Image is Powerful: Cameron Russell TED Talk

Claudia

Powerful, eye opening talk from an industry veteran and Victoria's Secret model on image construction and culture. The young teenage, candid real-life photos of her juxtaposed with the finished modelling shoots taken in the same time frame are disturbing.

I found this very thought provoking on many levels, well worth viewing, and I sent the link to my daughter.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Re53vgaVFvI

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13 years ago

Inspiration

10 replies

Latest reply was from Isabel

Anonymous

WOW. You can bet my daughter is getting a link to that as well. Thank you Claudia.

13 years ago

Isabel

Veteran

Wow, that is great , thank you Claudia. It is unsettling on many levels , yet a relief that someone would say it.

Did you hear the bit on S. Korea that Inge posted from Mochi ? Why is it that white, Western women are the beauty aspiration ?

I have to say that it took me a while as a young woman to get that the women in the pics weren't the women in real life. About 20 years ago I saw an interview with Cindy Crawford in which she said that even she doesn't wake up looking like Cindy Crawford.

13 years ago

Sarah A

Veteran

so interesting! forwarded it to my sister too! thanks!

13 years ago

Claudia

Veteran

Isabel, when I saw this TED Talk video yesterday, I thought of several recent threads being discussed on the forum (age and "cute," "fat," and Mo's tips came to mind) and then when I saw the Links blog post and the topics you mention, I knew I had to post this here on the forum.

There is so much to think about, and they are things of real substance.

13 years ago

nk123

Active Member

Thank you Claudia. It was not only a thoughtful talk, but very enlightening to consider my own response to it. My emotions ranged from rolling my eyes at the plight of the poor supermodel, to being surprised that she was so articulate, to feeling sad that young women are exploited by the fashion industry, to wondering how we as a culture will ever transcend this legacy of what is attractive.

I'm not proud of all of my internal dialogue, but truly appreciate that you have provided an opportunity to make it an external one.

13 years ago

Suz

(website)

Veteran

Thanks for posting this, Claudia. Definitely worth watching, and especially worth passing on to impressionable daughters.

13 years ago

Isabel

Veteran

Yes Claudia there are. And not just for our daughters but for our sons, too. We tend to think that this is very important for the girls and their self confidence and acceptance, but I also want my son to know that he shouldn't go around having these out of whack expectations of girls (soon to be women ).

It is interesting that Cameron talks about biology. But in its totality, what is deemed "attractive" is NOT "biologically bulit in"...that is why the concept of beauty has changed through the ages. We also must admit that so much of it is due to advertising and the entertainment industry. It is like a brainwashing...seeing the same "type" of woman over and over again in situations and garb meant to do nothing but sell an aspiration via a tangible "thing". Though symmetry plays a huge role in what humans consider attractive, the truth is that there is symmetry in every ethnicity and body shape and size.

Again , thank you !!!! Reminds me that I should talk to both my kids ( boy and girl ).

13 years ago

Claudia

Veteran

Right, Isabel, to clarify she mentions that the built in biology of attraction is for youth, health and symmetry; she notes that it has only been recently that it now includes the importance of height, thinness and being white. I agree that the media has so much to do with this.

Besides the sexual provocativeness styled into the images of the young girls used in the modelling industry, the other two things that really stood out was the "free things" that society bestows on the owner of superficial beauty, and "the costs" to those that don't meet the standard, as well as her point about thinking about your own, and those around you in our culture, perceived successes and failures in life and how much of that is related to superficial appearances as opposed to the reality of individual substance.

13 years ago

Caro in Oz

Veteran

Thank you Claudia, these are powerful ideas.

13 years ago

Isabel

Veteran

Claudia, it was a great point regarding "costs". I remember years ago hearing the results of a study that found that African - American women with "darker" skin and on the shorter side got the worst prices on cars from dealerships. It makes me think of the book by Malcolm Gladwell, who is half-Jamaican, and he took a test that showed he "prejudiced" in ways that he never imagined. He wrote about it in Blink. It can be subtle sometimes. I suppose it is not just our children, but ourselves who need to be aware of how we judge ourselves and others purely on looks.

13 years ago

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