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.