Who Do I Think I AM?

My name is Nashwa Rockingster and I am a Media Studies major with a concentration in Media Analysis and Criticism. I've always LOVED the entertainment industry! I loved the lights, the cameras and the glamour. I loved everything that had to do with dolling myself up such as fashion and cosmetics. Don't get me wrong I still do but as I became more and more informed about those particular things especially in regard to women, I started to realize that I love those things at a cost. In other words, the fashion, the make-up and the luxurious hair were social implications that were put upon me. Those were things expected of me because I AM A WOMAN. I can't tell you how many times a guy struck up a conversation with me and asked me what are some of the things that I like to do and one of my replies was "shopping" and he replied "of course it is, what 'woman' doesn't?" as if women only care about their physical appearance, in every sense of the word.

It's dis-alarming to me when I hear things like the hair industry is a billion dollar business or that if you want to start your own business getting into women's cosmetics, jewelry, clothes, shoes, bags, etc. can be wonderful business opportunities that one can gain quite a profit from. What is it in us (women) that we feel we have to shop constantly? What is it in us that we feel we have to have an excess of bags, shoes, clothes, make-up? Why is it that when we look at shows like "Sex and the City" or "Friends" there's always the woman who's a dim-wit and superficial? Why does the media time and time again present the woman who is intelligent as a nerd and physically unattractive to the opposite sex? Things like this are questions that burn inside my head as I started to clue in on all the media I was consuming. Women are always seen in an inferior light to their male counter-parts in every medium of entertainment and it's unfortunate because we make up nearly half the population. We still get paid much less than our male counter-parts for doing the same job-- that's bull **** (excuse my language).

TOO MUCH of who and what a woman is is measured against media examples. We struggle to be the perfect build, we strive to be the beautiful face across a room (even though we have six pounds of make-up on our face), we strive to be well-dressed and refined - everything that pertains to the outer appearance. if we as women could apply the same amount of time on our inner appearance as we do on our outer appearance we'd be immeasurable.

 

http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2014/04/women-wear-too-much-makeup-because-they-mistakenly-think-men-want-them-to/361264/