UBER WHAT!?

So on Facebook last month I was invited to UberGirl Aberdeen, having no idea what the event was I clicked on it out of sheer curiosity and to my surprise this lovely picture was blown up on my computer screen.

Yes. UberGirl was coming my way and there was nothing I could do about it.  An army of gorgeous skinny girls were going to be parading their bodies in the very nightclub I go to most Wednesdays. Great.  That's one way for digital media to boost my self-esteem.

UberGirl is a Beauty Pageant where girls 'of all sizes' can enter (or so it says), but as I scroll down the list of girls who have entered into this ridiculous competition the largest size I can find is a size 8.  

From what I can tell to enter you go online and make a profile for yourself, people will then vote for you (this can be done by facebook, phoning or texting for the desired girl) and if you have the most votes (or one of the highest amounts of votes) you go through into the UberGirl regional final where you must go through different stages to be crowned regional Queen and then go forward to compete for the UberGirl Britain or Ireland crown.

The girls (all of petite sizes) prance around the stage in their tiny skimpy dresses and swimwear to try win the crown.  But to me this seems a little degrading.  Fair play to the girls who have the utter confidence to walk half naked in front of a crowd of men (who are clearly there for a show) but in all honestly I think it's very negative towards women who don't have these girls 'perfect bodies'.  UberGirl Aberdeen states that the competition has no weight limits so my main question is why is it that there are no normal sized girls being allowed to participate in these competitions?  Don't tell me it's because they don't get the needed votes because I tell you now, I know some beautiful girls who are of a normal size that would destroy half of the girls within the competition.  My best guess is that they dont look the part, and when I say that I mean they don't have a tiny skinny frame.

Along with Facebook advertising this event there is also many videos on YouTube.  This meaning that yet again Digital Media has something to answer for when it comes to portraying woman's body image.  The video below shows an insight to what UberGirl is looking for, your standard slim pretty girl.  Within the video all the girls participating in the competition are wearing short skimpy dresses, obviously in this competition the less clothing you wear and the slimmer and better your body looks the more chance you have of winning.  This is yet another example of digital media portraying woman in the wrong way and not showing the positive sides of the competition.




There is no doubt in my mind that all the girls participating are having a great time, as I'm pretty sure the crowd is having a brilliant time.  But sadly the positive sides of the competition are not shown through this video which could have totally changed my mind about this event.  Having beauty pageants is perfectly fine with me as long as you have a diverse mix of race, height and weight.  No one should be left out as this is discrimination and from what I have seen digital media and UberGirl are both doing a fantastic job at discriminating against normal and larger sized women.  Give them a chance, let us normal/bigger sized girls have a go to win the crown.

Logo For My Blog

I created the logo for my blog by using Pixlr.  I found it quite easy to use once I figured out what the different buttons were and where they were located.  Pixlr has navigator, history and layer panes on the right hand side of the open page.  There are menus at the top of the page that allowed you to adjust the image and play around with it as you pleased.  The tools for changing the colour and changing the brush type you were using were on the left hand side.  I picked out the picture from Google which was originally a drawn sketch, just black and white.  I changed the hue saturation of the picture creating the colour’s within the face and background of the picture.  I then went over some of the black redefining the lines as they weren't fully coloured black.  I added the colour of the lips my painting them red with the brush tool.  I also added the whites of the eyes, the earing (both the white and coloured part of it) the black mole on her face and added the white dress as well.  The text was the last thing I added (by using the text tool) to the picture and I wanted it to stand out along with the rest of the picture so I chose the dark blue as a contrast.  I then moved it into place and that is how I ended up with my finished logo.

Prezi - Group Presentation - LADY GAGA

Lady Gaga has to be one if not THE most outrageous, spontaneous crazy characters of the music industy within the past decade.  With her insane wardrobe accompanied by her amazingly crafted lyrics, its no wonder she is the biggest name of the past few years.  Her career has rocketed since 2008 and she continues to reach for the stars with her chart topping hits and her amazing videos.  But without digital media would this Queen of Pop have made it as far as she had with her adoring fans?

The above presentation was created on a software newly introduced to myself called Prezi.  It was created by Hayley Alexander, Steph Asher and myself.  The three of us were put in a group and although we found it hard to collaborate our blog theme's together at first we settled on concentrating on a specific star and adapting our blogs around them.  The part of the Prezi I contributed to would be everything to do around the "Photoshop" heading including the videos, pictures and writing and also the "Sexualization" part which also included these things.  Steph and Hayley worked well together bringing the "Queen of Social Media" part of the blog together.  Steph created the titles, the four pictures, the paragraphs under the pictures and also the Twitter and YouTube parts of the Prezi.  Hayley created the Facebook and the LadyGaga.com parts of the presentation.  All of which is added up though a set path made by everyone.

I found Prezi very entertaining and was very useful to use instead of a typical powerpoint.  It's exciting to see what you can do with so much space available and being able to create the path gave the Prezi that extra special touch.  I enjoyed using Prezi and will be using it for other pieces of coursework as I felt it was a very different way to show a presentation which was great to learn how to use something new.

iGoogle

The Easy steps of how to set up and use an iGoogle account.

• Creating an iGoogle account:

To create a Google Account, follow these steps:

• Go onto Google then click on the iGoogle at the top right hand side of the menu bar.
• Once you are on the iGoogle page you will be asked to fill in your e-mail address and information about yourself.
• You will then be directed to a webpage that will allow you to pick your own background theme and you will be asked what your interests are which you tick the ones that apply to your personal taste.
• Once you have completed these steps you will be directed to your homepage where tabs and gadgets of your interests will appear.  This page is called 'Home'.  All your gadgets will be open, if there are gadgets you would prefer to close you can do this by editing your gadgets and minimsing them on your homepage.

Adding & Editing Gadgets

• Adding a gadget is easy, all you have to do is click "Add Stuff" at the top right of your iGoogle homepage bar. (Top right of your gadgets)
• You will be directed to the gadget directory, here you have the opportunity to search for gadgets on the right hand side.  You can click for specific gadgets to appear but you may also scroll freely through the list of gadgets available.
• When you have found a gadget you wish to add to your iGoogle click "Add it now" which is underneath the picture of the gadget and if done correctly a yellow box should appear which says "Added".
• Editing your gadget is simple, just click the arrow button located at the top right of the gadgets box.
• A menu will appear offering many options like "Edit settings", "Share this gadget", "Minimise this gadget", "Delete this gadget". (These are only a few of the options available).
• If you chose to delete a gadget it will disappear altogether whereas minimising it will shrink it with only the title of it being shown.

Adding a new tab

• To begin with you will only have a "Home" tab, but you can easily add more tabs on the left hand side of the menu by clicking the arrorw beside the word "Home".
• A  new menu will appear where the new tab can be added by clicking 'Add tab" 
• Then it will ask for a name for the new tab which you can insert.
• If you would like gadgets added automatically by Google in relevance of the tab name keep the box ticked.  If you want to add your own gadgets to your own tast ensure the box is left unticked.
• Click "OK" when you have done the above.
• You can then add gadgets you would like to the tab (See above if you have forgotten how to do so)
• Many other tabs can be added by repeating the above process.

Adding RSS Feed

• To add a relevant RSS feed to a tab, click "Add stuff" at the top right of the menu.
•  Click the link "add feed or gadget" with the RSS logo beside it which is at the bottom left of the page
•  Paste the RSS Feed on the page.
• Ensure that you have posted the RSS feed link rather than the website link as this will not work.  Only the RSS feed will work on iGoogle.

Embedding Something e.g a video from YouTube.

• Click "Add stuff" at the top right of the menu bar and search for a gadget called "Code Wrapper".
• Once you have found it (the first available option) click "Add it now".
• Revisit your page where the new gadget will be, there is a space in the gadget to embed the code from the video, make sure it is the embed code and not the link of the website.  
• Click "Save" and your video will now appear on your iGoogle.
• If you would like to add multiple video's repeat the above steps.

It's all on the post it.

This is so true.  Digital media needs to be one of the factors within this note to stand up and portray woman in a positive way, for their natural beauty and not their looks which are tampered with day in day out by applying make up and photo shopping the celebrity women that everyday women idolize.

I felt this picture was very powerfull.  It relates to my blog extremely well and is very to the point.  What you see is what you get.  The picture is trying to tell the media an important message.  That they are damaging women all over the world with their ignorance to woman's body image.  

The post it note describing how the media is making woman feels sums up perfectly what this industry is doing to people. Digitally modifying pictures of woman to make them appear slimmer and appear almost Goddess like is sending the wrong messages to woman and young teenagers all over the world. My blog is about how digital media is influencing the way woman feel about their bodies and the above quote sums up perfectly what damage the industry could be potentially doing to woman who have body issues.

Celebrities are you real?

I recently came across a video online showing the dramatic changes that can be done to your body by using Photoshop. The video had an over weight girl in it and showed how Photoshop can change a persons entire look. She went from being an over weight mess to a skinny beauty. Or so everyone seems to think. Women are getting pressurized to become skinny because of this stupid software called Photoshop. Why should we look up to people like celebrities with their 'gorgeous natural looks' when in fact we are being drowned in a Photo shopped culture. Most photos of celebrities will have been photos hopped to make them look immaculate when in real life they look like any other person.






I felt this photo below was ideal to put into my blog and also this very post. The picture of Mischa Barton who had clearly been photo shopped works perfectly in synch with my blog. The warning in front of the photo of her is clearly slating all celebrities who use photo shop and to not believe what you see, as most likely 99% of it has been photo shopped. The warning also states that the picture may damage self-esteem, which in reality it actually does. The pressures digital media have put on woman to look amazing at all times has had a huge toll on how women see themselves.

Celebrities are photo shopped all the time to make them look 'perfect' but in the real world no one is perfect. Digital media have managed to turn our society into a vain and body conscious place where no one can be happy with their looks unless they have a tiny frame and a perfect face. The photo portrays exactly what photo shop does and how it makes people feel about themselves. I think this picture sums up perfectly how much photo shopping is done and that all magazine covers are not real, they are in fact totally fake.

Gaga, put some clothes on yeh?

So, I was watching the music channels with a few of the guys this weekend. Now being a massive fan of chart music this was the perfect way to keep the boys off the Xbox for once! Feeling pretty good about myself we began the countdown with MTV to the top video of the week. Happy with the choices so far we reached number 3. Then for four minutes I watched a woman in her skimpy bra and pants, her tiny skinny frame dance promiscuously all over the plasma screen on the wall. I have to say, hearing all the things the guys were saying about her 'amazing' figure really made me feel insecure. This was the moment when I realized how disgraced I was with the video. I sat there with my size 10 figure wandering how the hell I could ever compete with a body like hers.

This was a harsh but true reality. Knowing that the music and media industry have allowed these explicit images on our TV’s and online at any time makes me worry. If I can be affected so badly by one video, who's to say every other girl doesn't feel the same? The way women are being portrayed in the media is not acceptable. Dancing in your underwear for a music video shouldn't be allowed especially if it is also getting leaked online where a younger audience have full access to these provocative, sexualized music videos. This may seem a bit drastic but I strongly believe woman should be forced to at least wear more than just skimpy underwear when producing these videos as this isn't sending the right message to the younger generation who look up to these celebrities. There has to be a point where someone stands up and stops this unnecessary promiscuous behavior. These women are being portrayed as sex icons, and are portraying that you must be skinny to be sexy to be wanted by men, which is not true. Celebrities should realize that they are role models for young girls and should take a minute to think about what they are putting out to the public online and on TV. The number of teenage girls with eating disorders has risen dramatically over the years and with extreme pressure from digital media to be slim they are starving themselves to get this 'desired' look, which is extremely unhealthy. If something isn't done about this, then the way women portray themselves will never change and we will be on a down wards spiral when it comes to image.


Below is a video link to Lady Gaga’s Born this way. Take a look and you'll understand what I mean by wearing nothing!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jq_b_urf3rA


Accessing these kinds of videos is extremely easy to do through websites such as YouTube as you can upload music videos or other videos and easily access these provocative music videos. Majority of today's music videos can be found on it and with such easy access to provocative music videos it's no wonder that digital media can have a huge influence on the way woman feel about their bodies and image. Having a society that is body conscious orientated leads to these provocative videos leaking online where many different ages of people can access them. This is worrying as children as young as seven are now watching these videos online and becoming aware of this 'skinny' culture. These videos should have an age limitation if seen as too promiscuous or inappropriate for children. You wouldn’t let your children dress like these celebrities so why expose them to this at such a young age. It’s concerning that nowadays children are becoming more self conscious about what they look like when what they should really be doing is playing outside and enjoying life.

This book Sexual teens, sexual media: investigating media's influence on adolescent sexuality by Jane Delano Brown, Jeanne R. Steele and Kim Walsh-Childers shows an inside of how woman and teenagers who watch TV that is image orientated feel about their appearance and body image after watching the programes. The book's findings show that by watching just 30 minutes of TV that is image orientated can change the way a woman feels about her body. Dissatisfaction and depression are two huge problems that woman have to over come when watching these TV programes as they don't feel that they are as slim or good looking as these characters in the programmes. It's been proven that watching shows like 90210 and Gossip Girl woman are more likely to feel ashamed of their bodies than watching Eastenders or Hollyoaks where the actors are of a range of sizes and woman generally feel comfortable within their bodies.

The significance of using this specific book is to show how watching something for such little time whether it be online or on TV can have such a great impact on the way woman feel about their bodies and their appearances. The book fits in well with the blog as this part is about body image and woman's body image.

Yes, It's my turn to talk.

I'm the first one to tell you that looks don't mean anything.. Then two minutes later you'll most likely find me perched in front of the mirror fixing my make up and straightening my hair.  Hypocrite I know.

In my opinion I believe that beauty isn’t what the digital media tells me it is..  (skinny celebrities not eating and getting photo shopped) but woman who embrace their natural beauty.  Take my friends for example, they stress over their looks and weight all the time, always wanting to look their best and be “the ideal weight” when in all honestly they are beautiful the way they are and I wouldn't change any one of them in the slightest.  People come in all shapes and sizes and if digital media wasn't so against normal sized women then I don't think we would have half the problems we do with eating disorders in women.. and men!  

Earlier this year Russell Brand put a photo up of my girl crush Katy Perry with no make up on his Twitter.  Although it was taken offline later that day seeing her natural was great as it shows they don’t look perfect 24/7.  I know we don't look as amazing as we could with a full face of make up on but I admire her for letting her real beauty show.  We all look different with no make up on or our hair not done.  Therefore I'm posting this photo that I took myself for her and for all the other woman who don't feel like they can be naturally beautiful.  Not saying Im beautiful because Im FAR from that but I want to show myself that I do have that inner confidence and beauty to stand up against the digital media and show them that they are wrong.  That natural beauty is the future.

I posted this picture of myself with no make up on to prove a point. Yes, these two photo's below are a contrast of me with make up on and with no make up on. Although I hesitated to put this picture up on my blog at first I think doing so has encouraged me to feel more confident in my own skin. I mean if I'm not prepared to do something so little as put a picture of myself with no make up online then I can’t criticize what the digital media is doing.  Standing up against the stereotype of what is perceived as ‘beautiful’ may encourage other women to feel more confident within their own skin and embrace their inner beauty.

(This picture was taken from : http://www.insanemom.net/russell-brand-twitter-photo-katy-perry-makeup-picture/2468)

Photoshop. Dove- Evolution

This video of a model that is getting prepared for a photo shoot is a prime example of how fake all advertising campaigns are by using digital media. The model goes through her make-up and hair routine, getting primed by stylists and make up artists to where she ends up looking fantastic. But as the video goes on her finished picture is then changed dramatically by photo shop experts who will in turn spend days fixing the one picture to what they presume is perfect. Her neck is lengthened and slimmed down, her eyes and eyebrows are moved into a different position and tidied up, her face is slimmed and her hair colour and make up is touched up. These photos on billboards and advertised on TV are therefore NOT real. By using this digital media experts can totally transform pictures to create real pieces of art. Although these pictures are usually expected to be going into adverts or magazines the way this technology can be used is amazing. For example Photoshop should be used on wedding photos or family portraits as these pictures are very special to people and people will want to look their best getting these photos done and if they feel the stress of having to look amazing at all time they may end up not looking their best so using photo shop in this instance should be acceptable. However photo shop shouldn't be allowed to be used over excessively when creating magazine covers or adverts as the look of the person of the front is totally transformed to look thinner which puts pressure on todays society to be extremely thin and creates low self esteem for teenagers.



I chose to add this picture in at this time as the video is about photo shopping so felt that the picture was relevant to the current post. The photo above represents the logo for Photoshop. Throughout my blog there have been references to Photoshop continuously and with the growing use of photo shop in digital media increasing dramatically over the last five years I felt it was a good topic to focus on. The use of this picture is to indicate what the Photoshop icon is and what it looks like. Just using a picture of the photo shop logo allows individuals to be able to recognize it. Although the logo for photo shopping is a plain blue background with P and S on it, it infact is totally the opposite from plain and simple. Photoshop is a very complicated programme and takes a lot of time and effort to master as it can take days for the experts who work with it to perfect just one image.

Photoshop & Britney Spears

This is a photo-shopped picture of Britney Spears. As you can see her body has been sculpted slimmer, her tattoo removed and her cellulite has been covered up so it isn't visible. Pictures like these show just how natural celebrities are but with their photos always getting photo shopped within the media no one would second guess that these celebrities don't actually look like this.

Photoshop is used regularly in the digital media industry for adverts and modeling photos for designers, these photos have been regenerated and tampered with to make the people in them look sexy and make their bodies look amazing as in this industry sex sells. Hence photos are usually photo shopped before they get anywhere near to the public seeing them as they want the people in the photos to look their best as the sexier they look the more people will want to buy the magazines they feature in.

Photo manipulation is most commonly found in advertising to enhance the way people look in photographs. The pictures take a long time to get right as it takes a team of people to put just one 'perfect' picture together.

Photo taken from: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-1265676/Britney-Spears-releases-airbrushed-images-digitally-altered-versions.html



The magazine stand is full of women's magazines where the people on the front cover of all the magazines have been photo shopped. Having these digitally photo shopped images in front of us all the time can begin to have serious effects on people. Having to look at people on the front covers who look perfect at whatever angle you look at it can be very overwhelming when your not feeling the best about the way you look. Woman are faced with this dilemma day in day out because of these magazine stands being the main focus of how woman should look. The digital media is portraying woman in such a way that being skinny and gorgeous is the only way men will find you attractive, which in reality should not be the case.

The Slim Image

This short and sweet slide show portrays the dangerous effects that digital media is having on the youth in todays society. These outrageous facts on eating disorders in young people are extremely worrying and it is very unlikely that these statistics will decrease anytime soon.

With eating disorders on the rise and digital media not addressing this growing problem the youth of the future are in for a nasty ride. If digital media used real, natural woman of a healthy size then half of our problems would be solved. With girls admiring these skin and bone models its no wonder that normal sized girls get bullied and picked on for their weight. Portraying women in such a way that majority of women today think they are overweight is not the right message to be giving to younger generations. Women of an average weight now feel its compulsary that they be a smaller size as society is telling them that skinny is beautiful and if you aren't beautiful then you are worth very little, which is completely wrong. Beauty is natural.


A scary reality.

0855955 The Slim Image

View more presentations from laiep.

Shocking Video Of 12 Year Old.

I'm not going to lie, the first half of this video was extremely unsettling and disturbing. Hearing a 12 year old saying she wouldn't care if she died from anorexia is extremely worrying and portrays just how dangerous the media and digital media's view on women can affect people. This young girl weighs four stone and all she wants to do is continue to lose weight because digital media has told her she has to be excruciatingly thin to be beautiful in today's society. THIS IS WRONG. For a child to feel this strongly about the way she looks is distressing as she has set in her mind that she is fine with dying. This little girl is not fazed by how ill she is and her only concern is to look skinny.

The second half of the video consists of pictures and facts about the affects the media and digital media have on woman's body image. Pictures of extremely thin celebrities being branded as beautiful shows just how ignorant these industries are to women's health. Although it is celebrities jobs to stay in shape being branded as natural beauty is something they shouldnt be doing as these people do not have normal jobs and are paid to look their best. All they do is exercise or work either on sets or on photo shoots which they are meant to look their best. In the celebrity culture being thinner is important to them but in society it's physically impossible for women to maintain a celebrities body unless they religiously devote themselves to intense exercise every day.

Beauty is only skin deep. Really?

Digital media is forcing women to be stick thin by pressurizing them with images of boney unhealthy high fashion models and forcing them to take on a positive attitude to this unhealthy look.  Cover Girl is trying to attack this from all angles as they themselves know that advertising with anorexic models is doing nothing positive for today's fashionistas. Having access to videos online of tiny woman parading the world's catwalks can be very intimidating to the average sized women as these models always look amazing.

But just because they look amazing doesn't always mean that they are happy. The average model nowadays will suffer from depression and will not enjoy working with over 70% of the people they have to everyday. Digital media is portraying that this lifestyle is amazing but at the same time is also allowing videos like the one above to be available online to show that no one is perfect and that this size zero image is extremely unhealthy and women should be proud of their bodies.

'Perfect' doesn't cut it.

Women all over the world at some point in their life will be affected by digital media, FACT.

The way women are portrayed in digital media nowadays is shaping the way normal everyday women see themselves. With so much pressure on woman to have "a perfect body image" it is no wonder that the diet industry is now worth between $40 - $100 billion dollars, with much thanks to digital media for helping them to this outrageous number. Digital media is a very dangerous tool when it comes to health and when the whole world is telling you to be stick thin and beautiful then you feel this is what you must be to fit in.

Girls as young as 11 years old are developing eating disorders because of the negative impact the media is having on them. Women in the twenty first century cannot fully enjoy life as they are too busy stressing over how many calories are in their lunch, if you can call just a salad a nutritional lunch. The media needs to realize how big an impact it is having on innocent people by using stick thin models in their adverts, they should be using real woman to show that size or 'beauty' don't actually matter. Using online videos and photos means that women have access to these kinds of images 24/7. Women who are unhappy with their bodies are most likely to google images of skinny woman to try persuade themselves to become thinner and more attractive. This is highly dangerous as woman who do this end up becoming victims of eating disorders like anorexia and bulimia.





Although their is an enormous pressure on women to look amazing by digital media it can also encourage woman to take action against the weight issues it presents to women. This woman has taken a picture of her stomach after the birth of her children
to show people online not to be ashamed of their bodies as she believes she is naturally beautiful even with stretch marks on her stomach and it not being toned or flat. She did this to show people that they should feel comfortable in their own skin and not worry about what digital media is telling us to look like as beauty is natural and not fake. This photo fits well into my blog as it shows that the digital media industry hasn't managed to brain wash everyone into thinking that beauty is being skinny and having an immaculate complexion, that infact beauty is in the eye of the beholder and being comfortable in your natural skin is beauty.