in order to promote self esteem in women we have to embrace women of every shape, size and color. This advertisement is a perfect example of how to promote self esteem in women which will in the end promote their own individual idea of sexuality.

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Blog 9

Popular culture has had an influence on how I view the differences between men and women. It seems as if our society puts a bigger emphasis on the beauty of women. In movies; especially comedy, over weight men are more accepted. We also have a big emphasis on women always looking beautiful when they go out. When you see a female go out without make up or in comfy clothes they get hounded by the media; but if a man goes out looking the same it is more widely accepted. It also makes people accept the idea of promiscuity if it is seen in a male. We see it as OK if a male has a large number of sexual partners, but if it were a female then it would not be as accepted if it were even accepted. Popular culture really hasn't had an influence on my understanding of race and class. I have a very wide variety of friends and what you see in pop culture of different races and different classes is not true most of the time.

If I see something sexist in a TV show I actually don't point it out. I don't even think I really notice unless it is something that offends me. I think the reason I don't point it out is because it has become accepted in our society to be a bit sexist. It is something that we see so much that many people; including me, have become numb to it.

When I hear the word "feminist" the things that come to my mind are crazy women that are all about equal rights for women. I think I have gotten this from my family. I have always been a tom-boy and never really thought about myself as not being equal in every aspect of life to men. I have always fought for the men in my life to see me as equal as well but I never really had a hard fight on my hands. I have always proved that I am just as good as any guy in anything I do so to me the whole feminism movement seems extreme. I understand that every woman wants to feel equal and have equal rights and not fall victim to sexism; but I feel that if you want it bad enough you will prove that you are worthy and you will get the results you want.