‘Cover Girl Culture’ exposes media’s impact on young girls

"I didn't eat yesterday/And I'm not gonna eat today/And I'm not gonna eat tomorrow/ Cause I'm gonna be a supermodel!/So Beautiful!"

These are the lyrics to Jill Sobule's song, "Supermodel" which plays in the background of the film "Cover Girl Culture: Awakening the Media Generation," a documentary about the impact of media images and messages from the media on the self-esteem of the young girls exposed to them.

The Women's Center, room 421 in the Student Union, offered a free showing of this documentary last Thursday night as part of their "Thursday At The Movies" program. Students packed into the Women's Center Program Room for the 6 p.m. screening of the film and to take part in the discussion that followed.

Krissy Dolce, a library assistant and program assistant at the Women's Center, was pleased with the turn out and brought out additional seating for the group of students pouring into the room for the event.

"It's a good topic. We see it all the time in the movies and in magazines, you know? It's really in your face and that makes it an accessible topic," said Dolce, an 8th-semester English major and women's studies minor who has worked at the Women's Center since she was a freshman and also works as a peer educator.

The film by former fashion model Nicole Clark relies on powerful media images carefully juxtaposed with interviews with dozens of individuals in the fashion industry as well as magazine executives, models, body images coaches, authors, doctors and more. Perhaps the most moving interviews come from the teen and young girls themselves, some as young as six.

Six-year-old Megan tells the camera she wants to be a model when she grows up, "because I'd like to be kinda famous and make a lot of money." Eleven-year-old Kailey, donning what appear to be fake nails with a fresh French manicure, admits to taking more than two hours to get ready each morning. Eleven-year-old Davanay looks at the ground and says, "If I was born naturally pretty then I'd want to be a model."

These young girls get their ideas about what is beautiful, sexy and healthy from magazines, television shows, music videos, commercials and more.  The images sent out by the media are unavoidable, and their impact on the self-esteem of millions of young girls is undeniable.

Images of emaciated models flashed across the screen. They showed advertisements with more sad faces than smiling ones. X-rays of women who had endured foot binding and worn corsets showed damages caused by the extreme desire for beauty throughout history.

"It's shocking how much it's hurting your body," said Alexander Ashley, a 6th-semester pre-communications major.

The movie not only emphasized the messages being sent, but also exposed the deferral of blame that occurs within the various parts of the media. Interviews revealed modeling agents who blamed the demands of their clients, experts and more. Everyone seemed to believe the problem was someone else's responsiblity.

"It's not a modeling issue, it's a societal evolution. It's more for a women's studies class to address than a fashion magazine," said Jane Grenier, the associate publisher of "Teen Vogue."

Kateryna Karayanidi, a 2nd-semester undecided major, disagreed. "Everyone sees those images and not everyone can take a women's studies class like that," she said. "The class can't teach everyone about [negative images] if everyone can't take it."

The young girls interviewed also addressed this deferral of blame and the claims of good intentions by magazine employees. Despite the appearance of one or two health articles, one of the girls said, "You don't support us in our weight because the rest of your magazine is full of thin pin people." 

The ratio of advertisements to health articles is a legitimate concern. The filmmakers kept one year's worth of "Teen Vogue" and laid out the pages on a basketball court – ads on one side and health-promoting articles on the other. The final results: more than 1730 ads, less than 700 articles.

Another shocking scene showed an interview with a cosmetic surgeon who said that the problem for these young girls is low self-esteem, but that higher self-esteem would put him out of business. He immediately covers his face and says he'll be kicked out of his professional society for saying that. He hoped that the clip wouldn't be included in the documentary.

"The fact that he reacted the way he did made it more offensive," said David Griggs, a 6th-semester communications major. "Overall, it's kind of unfortunate because it's a business. It's obviously going to take some sort of massive change to get people to agree to make less money in order to help people's confidence."

"They are making a lot of money at the expense of our physical, emotional, and mental well being," says Misty Tripoli, a Nike Elite Athlete and body image coach. "But we control it. Until we say ‘I don't need that [product] to be the amazing human being that I am' then it's going to keep going."

Deb Burgard, a licensed psychologist, stressed the impact that mothers have on their daughter's self-image. She said mothers are always surprised to learn that projecting a positive self-image is vital to their daughters' development to strong and confident women. "You're the queen in her world. You're the future. [Moms] need to feel entitled," Burgard said.

Connie Sobczak, an author and body image coach agreed. "We are all responsible. We are all taking part in how negative this is. I think parents have a huge responsibility to protect their children," she said. The more a young girl can look to their parent as a positive role model, she said, "she can see that and choose that instead."