Visual Journal 8

I learned that there is more than meets the eye with any work of art. 

I learned that there is beauty all around us, we just have to open our eyes and look. 

I learned that a picture is worth a thousand words, you just have to be willing to read it. 

I learned that sometimes you don't have to know the significance of a picture to know that it is significant. 

Dyer Reflection

Reading the Dyer essay, the biggest thing that I took away was how people like to stereotype people into set social categories but the reality is that these categories are actually fluid. It made me think about how someone would categorize me if they just saw pictures of me. If they saw these pictures, would they think that I am a jock and therefore probably not smart? Would they see that I am going to a good college and therefore are most likely smart? Would they see that I am playing Division 3 sports and think that I am not actually a good athlete? Would they look at me and say that I am too short or too white or not skinny enough and therefore not beautiful enough? I think Dyer makes a really good point that these categories are fluid because any number of these things could actually be true all at the same time and I think if everyone realized this then we would in turn realize that we are all more alike than we think and are differences are not what divides us but what can make us stronger together. 

Visual Journal Entry 7

When I think about misrepresentation in the media the first thing that comes to mind is the misrepresentation of women in ads. There are so many companies that use the idea of "sex sells" to sell their products, and sadly it works. But they are not just selling sex and their product, they are also selling the idea that women are subordinate and are here to please men. This has been a common theme for decades and it limits how people see women and what they think that they can accomplish in their lives. No only does it misrepresent what women can do, but it also misrepresents what women look like. In all of these ads, the women all look the same. They are skinny, beautiful, lengthy, dark haired women. This is not the average woman yet this is the woman that we see the most. This is the woman that other women compare themselves to and it sets an impossible standard for representations of beauty.