The Looking Glass

   Age is a bigger factor than any of us would ever believe. Dove the women's deodorant has created a video that draws attention to what the media is placing inside of our young girls minds. This video is so powerful as it shows nothing but women dancing provoculativly, underwear ads, face products and even weight loss pills through the eyes of a child who is probably no more than seven years of age. Throughout the video it even shows us exactly how fast pace the media is throwing the images at girls. Ever corner that girl turn there's some other kind of magic potion there to help get rid of those stubborn wrinkles or even the dark circles below your eyes. Or even a magic pill that is going to take away that stubborn weight around her waist. How does this help us in any way? It doesn't it harms as more and more girls believe that they should be just like the model in the ad of a magazine or on the runway. What's even worse is at the end of the video the solutions that are viewed are plastic surgery. The video shows women going to get pieces of them taken out, lifted and no where does it say that its ok to be just the way you are. The phrase at the end of the video "talk to your daughter before the beauty industry does" is so powerful. It creates a huge negative view of a women as she grows up into this world.
   A new book that I have come across is Cinderella Ate My Daughter which speaks about the "princess" era that many girls now a days grow into. The fact that they need to be pretty, have a prince sweep them off their feet and how much of an impact this can have on girls. The thing I like about this book is that the author doesn't show a negative light on princesses but wants us all to pay attention to how it makes a mark on girls. How it can make a positive influence on them, the certain ideas that come along with being a princess. The book goes into the Disney princesses in much more detail and how they all do certain things for a girl of this age. But bigger than that the image of a "princess" that is brought into their minds. With the combination of princesses and the beauty industry where do we draw a line. What is good and what should we place a negative light on? The beauty industry has no age limit and is attacking girls at a much younger age by placing images as soon as they can to get them to feed into THEIR idea of beauty.