Friday, May 4, 2007

Final Blog Post of the Year... but not the last...:0

My Autobiographical Blogging Experiences

Throughout the year, I can honestly say that my blog has had a severe analytical evolution in the way that I analyze and the things that I analyze. I went from analyzing gender in just mediocre facial ads to analyzing gender in ads concerning the whole bodily sense. However, my interest in this subject matter did not just come from taking the Gender and Pop Culture course, but instead came from my fascination with fashion magazines.

I first started to realize how these advertisements in teen magazines affected my thought process when it came to how I felt about my body. I notice that I would look to these images consistently as to how I should look; the models looked happy and I wanted to be happy looking like them. However, taking several gender courses before Gender and Pop Culture helped me to realize that, that was all bogus.

It started to occur to me that these ads were merely a manipulation to sell products, and women were the main objectives in selling products; and my class helped spark that idea. From there, my blog has developed and raised awareness of how gender is represented in advertisements and how mainly men and teen girls are affected by these stereotypical images, as men look to them for a ideal mate and girls look to it for a bodily ideal.

I now understand and think differently about advertisements in general. I notice it everywhere I go and that only increases my knowledge and perceptions everyday. After presenting on my blog I realized how much I have learned and grown since my Gender and Pop Culture course, and how I can use the skills I obtained in the real world, in analyzing pop culture. :)