Week 2, Column 2: SOAPSTone
Covering (up) Lena Dunham
Speaker:
Meghan Daum. Daum finds social issues interesting. She believes that they are something that should be discussed regularly to be able to understand the way people think and the way that our society functions. From the article, Daum shows her passion for topics like social issues by covering a story about beauty and what our society believes when it comes to beauty.
Occasion:
January 23rd, 2014, posted on the LATimes website. The article was written in this time period, illustrated by the technological advances mentioned in the article, such a Photoshop. The article is mostly about a photo taken by a digital camera and photo-shopped, but that's not what surprised the readers. It's the reason behind the photo-shopping that really caught readers' attention.
Audience:
Daum's specific audience for the article is anyone who questions the purpose of Photoshop, or anyone who questions our society's answer to the question "What it beauty?"
Purpose:
Daum's purpose in the article is to inform the audience on what our society calls "beauty standards" and why professional magazine companies like Vogue use Photoshop to alter photos and other digital images to fit those standards. The author carefully constructs her sentences, saying things like "If there's any tyranny more ruthless than media/celebrity/mass culture beauty standards, it's the tyranny of the camera itself" to help the audience understand the the complexity of the subject of beauty, something that can be so broad yet so personal and something that makes billions of women feel self-conscious about themselves.
Subject:
The subject of Meghan Daum’s article is Lena Dunham, creator and star of the incessantly analyzed HBO series "Girls". Lena is an average sized woman just like someone you'd see in the real world, nothing compared to the Photo-shopped models in Vogue magazine. Daum talks about how one of Lena's best professionally taken photos was slightly altered on Photoshop to fit the beauty standards we think of today. Daum describes this act as something we think to be dramatic, when in reality, it made the model look more like her real life self than how the camera captured her.
Tone:
Daum exhibits a very emotional tone in this article. Through her tone, the reader can easily tell that Daum gave her all in explaining the way we as a society perceive beauty and the reasons as to why we go to such great lengths to digitally enhance the photos that we take. It's not very clear as to what side of subject Daum stands on, which is why she was brilliant at explaining the beliefs behind both sides.
Meghan Daum. Daum finds social issues interesting. She believes that they are something that should be discussed regularly to be able to understand the way people think and the way that our society functions. From the article, Daum shows her passion for topics like social issues by covering a story about beauty and what our society believes when it comes to beauty.
Occasion:
January 23rd, 2014, posted on the LATimes website. The article was written in this time period, illustrated by the technological advances mentioned in the article, such a Photoshop. The article is mostly about a photo taken by a digital camera and photo-shopped, but that's not what surprised the readers. It's the reason behind the photo-shopping that really caught readers' attention.
Audience:
Daum's specific audience for the article is anyone who questions the purpose of Photoshop, or anyone who questions our society's answer to the question "What it beauty?"
Purpose:
Daum's purpose in the article is to inform the audience on what our society calls "beauty standards" and why professional magazine companies like Vogue use Photoshop to alter photos and other digital images to fit those standards. The author carefully constructs her sentences, saying things like "If there's any tyranny more ruthless than media/celebrity/mass culture beauty standards, it's the tyranny of the camera itself" to help the audience understand the the complexity of the subject of beauty, something that can be so broad yet so personal and something that makes billions of women feel self-conscious about themselves.
Subject:
The subject of Meghan Daum’s article is Lena Dunham, creator and star of the incessantly analyzed HBO series "Girls". Lena is an average sized woman just like someone you'd see in the real world, nothing compared to the Photo-shopped models in Vogue magazine. Daum talks about how one of Lena's best professionally taken photos was slightly altered on Photoshop to fit the beauty standards we think of today. Daum describes this act as something we think to be dramatic, when in reality, it made the model look more like her real life self than how the camera captured her.
Tone:
Daum exhibits a very emotional tone in this article. Through her tone, the reader can easily tell that Daum gave her all in explaining the way we as a society perceive beauty and the reasons as to why we go to such great lengths to digitally enhance the photos that we take. It's not very clear as to what side of subject Daum stands on, which is why she was brilliant at explaining the beliefs behind both sides.
Highlight of the Week: Subject
Meghan Daum's highly organized article provides ample examples that help support her credibility on the subject. Daum reveals the answers to questions that people are desperate to find answers to, such as "Why is having a woman who is different from the typical cover girl on a magazine such a bad thing?" She comforts the readers, mostly women, and enlightens the readers on the subject of beauty so that the misconceptions of the powerful subject can be cleared and so that self-consciousness can be erased from the mind. |
Image of Lena Dunham.
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