Comparison between Ad's and Women's Body Image

       Advertising is the new standard for women as taught younger and younger in the new age. But not only is advertising changing its way, women themselves feel the need just as much to change to this new standard. The bra is no longer a place of comfort as in the older days; its now a place of flashy and sparkly desire, but for not that of the wearer.  The new idea in advertising towards young women is that, its ok to change to be something that your not. In advertising like Victoria secret ad's, the main focus isn't even the product or the focus isn't even towards the buyer anymore. 

       The body is not only being seen by certain standards but now through new technology no body is perfect. Even the body types that fit into the "type" everyone is suppose to idolize is being distorted. Models cannot any longer look at an advertisement and see their true self but an image created through software and photo editing devises. The body is becoming a thing ever so more then it did in the past thanks to the way mass media and large advertising company's are portraying "it". I think that advertising is going too far, the models are becoming younger and inhumanly skinnier and their is clearly one standard they are presenting, what they need is all different shapes and sizes making the body less "thing" like.

Beauty and Advertising

       Ah yes, the human body, how many ways can one thing be tormented, judged or as Barbara Ehrenreich's article describes filleted, dismembered and trashed. As I continued to read this article talking about the  human body being a play thing towards the media's interpretation I became disgusted. The fact is it wasn't just the grotesque description from Barbara, but the idea that we as a people truly are seeing the body for less that it used to be. Following it up by the reading about Victoria Secret's marketing of the body and beauty was no shock at all. As i continued this reading I realized how the body now wasn't only being a a play thing but a marketing tool that in the end was changing the over all way in-which beauty should be perceived.

       After the reading by Barbara I re-read the article "Only two percent of Women describe themselves as Beautiful".  I found the fact that women can't think of themselves as beautiful is absurd . As i first began to write this I wrote see themselves as beautiful instead of think of and there it is; the underlined idea that beauty is something one sees when in fact its much more or not even relevant to beauty. It was shocking to me that women all of the world were able to describe being beautiful and being physically attractive as something genuinely different from each other. Yet at the same time women felt the need to lessen the idea that they themselves could be beautiful.

Our Cultures changing ideas of sex

       After recently reading a few articles by Chuck Klosterman about how our current culture is changing its way in which we see sex was an unusual surprise but is also quite obvious. Klosterman conveys the differences in which our society has changed by using popular sex icons of different generations. He describes similarities in how both figures represent the different generations view of sex as a whole. From the alluring,classical and built up image of Marilyn Monroe to the newer sex kitten, wild and all too real Pam Anderson. These two figures just as themselves can describe whole generation's, which helps in deciphering how the idea of sexiness has changed.
       I went on to read Chuck's view on what internet has become thanks to the evolution of pornography. This was very surprising for me to wrap my mind around the idea that porn, yes porn has helped in the development of the internet.  Chuck describes the fact that internet porn ideas some what differ from ideas in the real world. The idea of seeing a normal person online is more welcoming that any outstanding real world fantasy. That was a surprise to me that the world online would rather see naked real looking people, compared to the ones in which they've always dreamed of in their present lives. The main thing I comprehended from both of these articles was the way we're seeing sex is changing dramatically with icons, internet to society in all.

Article:The Futile Pursuit of Happiness

      After reading the article The Futile Pursuit of Happiness by Jon Gertner I discovered differences in the way people react to certain events that occur throughout their lives. One of the main idea's that I got out of the article was that our mind creates a sort of safety blanket in response to negative life changing events, but in response to less intense situations we take on a larger reaction because our mind doesn't sense the need to shelter our fall in those situations. Another idea that stood out to me was when Jon described that the way in which people forecast mistakes to happen throughout their lives, being not nearly as life changing as we would predict.
      Jon Gertner's attitude on how we think the length or degree of happiness will last was a very interesting subject to come upon. It goes on to say that how we predict something will "give" us a certain amount of happiness, is not nearly as great and enduring as imagined or predicted. Jon describes that happiness can increase but once its reached its satisfying state, it will go back to its original state of happiness  until something comes along to create another peak of happiness.