The modern image

Heya all this is an example of todays blind faced modern world ((before i start this isn't me promoing myself it gets quite disscussion based and i'd like you to read past the first paragraph... cheers guys )

Well basically yesterday i applied to be a "cover girl" on a magazine that is sent round to all universities. The deal was you send in a photo of your self and why you'd like to be a cover girl. here was my opening e-mail to them:

**note all names related to the magazine have been removed aside from my own**

"Heya!

I'm applying to be on the cover of ** because its time we saw a
bit of diversity in todays media world. How often do you turn on the TV and see, for example, an "over weight" woman as a childrens tv presenter? or a Woman who doesn't shave one the cover of a magazine? Or a lady who doesnt wear make up playing the role of a "sucessful buisness woman" on a soap? Its
a rarety if it ever happens, when it's done it's seen as a novelty.

The truth is cover stars on the front of todays magazines are not real people. They are super skinny, make up splashed, toned and air brushed people. ** is a student magazine, about student issues. How many students can actually afford to look like you averge cover star? I'd like to be on the cover of ** to put out there that not everyone looks the way kate moss and cat deely looks, that not everyone cares what david beckam is doing and so on.

I am a young woman who prefured NOT to wear make up, who decides NOT to shave her legs and armpits just because its seen as masculine to have hairy
legs and who chooses NOT to put chemicals in her hair. "You must be the changes you seek to see in the world"
Light
Fleassy"


ok and i was shocked to find a very quick reply... yet a very disturbing one all the same:

"we'll give you a shot but since your talking about diversity you must understand that the front cover is what sells a magazine therefore you would have to look good. Looking at your stats you look like you could be a good cover star. For the shoot we would have to totally transform you and give you that look which many people dont see everyday.Thats why cover stars are unique because its not what you see them wearing every day that they would wear for a shoot. Secondly since you want to be a cover star we always want students to be able to see our work. therefore we want you as a task to get the approval of your university shop or union shop to stock our magazine. if you can convince them then the front cover of our magazine is your and we will let you know what month you will be featured.


send me three pictures of yourself
1 full frontal shot
2full shot of the back of your body from head to toe
3 side on shot full length picture
secondly if you want us to go ahead do we have your full permission to dye your hair and treat parts of your body as we so desire to get the best out of you. ( that means loosing the hair under the armpits and legs)

If your up for it well make sure everyone know who you are by the time were finished with you."

.... i dont know if any of you can see why this angered me... but it did... a great deal.

....yet at the same time the little girl in me who always wanted to be a "star" is going "wow... this is cool...you get to dress up all pretty and be pampered" ... however... i push away mydesires for attention and turn my head back to the morals of it all:

"Well then surely your saying "we will use your body to sell our magazine if you drop all of your beleifs and morals so as we can give you your five minuites of fame and earn some money out of you" Surely asking people why they would like to be a cover star and then completely dissreguarding the reason they give is hypocritical. I've done modeling work and artistic
photography as a real person im the past.

As for dyeing my hair, thats impossible, i Have dreadlocks. To dye them would mean bleaching them (as my hair is so dark) and then adding a colour to them which will stay with them forever (or untill i shave my head).

I shall send you some of the images you've requested (along with a few examples of other work i have done) and I hope you shall see that there is beauty without make up and dye. I appealed to work for you to get a message across, there would be no point in me accepting if every element of my message was crushed at the first hurdle.

Please do consider it fully.

Fleassy"

...fair point i feel...

and the reply which i received this morning...im stuck as to how to respond. part of me says "screw them, tell them politly yet firmly to fuck off" and another side says..."they are still responding.. the could have ignored you to start with... that means they like you...go on... stop being a silly hippy for once and do something different" :S

here it is...

"Look it aint about the fame but when you get into the business you will find that some times you will have to balance everything out in order to appeal to everyone. If we shot a picture of you as you wanted it how many people do you think would buy it, with a distribution of 40,000. Now if we shot a picture of you showing you before then showing you after with a makeover which had been done by studnets now how many people do you think would buy it. Its not more the fame aspect but what happeneds to you on a front cover and why students would be pushed to buy it. Remember as well the front cover girl has to come with a compelling story because she will single handedly determine whether that magazine does well or not. The question i want to ask you is since you want to be diverse why don't you step out of your comfort zone and show students that there is another side to you which you can unveil but choose to keep tame. As for your idea we tried it where we gave a student the chance to be herself and it failed miserably, why because the society were in is just not interested. Most of them are too style and weight conscious which is a shame. I can totally understand where your coming from butt in order for our magazine to grow we have had to confrom to the norm till we are big enough to do the raw and out there. looking at your website it seems you are confident with your body and your pictures show you've got potential and your face has some strong features if we can just get the dreadlocks out the way. Give it a go it will be an experince you'll remember for life. If you like the new you then stcik with it otherwise go back to what you feel comfortable with. Anyway have a think about it and let me know."




......... hmm im stuck....


I want some oppinions ere, both on what i should do... as i'd love to have this chance... yet i dont want to loose me, i'm very proud of the fact i dont change myself because others dont find it acceptable and i'd ove to take the chance to do this and show others that its fine to do it too. ((and theres the girl in me going "wowwwy!!" .... which i guess is a big part of it too and im not going to deny it))


....i thought this wasa very good subject for disscussion so as it's been a while since i've contributed to this forum.... disscuss!!

 

I think if they just want to make the best of you rather than totally change you, then its not the same thing is it? They obviously like you as you are, so they aren't going to change you that much.

Personally though, I don't have a problem with making the most of my appearance. I look after myself etc. and my health and make sure I don't get overweight etc.etc. so I guess what I am saying is I don't have a problem with people like that being on the cover of magazines to start with.

 

I look after myself. I make the most of my apperance without feeling the need to alter it though. If i wear make up its the rare times when im at festivals or shows and i use it theatrically, with uv paint... then i am more of a canvas.

I'm not over weight but i have no problem with people are ARE "over weight" and to be honest a lot of the time "over weight" is no more that a different body shape, its got nothing to do with dieting and eating healthy.
Im not saying get rid of them all, im just saying introduce some diversity. Coming from someone who knows many people who suffer low self confidence in their image due to the media i know what it causes. I went to a stage school, full of girls dieting at 16 and talking about plastic surgery to make them more "sellable" in the media world... i mean these were pretty and loverly looking girls speaking of changing their body to be in a tv series.
All i'm saying is introduce to people the ranges of humans in this world. I get stick for having dreadlocks because its "gross"... now if a childrens TV presenter, or a faemous pop singer or say even a few models had dreadlocks...do you think the reaction would be the same?

On another note ... hair. i DONT shave.... and in the news lately (according to radio one) there have been rumours of david beckham shaving... *shock wow gasp* .... so what? so now it is COOL to shave... men were ringing up radio one saying "yea go for it body hair makes you smell" .... so now men have the CHOICE to shave or not... however women STILL are preasured by society to remove all body hair aside from that on our head. ... if people in the media more often admited they were homosapians and let their body hair grow... this would not be an issue, there WOULD be a choice.

As another example, when iwas at school it was "un cool" to have braces... suddenly a pop star got them ... and it was no longer a geeky thing to have them...infact it was cool, poeple were getting different colour of them etc etc.

Media effects EVERYTHING we do because we see media influence EVERYWHERE.

 

Go for it. Life is for experiencing, you sound sensible enough to deal with the reality of what you propose. Enjoy.

 

Media effects EVERYTHING we do because we see media influence EVERYWHERE...

I thought the media just gave us what we wanted, if we did not want it they would not get any revenue.. I see diversity all over the media. Oh by the way you don't want to take a blind bit of notice what radio one (and what it puts out on the airwaves) has to say (and perpetuates) about anything/everything.

 

Yeah but I think what they are asking you to do is not really a negative thing.

 

Can I do it? Well maybe for another magazine........

 

ok from studying media and being part of the media industry most of my life i can say that media DOES give us things we dont want.. it makes us BELEIVE we want it. Thats the whole point of it. Eg. during the war it was seen as perpetuous for a woman to be smoking... smoking was a mans thing... masculine, represented power and the penis. Then Freuds nephew (i've forgotten his name) after reading one of his uncles pieces of writing cottened on to this and proposed to a large cigarette factory that he could make them MORE money by advertising cigaretes to women. He did this by getting a group of suffrogetes to spark up some cigaretes during a 4th of july parade. ... he then told the newspappers etc to watch out for a group of suffrogete(sp?) women who were going to spark "torches of freedom" ..... people...WOMEN .. saw this and their mind associated the line "torches of freedom" to smoking.. if they smoke they will have the power and the penis and they will be PRO AMERICA! ....... he then went on to become the first ever marketing agent.

This goes on under our noses everywhere. media effects what most people do and think. Going back to david beckham for a modern example, he's been a fronter for "altertive" looks in mainstream media for a while the corn row on a white guy thing.. and sarongs... all of it was firstly knocked down by the media then hailed as a "cool thing". his wife victoria got a fake lip ring, she was hounded when people found out it was fale because it made it "cool" to pierce yourself.


Going into other cultures, when i went to india there were hand painted bilbords for levi jeans, showing healthy, people who were obviously of a comfortable state wearing levis by a village of people living in mud hut.. their mind connect Levi's with being in a good finantial and health state. Also they had Nestle adverts painted on their houses.. nestle gives them money, they paint their house with the brand (despite how bad nestle is as a small conglomorate company in the third world) in their minds its nestle giving them money... nestle is a good company and i will buy their products.


On other notes.... Organics... the shampoo company... their products are anything BUT organic, containing chemicals etc ... the cotton on to the word "organic" because of what it symbolises.



Media plays a MASSIVE part in our lifes... advertising is everywhere, on our clothing and on our buses etc.











Now as far as "go for it" goes.. am i the only one who see's the principles behind this? ... they aren't just saying "to let you know we might need to use some make up to cover a few spots but if your ok with that..." what they are saying is "we will want to shave your body and get RID of your dreadlocks" ... thats not making the most of me thats CHANGING me!

 

This is just so typical of our modern media... they pay lip service to the differences in society yet, in practice, they continue to plough a very narrow view of normality... hence, if you are different, you will find yourself marginalised from mainstream society... and that can work from people who have significant disabilities through to people who have freckles and ginger hair... the media is not in the business of reflecting the truths of society in the tenty-first century... it is about selling an illusion of society... an airbrushed and edited rendition of society designed to appeal to the masses... that'll be the masses of overweight or unusual looking or just plain different people who wish they were part of that airbrushed and edited illusion...


Fuck em... do it on your own terms... don't do anything to compromise any firmly held ideals... if it doesn't feel right, don't go near it with an extra large barge pole...

Remember, at the end of the day, it is all about profits...

Fly...

 

Simple answer? Get used to it, at least they are not asking to change your work.

Sometimes media cock just has to be sucked, and intergrity comprimised to get the things, placements you want. Don't want them anymore? Fine, there's tons of others who do.

The level of scrutiny in the industry is just immense (partly why I hide behind a pc and lense), some of my colleagues at Con have just had the circumference of their heads closely looked as part of auditions for mere extras for the upcoming Da Vinci Code film. I hope they don't ask them to change those statistics, as it would involve a saw :&.

 

ditto!

keep-fighting-fleass-and-don't-ever-change-me-dear-cos-you-is-beautiful

I'd-add-more-but-typing-is-difficult-right-now:&

 

(There is a chance this all might seem really harsh, but before i say it i'll just say that i love fleassy and personally i think she's absolutely gorgeous. This is all just devils advocate stuff)

To be honest fleassy, i'm surprised you're shocked by it...fair enough, a student magazine should have a little more liberal view as concerns looks and fashion politics, but it's still a magazine thats trying to sell itself to as many people as possible, for guys to buy it they have to want to shag whoever's on the cover and for girls to buy it they have to want to look like the person on the cover. I'm not saying you aren't attractive, or shaggable...but *tries to think of a way of saying this that won't sound nasty*

If they make you over as skinny, shaved, blonde fleassy theres an easy bet that they'll sell a lot of issues. If they take you as you are, there are elements of your body that will put people off buying the magazine...

all it is is that they're scared of not selling. if they take a chance and it fails, it means someone gets a kicking from the managers. They don't want to take that chance.

All of this is not to say that you aren't magazine cover worthy...you're more than worthy, and in fact i think you're better than that. But, if thats what you want to do then i think you should go for it.

There was another point i wanted to make...

oh yeah...It might sound a bit harsh. But if the elements that make up fleassy are your dreadlocks and hairy legs then modelling is definitely not what you should be doing. I think it's great that you want to change things and make a go of it as an untypical model, but you're going to be stuck for jobs. i think that on some level your unwillingness to shave your legs and change your hair says as much about your definition of the modern image as those emails do...

 

I appreciate the 'media' 'tap into' certain things but 'tap in' they do..it is our logic that females should hold up to 'male' ideals etc a good marketing tool is to buy into what is going on at the time, freuds nephew was merely looking at the society he lived in and saw a potential 'selling point'.. Of course it was the 'media' exploiting this trend for 'bright young things' and the notion that one aspect of change would help to sell a product..thats the key thing the 'media' highlights certain aspects that might not be widespread and makes them the norm (rightly or wrongly)..So more people buy products. Many many things the media pick up on fall by the wayside as 'fads' because the general public in ther very conventianal staid manner just don't want to know. How many men wore sarongs before DB i reckon hundreds if not thousands.. conventional views almost 'victorian' (in this aspect) highlights how 'old fashioned' most of us are, the fact that something 'new' was sported by DB and something new could be trumpeted as a 'new wave' by the media just goes to show how greedy and willing to grasp onto popular culture and what is going on around in everyday life.. they are not promoting it but like i think you say exploiting the new fashions and trends... sad imho... if you can name me anything original the media brings to the general public i would like to know.

Ok away from selling things the media exploit what we what to hear and see.. we don't want to see generaly 'odd' things and out of the ordinary because we just want perfection and something to look upto.. nothing wrong with that.. the boring thing is out of the ordinary just does not go down well or sell to most people.. how 'different' people grown when the 'normal' is just the 'norm' over and over and over... well thats us being very very backward and slow to new things.. heck peope still wish to live in victorian housing for pitys sake (how ever lovely those housing maybe).

 

Fleassy, you are perfect the way you are. Tell them in a polite manner to go fuck themselves. If they can't see the beautiful woman that you are in your entirety, then they are not worthy of having your picture for their cover. Let them continue to post their plastic people on the front of their magazine, but don't become plastic for them. Besides, they might take pics of you before and after, but who knows what they will end up using in the end, especially since you don't own the pics that they take. They do. IMHO, you shouldn't give them the satisfaction of changing yourself for THEIR limited tastes.

 

Ok i need some opinion.

I've thought to contacting him and saying

"the dreadlocks go NOWHERE! and there is no need for me to shave as this is NOT a bikini shoot... however as far as make up goes i'll wear a basic make up for effect but nothing to tart me up"


....whats that sound like?? a good deal? i'm tempted now to just fuck em i dont want to be a model, i want to say something.

 

"If your up for it well make sure everyone know who you are by the time were finished with you."


Have ABSOLUTELY nothing whatsoever to do with a magazine who thinks that it's acceptable to write like that. Fuck'em, they're not worthy of being in print.

 

yea i did find him very anal with that line :S

 

I'm confused, why such a fuss over a haircut, I have one every two weeks, and I can confirm nothing changes, least of all me. Why does your hairstyle matter so much to you ?

Did you seriously believe that you can change the mind set of the advertising industry with a few strong principles obout hairy armpits.

I personally think they are just pulling your strings. Good Luck.

 

The voice of reason! What hath god wraught?

 

its not just a hairstyle.... is it fleass?