Important Dates!

Wednesday 9^th March- Meeting with young girls to discuss their views on the media and body image.

Thursday 10^th March- Film opening sequence of Documentary in Oxford.

Wednesday 16^th March- Filming Interviews with the young girls.

Friday 18^th March- Editing

Monday 28^th March- Trip into Oxford to gather photographs for opening sequence.

Wednesday 30^th March- Interviews on Oxford High Street

Thursday 31^st March- Editing Interviews from Oxford.

Saturday 2^nd April- Make Backdrop for interview with ‘Troy Hoff’

Tuesday 5^th April- Filming Interview with ‘Troy Hoff- Managing Director of Rimmel London’

Wednesday 6^th April- Edit interview with ‘Troy Hoff’

Friday 8^th April- Decide visual images to use to oppose ‘Troy Hoff’s’ argument (Size Zero Models etc)

E-mail to Magazines

I have just sent an e-mail to Sugar, Shout, Mizz and Girl Talk magazine. I want to find out what their purpose is in using beautiful models throughout their magazines and whether they think that this is causing a negative stereotype on body image.

This is the e-mail I sent to them ...

Hello Shout/Sugar/Mizz/Girl Talk,

I'm currently a student taking my A-Levels. For my Media Studies A-Level this year my coursework assignment is to create a short documentary. My chosen topic is the impact of media and the beauty industry on young children.

While researching into this topic, I have noticed how the very clear division between what is being projected upon girls and boys. The boys are tough, they’re strong, and they’re ready to fight. The girls however, they need to be pretty, sexy and how they look determines their social statues. How do you think these pressures are affecting children of today? Is it correct that we are stereotyping beauty?
There are definitely two sides into this argument and any comment would be a great help.

Thank you very much for your time,

I look forward to hearing from you,

Laura Osborne

... I hope they get in touch!

Main Focus for Documentary

Over the school half term, I've spent much of my time planning and visulising what I want my documentary to look like, and my overall arguement. Although I feel there is pressure on children from the internet, TV, films, newspapers, I feel that for the purpose of the documentary that I will be focusing on Magazines.

I recently was babysitting for a 12 year old girl and she was showing a couple of her favourite magazines, these included Shout, Sugar, Mizz and Girl Talk. The young women on the front of these covers were obviously beautiful, but it was the headlines that really caught my eye.

"MAKE HIM FANCY YOU"
"Pretending to have sex made me popular"
"I'm 15 and planning my Big Fat Gypsy Wedding"
"My sexting Nightmare"
"I'M AMERICA'S PERFECT TEEN"


... These are just a few that reallt stood out to me.

A major point that has really stood out to me during my reseach is the very clear division between what is being projected upon girls and boys. The boys are tough, they’re strong, they’re ready to fight. The girls however, they need to be pretty, sexy and how they look determines their social statues.


How are these pressures affecting children of today? Is it right that we are stereotyping beauty?

Questionnaire Responses

I have now received responses for my Questionnaire. The purpose of this questionnaire was to gain feedback from the public about their views on the media and perception of beauty. The questionnaire was aimed at people within the age bracket of 10-18. In total I gained 10 responses to which the following results are below.

Statistical results from Questionnaire

>10/10 responses concluded they felt pressure to have the perfect body.

>8/10 responses concluded they were currently occupied in changing their body weight or appearance.

>Pressure was mainly coming from: Friends, TV (Programs such as 90210 and Hollyoaks), advertising, magazines and celebrities.

>10/10 responses concluded that the media does not represent reality.

>Men are socially referred to as: strong, handsome, intelligent, muscular, healthy and hold a position of power.

>Women are socially referred to as: thin, beautiful, tall and clear complexion.

>The age range which people started to feel pressure from was between 11-18.

>10/10 responses concluded that there is too much pressure from the media on young children.

Questionnaire on Body Image

This Questionnaire I have designed will enable me to gain reliable information about how the media is affecting children and young adults. This Questionnaire is aimed towards 10-18 years olds.

Questionnaire on Body Image

Why do Advertisers promote products to children from such a young age?

Over the duration of my time researching the effects of media towards a younger audience I came across the following video on Youtube. The video gave me a real insight into why the media focuses so heavily towards children and inspired me to look into the issue further.

From an advertisers point of view, beauty sells. We live in a beauty obsessed world and the beautiful people we see everyday on the front of billboards or magazine covers and in films, these are the people who are believed to be associated with glamour, success and wealth. Therefore, this creates a particular image towards a product and this is why these people are used to promote them.

The following video acknowledges that advertisers target children early in their lives in order to turn them into life time consumers. They promote their products to them early, as often as they can and in as many places as they can. This video has become a big inspiration and I hope to use some of this information in my documentary.

Body Confidence Test

Channel 4 have recently set up an online Body Confidence Test. I took part in the test and found some of the questions asked to be very surprising, to which many were focused towars the media. Such questions were "I've felt pressure from TV or magazines to have a perfect body" and "I've felt pressure from TV or magazines to change my appearance". Other questions included: "I think my appearance would help me get a job", "I wish I looked like someone else " and "I feel ashamed of how I look".

21,387 women and 2499 men have completed the Channel 4 Online Body Confidence Test. The results are as follows:

- 70.2% of women and 41.5% of men said they have felt pressure from magazines and television to have a perfect body

- 29.7% of women and 27.7% of men said that they have felt pressure from friends to look attractive.

- 23.8% of women and only 15.7% of men said that they have often felt pressure from familyto change their appearance.

- Women felt that increasing diversity in body shapes and physical appearances displayed in the media was the best way to promote a healthy body image.

- 22.8% of men agreed with this, with an almost equal amount (22.7%) saying that increasing education about body image in schools was the best way to promote a healthy body image.

... Would you consider these results to be shocking?

Beauty & the Beast- Camera shot Analysis

While watching the series of Beauty & the Beast: The Ugly Face of Prejudice, I also took into consideration the camera angles and shots that were used in order to portray a particular emotion or message.This series has given me an insight into the type of camera shots to use during interviews and has also shown me how to use visuals effectively in order to enhance a particular message.

A medium two shot. This shot is often used when two individuals are being interviewed together. This camera shot allows the audience to focus on both characters as the speak but furthermore compare and contrast their physical appearance.

Visuals are often used during an interview in order to demonstrate the extreme lengths these women will go to in order to reach 'perfection'. This often results in surgery including: liposuction, botox and lip fillers.

Adam (Left), hits to the streets of London to interview the public on their perception of beauty. The choice of shot reveals to us the advertisements we are exposed to everyday and the pressure it exposes.

Many of the women in the series express how their obsession with beauty comes from the images they see in Magazines and on Television. Visuals are often used during the series to show examples of where the pressures are coming from and our perception of what is considered beautiful.

Mummy, what's wrong with that man's face?

Over the past year, Channel 4 has bought to our screens some of the most shocking series and documentaries that cover the topic of body image. The latest, and in my opinion the most shocking, being Beauty and the Beast: The Ugly Face of Prejudice.

This series investigates the extremes of discrimination. Each episode brings together two people often defined by the way they look: one has a facial disfigurement, the other an intense preoccupation with their appearance.

We live in a society obsessed with physical perfection, surrounded by images of unattainable beauty. Nine out of ten women in Britain are unhappy with their appearance, over half would resort to surgery to change it, and nearly three quarters of Brits think that being better looking would make them more successful.


Last weeks opening episode paired 59-year-old Leo Gormley, who underwent 120 operations in 15 years after he was burned in an explosion at the age of 14, with Yasmin Disney – a frankly gorgeous 20-year-old who will not contemplate leaving the house before completing her daily two-hour beauty regime and has a long list of cosmetic surgeries she would like to undergo.

What I find so grpping about this series in particular is the way the stereotypical 'beautiful' women who appear on the show are so insecure and unhappy with the way they look. At the end of each episode the woman is challeneged to remove all make-up and hair accessories to which the general reaction is disgust to their own reflection. The women feel weak and insecure without this mask which they appear to hide behind. The extreme irony in this series which I find so interesting is the way in which the person with the facial disfigurement has come to terms with how they look, and is now trying to convince the self-confessed beauty addict that true beauty comes from within.