You will explore the role your core values play in your lives and dreams. You also explore double standards, and values and standards in media.
- Read the following in your girl book: Chapter 2 “Values and Standards: Your Springboard to Dreams” and Give It! Chapter 1 “Meet Successful Dreamers.”
2. Write down a list of values, ask your friends or household members for ideas as well. Some examples: Equality, Discipline, Integrity, Honesty, Responsibility, among many others. Pick two at a time at random, and identify which one you value more, or which one you act on more often. Why is that? Is it difficult to choose between them? Why do you think it’s hard?
3. Magazines, TV, movies, social media, and other media can play a powerful role in shaping and reinforcing values and standards. For this activity, choose a magazine (print or digital, many libraries have electronic magazines available. Visit your local library’s website and check their available resources). You are going to perform a survey of this magazine to get an idea of the values being communicated in the publication. Create a survey sheet for yourself. You might create spaces to keep tallies of the different kinds of ads and how often they appear. Count the number of pages with editorial content (news, opinion, and images produced by the magazine staff). Keep a record of the subjects or topics addressed beyond fashion and beauty. Does the magazine cover arts and culture? Health and fitness? Travel? Business? Finally, in your magazine survey, count the number of:
- Women in photos who look like you.
- Women in photos doing something active like kayaking, biking, or tennis.
- Women in photos who are or appear to be working.
- Women whom you would describe as looking “perfect”.
- Articles about women that you are interested in reading.
- Ads that seem to reflect your values or standards in some way.
- Articles that seem to reflect your values or standards.
If you have access to multiple magazine titles, repeat this exercise with other magazines.
Reflect on this activity. How easy or difficult was it to tell the difference between ads and editorial content and why do you suppose that’s the case? If you looked at more than one magazine, which one devoted more editorial space to articles about topics other than beauty and fashion? Did any of these topics interest you? Pick one ad or article that you feel reflects your
values and standards and describe how it conveys a positive message. How do magazines set a standard of beauty for women? What ideas do you have for improving these magazines?
Share your thoughts about the assignments in the comments.
15 replies on “Session 3: Walking the Line”
From the list of values that I created, two of those values were kindness and open-mindedness. While these were some of my top values, I value open-mindedness more. I value open-mindedness more because it fosters connections with others and sharing ideas. Additionally, kindness and respect play a part in open-mindedness, which is why it is important to me. It was difficult to choose which one I valued more between the two of them because they both make the world a better place and they are both qualities that I would like those around me to have.
For the activity regarding social media, it was somewhat easy to tell the difference between ads and editorial content. In ads, the individuals looked perfect and it seemed like they had perfect lives, convincing the viewers to buy a specific product. On the other hand, editorial content showed the facts and the true stories of people’s lives, so the content did not seem to be as perfect as the ads. Ads and articles that reflect my values and standards showed women pursuing their dreams, whether that was a woman becoming a mother or a woman getting her dream job. However, magazines do set a standard of beauty for women by choosing specific individuals to be in the magazines, mainly women who look like models, so to improve these magazines, the women chosen could be more diverse.
I enjoyed the assignments that I completed in the book, particularly the assignment where I tracked my food, exercise, and mood each day for a week. It helped me to realize that exercising with my friends boosted both my health and my mood, and I also recognized that I was happier and more cheerful when I got more sleep.
Tracking what I ate and how much I slept helped me realize that I probably need to eat healthier and try to sleep more when I can, otherwise I get in a mood. Tracking my mood helped me realize that there are patterns to my mood depending on the time of day/how much I sleep/how much I eat. The activity with the magazine showed me that there is a bit more representation of everyday women than there was before. Many pictures of women also showed them with standard jobs, like doctor or teacher. I think it’s important that we convey women in an everyday way on media.
I play sports and track my workouts, especially during the summer/off season. So, I have to be aware of what I’m eating and drinking to make sure I stay hydrated and not feel weak during my workouts and to help me recover more quickly. So, awareness is key. Regarding the media portion, I am on social media,but I try to strike a balance between things that are positive and just simply watching videos. Social media can definitely consume your time, so you have to be mindful of the amount of time you spend on it. I would like to create my own platform on social media to help teens with mental health awareness.
Lines You Draw: Tracking my diet, exercise, sleep, and moods was fascinating. I’ve never done this before, and although I have thought about each of these things individually, I’ve honestly never given much thought to how they affect one another. This project gave me the chance to do this-to see clearly how patterns formed day to day. For example, on the days that I exercised more, I got way better sleep- up to an hour or two more! I also ended up eating a lot more, and feeling happier overall. This showed me that getting outside and getting exercise is super important for my physical and mental health. I tend to work really hard on the days I have practice for my sport, but on off days/off season I crash and just sit at home. Now, I’ll make an effort to get outside just a little, even if just for a short walk.
Power of Media: This activity showed me how social media can be both helpful and harmful. Growing up in Silicon Valley, I am absolutely surrounded by people who are very high achieving. I see even more of that on social media, and it can make me feel insecure and like I don’t work hard enough at school or that I’m not smart enough, even though I know that’s not true. However, I also make a point to follow people on social media that use their platform to promote mental health, equality, and acceptance, and this helps counteract these bad influences.
While tracking my food/sleep//mood it helped me be more conscious of what I was eating and when I was eating it, and that helped because I have a really bad habit of forgetting to eat food and then being hungry by the end of most days. For the media project, it asked us to separate ourselves from the media and not a lot happened in terms of my Beauty standards because I normally don’t take beauty standards from people off the internet. After all, they don’t know me and they don’t know what my body’s like.
As a student, friend, athlete, daughter etc, it is very hard to find time to find time out of my busy schedule to focus on myself and pay attention to my diet and mood. Tracking my food intake, my activity rate, and my mood has really helped me pay more attention to my own needs and helped me realize that I need to take care of myself a lot more and focus on my wellbeing. Being extremely active and having a lot of homework does not leave a lot of time for necessary sleep and food intake. This causes me to be very grumpy and tired all of the time, tracking these things and actively trying to make them better has really helped me create a healthier lifestyle.
I really enjoyed all of the activities. I thought it was interesting to track not only your diet but your exercise as well. I found it cool to see how what you think you believe might be different from what you actually do. For example, you could preach about how fruits and vegetables are super important but then your diet could be filled with other things. I found this to be somewhat true for myself. I think I lead a fairly healthy lifestyle, so it was interesting to see what I actually eat and how often I exercise. I want to try to fit in more healthy snack alternatives, because I find I usually lean heavily into the sweets. I liked that the book offered both a healthy snack and a sweet one, because I believe balance is key to a healthy life, and I want to try to find that balance, that sweet spot for me.
I really enjoyed the social media activity too. I enjoyed learning about how social media and the beauty market works, how they sell beauty. I related to the parts about picking yourself apart, and looking in the mirror and only seeing the flaws. I think it is important to take a break from social media, disconnect. I noticed, that this past summer, I went on vacation and was rarely on my phone. I felt much happier and much more joyful the whole time. Obviously I was on vacation, but I feel as though being disconnected had a large effect as well. I think it is important to look at the bigger picture of who you are and seeing yourself as not just the pimple on your chin, but your body and your personality as one.
This is the first time I’ve tracked food and exercise. I eat fairly healthy but I don’t eat regularly and I know that effects my mood. I usually go without food all day and then I’m really hungry when I get home. I do run in our neighborhood in the evenings sometimes and I know that helps my mood. I would like to run more.
I know that I am on social media too much but I’m not on as much as some of my friends. I use social media when I need a break from things and I am usually on social media at night. I like to watch funny videos, especially on tiktok and I think those help my mood. I try not to compare myself to others because I am not them.
Tracking and monitoring my daily workouts, eating habits, and wake-up times has really put in context my monthly cycles, I tend to start off my month with a productive attitude which slowly becomes sluggish in the following week, then for the last two weeks of the month I’m happy, feel social, and am always working out. I learned how I should schedule my life and the importance of exercise and the dopamine boost that it gives you.
Since the start of summer break, I have actually began tracking my food and exercise habits and had already begun to notice the effect on my mood. I am a multi-sport athlete during the school year but even then, wouldn’t consider myself more than moderately active. During the summer I tend to move even less and remain in my room for most of the time. I have always wanted to adhere to a regular exercise routine and improve my diet, but I tend to have an ever-changing and busy schedule during the year. Finally, this summer I decided I had no excuse, and it has honestly made me feel so much better. I love having something to look forward to or do on days that I’m bored. I look forward to keeping up this regimen hopefully even as I return to school, and I certainly noticed that tracking it or making lists forced me to hold myself accountable.
Media can certainly have a large effect on standards and opinions. Unfortunately, it tends to perpetuate bad habits and unsafe methods of promoting certain types of lifestyles. It forces the idea of a certain look as the only standard of health and beauty when in reality that look on one person may be unhealthy for them. Throughout my life I’ve struggled with issues of body image but I would argue that it was never influenced by media. Although I always recognized the image that was pushed as beauty and that I may not have aligned with it, I was always able to recognize that it was artificial and not something I wanted to adhere to anyway. I think as media evolves it can also help to improve people’s personal confidence. As brands and society begin to slowly place more priority into diversity and representation, I believe media can begin to allow an impression of a different set of beauty standards. As more people see themselves represented and highlighted in the media, I believe more people will feel the positive impacts of the media.
I tracked my food, sleep and my mood. I do play volleyball so I am very active. I have noticed that my food has been off because one of my friends passed so I haven’t been eating to much. I’m just now starting to regulate my mood again after this. I think I am mostly healthy even before this situation occurred. I do think that it is very interesting to me how emotion can effect the other two. Or vise versa they can always effect each other.
I took a few days to track and follow an exercise log. I like “To Do” lists and this helped motivate me to get out and moving – I think it’s also encouraged me to maybe visit a personal trainer once a week just to stay on target with goals and appropriate routine, just so I know I am doing every thing correctly. I want to feel better and be healthier. I do pay attention to women in media, social media, movie stars, etc and think they seem unreal. There is no way I will ever look like that and that’s ok. I have to be comfortable with me, then no matter what I see in the media, it won’t change how I see myself.
I am a 4 season athlete, so I exercise a lot. While sometimes I get down in the dumps after a brought practice or a hard workout, I have to keep a positive attitude and tell myself, “it will get better” but most of the time after practice I feel very happy and excited of the work I just accomplished. With exercising all of the time, I also have to feed my body and rest correctly.
If a woman is always buying into media-driven standards, she won’t see the true beauty inside herself. I do think the media and other beauty-related businesses are doing a better job of creating a more diverse, less “one-sized, one color, uniform” beauty standard.
For the Lines you draw project, it truly opened my mind to lines I just don’t cross with people now because when I was smaller I was a lot more open about everything but bow I’m more reserved and I think a lot of people don’t know that yet ( especially my family) and when they do the same things they used to do with me now, It makes me feel uncomfortable. I think that assignment really told me I need to start talking to people about that. As for the media project, I bought my personality off of tictoc so I can see where they go when the project asks how social media affects your beauty standards for yourself. To be honest, I used to be an insecure shy girl, but now because of media and certain things I expose myself to, I’ve become more confident in myself more than ever because of social media. The only reason I was insecure before was because of school and not social media so I have mixed feeling about that.
Tracking what I ate, how I exercised, and the moods I felt helped me to understand my habits and encouraged me make healthier decisions in my everyday life. Reading about the standards of beauty versus real beauty made me realize that not everything you see online is the ideal and can be full of marketing strategies. I really thought about the double standards in my life and in the media and how sexism through these means impacts women constantly.