Visual Essay

During our visual argument unit, I thought it would be fitting to do something on how media affects society. I chose the argument of body image. My intentional claim was: Media has shaped society's image of perfection of one's body. My reason behind this was people are using extreme measures to be skinny or buff using steroids, purging, or being anorexic. Some warrants I thought of were media is prevalent and affects a majority of the world, people want to follow trends, and self-image depends on what others think is "in". Some people may say that it is society affecting the media but I truly believe girls or boys wouldn't be pushing themselves to perfection in body types if everyone they see wasn't doing it themselves.

My general audience is of course our class, but overall the video was aimed towards young adults and teenagers of both sex. The reason this is the key audience is because these are the main people who are faced with negative media affecting their self-image. This age group is at such a high rate of depression, suicide, and eating disorders that distort body image. The audience should see all of the negative effects media has placed before them and what it has led many of their peers to do.
My song is called Crazy by Simple Plan. The lyrics to this song really went well with my claim I was trying to get across in my essay. The part of the song I put in included these lyrics:
"Tell me what's wrong with society
When everywhere I look, I see
Young girls dying to be on TV
They won't stop till they've reached their dreams
Diet pills, surgery
Photoshopped pictures in magazines
Telling them how they should be
It doesn't make sense to me
Is everybody going crazy?
Is anybody gonna save me?
Can anybody tell me what's going on?Tell me what's going on?
If you open your eyes
You'll see that something is wrong"

I found this song very fitting because it was exactly what I wanted to get across. I wanted people to see what images society has placed into every one's minds. It leads to extremes like the song says. The media is presenting images and people are taking those images and trying to perfect their bodies to look like those presented to them. Most people don't see the big picture of what these images are doing, but this song ends with the fitting "You'll see that something is wrong". You just have to open your eyes to what these images are really doing to our society and really see what's going on. I thought this song did a very good job at looking at the negative parts media has brought into society.

The logic of the placement of my pictures is a little complicated. I first began with pictures of "normal" models or icons we see in modeling or magazines. This is to show where our stereotypes and definition of perfection come from. It then gradually gets into skinnier famous faces and models. This shows how people trying to be like those "perfect" people have overdone themselves. The pictures eventually lead to someone purging, who suffers from bulimia. To get both sides of the story, I then placed a picture of an anorexic man. I wanted people to see guys are faced with the same problem of trying to fit in. After, I placed a picture of a famous actor and his physique body. It was another example of what guys are trying to keep up with. Then I placed a picture of steroids and then someone who is a bodybuilder on excessive amounts of steroids. I know these are the extremes but I wanted people to see what society has pushed many to become. I then wrap up my whole argument with three key images. First one is a picture of someone stepping on a scale. This was to show how so many people become worried with what that scale will say. It is as if no one is ever satisfied with what it says. It's always too big of a number. I followed that picture with someone looking into a mirror. This picture moved me when I first pondered upon it. At first it just looks like a skinny girl looking into her reflection. But once you look into the mirror, her reflection is of an obese girl. This reflects what most girls see when they look into the mirror. To an average person, this girl is extremely skinny, but compared to what she sees in the media to her she looks fat. The picture I ended with was a girl with negative words and sayings written all around her. It includes sayings like not pretty enough, not talented enough, and not good enough. I thought this was an appropriate picture to end with because with all this impact society has put on people to become this "perfect" image, people are seeing themselves in a negative way. People can't seem to reach their goals because their goals were created by someone else.

I really enjoyed this assignment. I hope this video affected people in some way and made you look at what you see a little deeper. I always thought pictures were worth a thousand words :)