Easter Season Media

One of the greatest forms of media I am grateful for is music. Yesterday we had our Easter Program in Sacrament Meeting, and I was so touched by the Spirit. We had a piano number, a violin number, and a couple vocal performances as well. Each song confirmed to me the reality of Jesus Christ as my Savior and reminded me how blessed I am because of His atoning sacrifice and triumph over death. I find it interesting that even just music, with no words, can still convey a message so powerfully. Music will always speak to my heart in a way that words cannot. I have also enjoyed all the videos the church has put out this Easter season. Although we often view media in a negative light, I do believe it holds an important purpose to spread the gospel throughout the world. It is neat to see people using media to help and uplift others.

Zootopia

On Saturday I saw the movie Zootopia and I loved it! It was entertaining, funny, and had a great message. It was about the first rabbit to join the police force in the animal city of Zootopia, and how she is able to prove herself to those who doubt her abilities. She is given the assignment to find a missing otter, and she joins forces with a mischievous fox who is known for his unlawful behavior. I loved the message that each person is an individual, and we cannot make assumptions about others based on stereotypes. Never before had rabbits been in law enforcement, but Judy Hopps proved that she could be a successful police officer. The fox, Nick Wilde, grew up not wanting to be mischievous, but as other people pushed the negative fox stereotype on him he eventually became that way. Luckily, he has a change of heart and accepts a job to work with Judy in the Police Department. I love that there are movies like this that can be entertaining for kids and still teach an important life lesson.

The Color of Beauty

This past week I did the coding for our Content Analysis assignment. Our group is looking at sexual objectification of women in magazines. As I looked through each page of Harper’s Bazaar, one of the top magazines for women, I had an unexpected realization. Of course, many of the pictures and ads were risqué, but I realized something about the ethnicities of each woman. The majority of the women were white, and of those that were sexually objectified, I could count on one hand the number of women that were of a different ethnicity. This makes me wonder, is today’s ideal of beauty still the Caucasian woman? I do believe our country has come a long way in establishing racial equality, however, this assignment made me realize that we still have a ways to go. Of course I do not believe that women SHOULD be sexually objectified, but I hope we can get to the point where we can see the beauty in every woman, no matter her color, shape, or size. 

Finding My True Worth

This post is dedicated to my feelings about the past couple class periods. I was very impressed by our lesson in class about gender and media. I was amazed by just how much the media strives to promote the ideal of what men and women should look like and be like. Women are left feeling like they will never be beautiful because they will never compare to the unrealistic ideal of beauty that is shown in the media. These images that we see on a daily basis are not real, and in reality striving for physical beauty is not that important. Like Professor Coyne said, there will come a day when we will have gray hair and wrinkles. We will not have the 25 year-old bodies that we do now. When that day comes, I hope that we can see that we are of great worth because of who we truly are—because of the talents we have developed, the knowledge we have gained, the people we have helped, and the many other things that we have accomplished. Young women today should feel that they have the power to achieve and be whatever they want. Ultimately, I hope that I can always remember that my value comes from my divine nature as daughter of God.