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.

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"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.