Media Pressure On Teens (TEENS ONLY)?

1) What stereotypes does the media hold in terms of body image?





2) Do these stereotypes apply any pressure on teens? If so, why? why not?

Media Pressure On Teens (TEENS ONLY)?
If you wouldn't mind taking advice from a teenager - with several years experience, I'd be happy to give some answers, I also apologize profusely for a LONG answer but it's a GOOD question.





1. While there are some positive stereotypes in media these are utterly dwarfed by the varied and highly sophisticated negative or generally detrimental stereotypes and more importantly values packages you are being sold.





2. To suggest that merely stereotypical behavior is promoted or condoned doesn't even properly come close to what is actually going on, it's a little bit like asking about whether Hitler was promoting a biased values against minorities.





That so doesn't cover the base. Our society is for the most part controlled in very large part by major media outlets, and these in turn are funded again in large part by commercial promotion (advertisement).





At best advertisement can be socially positive or at most we should really expect a degree of neutral behavior from companies but...that's not what's going on.





What most folks in modern society do NOT know is that billions of dollars have already been spent not just selling you on the idea, but disecting in minute detail what it is "the consumer" wants. This industry has been at it since the 1930's but in the 1980's it was combined with formal psychology and has lead to a deeply and profoundly powerful set of media knowledge which is NOT publicly know. It's the knowledge of how to market to people with scientific precision.





As consumers we see only the most obvious end-products of this deep knowledge but it's definitely there, and it works and it is not necessarily working in the interests of the greater good.





So teens (and everyone else) are pressured to act, believe and accept things however, we are being asked to, but it's completely subtle and extremely powerful.





Teens are as a group the most easily influenced, simply because as consumers, you are new to the game, we all start out having limited access to our own cash and limited freedom to spend it however we want, and suddenly able to do as we please with money and thats when things get interesting.





Children of course are HEAVILY marketed to but they don't have direct access to cash, they are marketed with the knowledge that their desires are handled in fact by parents and so advertisements are only so bad, they are pervasive and repeated and persistent but not obviously anti-social to most parents.





When we enter our early teens , the gloves (so to speak) come off, and we are ALL held to obscene standards of beauty, sexual attractiveness, physical perfection and not really towards anything which might lead towards us thinking too much. Similarly, teachers, scientists and professionals or educators and intelligent or responsible people generally are often portrayed as "the other", arrogant, unattractive, neurotic or socially awkward and un-fun, and should just be left alone to leave "us" the beautiful people to their fun activities.





This is completely counter to what politicians, companies and others say they "want" in society.





So in examining this what hard evidence do we have, Lots actually.





Consider the pretty toxic advertising trend a couple of years ago which promoted models who look very young in sexually compromising positions, not just promoting teen sex, or public nudity but "teens" having sex with older adults. This sleaziness was later found out to be being promoted by actual pedophiles working within the marketing and advertising industry and not just some guys trying to be "avante guard" or "cutting edge". So that sent Calvin Klein and others, into serious damage control mode and while you might see images like them you won't these any more.





Calvin Klein - Pedophilia Chic :


http://bloodymessbricc.blogspot.com/2007...


(what's the REAL message we send to people with ads like this)





Abercrombie and Fitch :


http://sinekpartners.typepad.com/refocus...


(hey that guy looks ---- older.---)








On the flip side however, we are NOT unarmed in this fight, there are great books about the subject as well as a new group of ads aimed squarely at acknowledging the destructive imagery and influence of such advertising.





Even without being as explicit as the advertising above (this is when it's most obvious), the Dove ads do a much better job of pointing out how unrealistic our media is in portrayal of the ideals we "should" value or be attracted to.








"Evolution" : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iYhCn0jf4...





A funny take on "Evolution" : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7-kSZsvBY...





Even better was the ad - again by dove which hits the nail right on the head


"Onslaught" : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JaH4y6ZjS...





As an example of just exactly how subtle they can be, here's the most obvious subtle ad, recently seen on television stations, The original ad was marketed to both gay and straight audiences (exclusively), and it the desire of the levis company to "tap" the lucrative market for gay male and lesbian consumers more effectively, the advertisement was called "Change".





In its immediate form, it seems to be an example of "tolerance" in the modern media , in reality it's an effort of the levis company to "tap" the lucrative market for gay male and lesbian consumers more effectively.





"Change" - gay : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PTP1K3Vu3...





"Change" - str : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XD5k98oDY...





There is no "pressure" as it is typically defined, it's called "product identification" you as a consumer or viewer identify with this ad more easily the operative bet here is that if the "hot girl" wasn't "doing it" for you that there's a chance the "hot guy" might. AND that that chance is worth the X number of dollars to shoot a different 10 second scene for a 30 second commercial.





If it were actually geared towards tolerance as a valued ethic then they would have had BOTH a gay and straight couple in some situation which made BOTH groups feel reasonable comfortable with such a situation. That's not what happened here.





They were marketed to exclusively. Gays' feel better when they see gays portrayed on screen, straights feel better when straights portrayed on screen, there is no real consideration of "the other" in either one of these ads.





The best educational example of this is the series of videos called


"The Century of the Self" : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eB5NYme0P...


they are long, and definitely start out boring but are - when you get to think about it VERY educational.





Other examples of the human corporatocracy at work include some folks whom have left the corporatocracy for either personal or professional reasons,





This guy is a strong "leftist" in his political viewpoint however his anecdotal evidence tends to be too consistent for the average conspiracy nut (corporatocracy personal renegade) :


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WjPoeQRew...





Outfoxxed - this was a movie produced by news professionals, journalists and writers who left the Fox News channel for professional reasons (corporatocracy personal renegade) http://www.metacafe.com/watch/199922/out...





An interesting rant on the corporatocracy at war : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7vEOml_P4...





My voyage to become aware of all this started here, when my brother joined the Marine Corps, I originally saw this and was pretty pissed that it seemed so completely conspiratorial and off the hook, after 2 years of reading, I realized that while it's certainly biased, but it's not all that wrong - unfortunately.