MEST 4: XMAS TASK 3

.*.*.Historical context && Research .*.*.

Maria Callas – Tapeworm

Perhaps the most extreme tale of celebrity dieting goes to opera legend Maria Callas, who reportedly swallowed a tapeworm to help her shed 40Ibs of fat. The tapeworm 'diet' is simple – they basically eat your insides. Until the 1920s, tapeworm diet pills were on sale in the United States.

http://gblsharing.app.aol.com/pop-up/

"OK Magazine, 1993" verses "OK Magazine, 2008"

The magazine cover above is of fashion magazine "OK" in 1993, and in comparison to their recent magazine cover of Dec 2009 the focus of celerities and their personal life has stayed consistent till today. As we can see the most controversial stories take up most of the area of the magazine cover to entice readers and generate hype of the current stories. For example: During the 1990's, politics concerning homosexuality consisted of gay/lesbian people trying to establish themselves in mainstream society and the efforts of conservatives to resist such a fundamental cultural change. Therefore, with homosexuality being quite a hyped topic of the time, OK magazine then went on to publish an article on two lesbians "Sophie Ward and her girlfriend Rena", which would have ultimately created a moral panic in that society as they would have seen homosexual relations morally unacceptable. Similarly, OK magazine have continued to keep their trend of building moral panics consistent as the headline of the Dec 2009 issue reads: "I found Pete in bed with another woman- she's so plastic." This would create a moral panic on infidelity happening in relationships. Also the word "plastic" could connote 'fake-ness' or that the person is 'untrustworthy', again replicating ideas of infidelity.

"Consumer behaviour: A European perspective" By Michael R. Solomon

• http://books.google.com/books?id=CRsuQMWuAx8C&pg=PA225&dq=marilyn+monroe+and+body+image+1950s&lr=&cd=6#v=onepage&q=&f=false
  
  "They are continually bombarded by images of thin, happy people"...Over the period 1958-88, the findings confirmed that advertising models became thinner and less curvaceous"
  
  This book presents reasons to how body image has heavily influenced people through the mass media and dominating icons that evoke the need in people to be like them. The quotations above generalises the notion of being thin by linking it to being happy. This could help explain why teenage girls feel the need to be thin as they are merely exposed to images and adverts where thin celebrities or models are shown to be happy. Also in more recent decades the trend has moved towards being 'thinner and less curvaceous'.
  
  
  "Miss America" - Beauty pageant formed in 1921
  

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miss_America#Judging

This will allow me to make textual comparisons between "Miss America" and "Britain's Next Top Model" as I have already been able to draw out differences such as "Miss America" had a segment which ranked their contestants for talent, however the more contemporary text BNTM mainly ranks their contestants on how they appear and some what on their personality that must be conveyed in their photographs- no specific talent.

MEST 4: XMAS TASK 1

Xmas TASK 1: "Extreme Skinny Celebrities"





TV programme: "Extreme skinny celebrities" is broadcasted on LivingTV, who also broadcast shows such as "Britain's Next Top Model" and "America's Next Top Model" and are owned by Virgin Media. Through the exemplary shows we can tell that LivingTV is focused on entertaining their audiences through factual entertain and reality shows. "Extreme skinny celebrities" is one of the primary texts that I have been studying for my case study as the show illustrates how the notion of being skinny pressurises teenage girls, proven by the Bliss magazine health survey. Throughtout the programme we see clips and images of celebrities and the transition from one shot to the next is quite quick. We can also hear non-diegetic sound in the mise-en-scene which has been added in each transition that sounds like a camera flash. The sound of the camera flash as well as the fast transitions create a high profile atmosphere such as a Red carpet event. Even more, the camera flashes could connote paparazzi taking photographs of the celebrities, which recreates the atmosphere as we, the audience, indulge ourselves in the event and admire the celebrities. Later in the programme we see a down upwards pan shot of famous 1950s sex bomb, Marilyn Monroe. The shot puts emphasis on her figure as being healthy and curvacous, moreover, the high-key lighting highlights her facial expression that suggest she is quite content and confident. However, the image of Twiggy, fashion icon of the 1960s, uses a pan shot from up downwards to her waistline with low-key lighting which puts emphasis on her emaciated figure. Evenmore, we cannot clearly see her face in the shot which essentially draws our attention straight to the body of the star and could connote lack of confidence or hapiness the star is feeling. This stress on both celebrities' figures is an example of how the representation of celebrities could influence teenage girls.
The programme later also brings to light statistical evidence that teenage girls are being influenced by celebrities. For example the programme states: "65% of you have been on atleast 5 diets", "92% of you are unhappy with your body" and "celebrities being a source of pressure." This is an example of the 'Hypodermic syringe model' as the dominating values of being thin in the celebrity culture are being absorbed by the teenage girls and as a result they are striving to achieve or atleast match up to the celebrities. Furthermore, the programme consists of various different newspaper headlines such as: "eat or you will die" and "Emaciated Lindsy Lohan collapes." Such headlines create what Cohen defines as a moral panic as they generate hype about eating disorders amongst celebrities and the effect it will have on teenage girls who see them as role models, ultimately leading to a moral panic in soceity. Towards the end of the clip there is continuous prominience given to Mary-Kate Olsen and her eating disorder. There are several shots taken where the focus is on her anorexic body, for example, in one shot the camera zooms into the photograph and enforces attention on her skeletal figure. In addition to this, the shot of the headline: "Olsen Anorexic" creates a moral panic as it threatens the health of teenage girls in our society.

Bibliography: Internet Sites

...[Bibliography: Internet Sites]...

To what extent doe sthe representation of celebrities effect teenage girls (looking particularly at shows such as "Britain's Next Top Model" and "Extreme Skinny Celebrities")

• http://dspace.library.uvic.ca:8080/dspace/handle/1828/927

• http://openlearn.open.ac.uk/mod/resource/view.php?id=228545

This website explains how celebrities are mainly represented in the media. The website shows that the stress is overwhelmingly on relationships, consumption and leisure, and work is quite minor when it comes to celebrities and what is emphasised about them. Thus, the media is able to control what is injected in the audience and construct certain aspects of reality.

• http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-1196636/Lipstick-lesbians-How-kiss-sparked-teenage-trend-disturb-parent.html

• http://books.google.com/books?id=MFqa52fC8qUC&pg=PA157&dq=celebrity+influences+on+teenage+girls&ie=ISO-8859-1&output=html

This website directs you to a book called "Media and Adolescence", which explores the relation between teenagers and celebrities. and how teenagers "model" celebrity behaviour.

• http://www.sundaystandard.info/news/news_item.php?NewsID=6398&GroupID=2

• http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B6WB2-4V88FJ7-2&_user=10&_rdoc=1&_fmt=&_orig=search&_sort=d&_docanchor=&view=c&_searchStrId=1138697377&_rerunOrigin=google&_acct=C000050221&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=10&md5=0615656ce4a390a86ec4046ccbce7109

• http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/179765/how_celebrities_influence_teenagers.html

This website again shows how celebrities influences teenage girls and reinforces Althusser's theory of the "Hpodermic syringe model" signaling that what teenagers see on TV or read in magazines is what they digest and passively accept to be true.

• http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/6012322/Teenagers-most-influenced-by-celebrities.html

• http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2007/07/20/1984080.htm

• http://smu.edu/ecenter/discourse/Teens.htm

This website shows how people in a tender age of 13-14 years are easily influenced by celebrity endorsements, which ultimately makes body image and materialistic needs their top priority. This shows the effects media can have on audiences especially teenagers as they are more submissive and more likely to conform to the popular culture.

Bibliography: Books

...[Bibliography: Books]...

To what extent do the representation of female celebrities influence teenage girls?

• "The media are very influential in shaping how we bahave and act in the real world." Laughey, Dan (2009): Media studies Theories and Approaches. Herts: Kamera Books

• "Body image is paticularly typed- there is an almost universal preference for the skinny figure in representations of female fashion models..." Laughey, Dan (2009): Media studies Theory and Approaches. Herts: Kamera Books

• "Femininty is constructed as closeness, as an 'overwhelming presence-to-self of the female body' (Doane, 1991, p.22)" Bernink, Mieke and Cook, Pam (1999): The Cinema Book, 2nd edition. London: British Film Institute

• "Not only does it show women now to look beautyful and lead very exciting lives, but they still take their orders from a man." Creeber, Glen (2004): Fifty Key Television Programmes. London: Hodder Headline group

• "Domestic goddess"..."exceeding the norms of femininity." Creeber, Glen and Millier, Tom (2008): The Television Genre Book. London: British Film Institute

• "The media portrayal and construction of celebrities shape the way in which audience understand and make sense of the social world." Evans, Jessica and Hesmondhalgh, David (2005): Understanding Media: Inside Celebrity. Berkshire, England: Open University Press

• "The 'possessive individual' understands the self to be 'a kind of cultural resource, asset or possession that has to be styled or accessorized in the same way that famous people are." Holmes, Su and Redmond, Sean (2006): Framing Celebrity. Ambingdon, Oxon: Routledge

• "Women account for a sizeble proportion of cinema audiences"
  Abrams, Nathan and Bell, Ian and Udris,Jan (2001): Studying Film, New York:

• “The media are very influential in shaping how we behave and act in the real world.” Laughey, Dan (2009): Media Studies Theories and Approaches. Herts: Kamera Books

• “It has been suggested that their appeal is that they represent the people we would like to be, more perfect versions of ourselves...“There has been concern about the supposedly bad effects that popular culture may have an ‘ordinary’ people.” Wall, Peter (2007): Media Studies for AQA GCSE. Hammersmith, London: Harper Collins Publishers
  
  

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