Why is Bigger not considered Beautiful?

In a previous job, we were in the process of selecting models for our new print and social networking campaign. The supervisor states that we were going to be using our friends and try to achieve the average college student look. As I surveyed the pictures of already chosen models, I noticed several unifying factors. All were: white, impossibly skinny, and did not represent the average American college student.

Luckily as the process continued, we began to diversify the ethnicities more, but the same impossibly skinny factor still held true. To combat this issue, I tried to suggest several friends who were obviously very pretty, yet were bigger women. They were met with, "I don't think that the image we're going for." So I beg the question, why are bigger women not considered beautiful.

In the middle ages, being bigger was a sign of health and wealth. When did this change? And how can we rectify this change?

My mother is one of the most gorgeous women I have ever seen. She is also a full-sized woman. According to society, the fact that she's plus sized diminishes her beauty.


In my opinion, show me someone who doesn't think plus sized women are beautiful and I'll show you a woman who struggles with an eating disorder, an unpleasant man with a false sense of reality, and a little girl who only knows what society tells her.

Facebook Philanthropy: Sincere or Publicity Stunt

Facebook recently donated 100 million dollars to the city of New Jersey’s educational system, or should I rather say Mark Zuckerberg donated the money. Many have criticized his sudden gift as simply a publicity stunt to counteract the release of the movie, “The Social Network,” which is about the rapid rise of both Facebook and Zuckerberg. I believe the donation was mainly for publicity, with a little hint of sincerity...or a tax deduction.

            Zuckerberg claims that he wants to model himself after fellow billionaire Bill Gates. Gates is known for his philanthropy and his giving nature. Although Gates has not always been so charitable, after his marriage he started his crusade to encourage charitable works. He has stated previously that every billionaire in the world should give half of their net worth to charity in their lifetime.  According to an article posted by NPR. Zuckerberg is attempting to challenge the established system and use of the assets available to him for charity.  If his intention for the donation is purely for charity and made with a sincere heart, I commend Zuckerberg.

            Yet, the article also states that this donation could be purely for positive publicity. It is a known fact that “The Social Network” film is portraying Zuckerberg in a negative fashion. On September 24, 2010, Zuckerberg appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show to announce his charitable act. (Conveniently enough, this date is exactly one week before the wide release of the film.)  The donation itself is enough to garner attention, why promote and flaunt the act on the leading daytime talk show? In fact, a daytime talk show that has the fastest growing demographic on Facebook. I believe Zuckerberg knew Facebook would be heavily criticized and viewed more critically following the film release and wanted to proactively protect his image from harsh analysis.

If only I were born in 50 years earlier...

Little known fact: When black newspapers were in their hey day, being a journalist was the third most respected and aspired for career behind celebrity and musician. When this was stated in the video, my mouth literally hung open for a solid 10 seconds. I never knew that the black community ever thought so highly of the journalism profession.

Two points come to mind when I think about this fact: one, that the journalism profession as a whole was viewed as respectable and two that there were an abundance of black journalist and that they had a pretty big influence on societal changes.

The journalism profession is currently viewed as skeptical, shady, and manipulative. According to many polls, journalism is usually rated among the most untrusted of professions. The public doesn't trust the content of the media nor the methods of which the media receives the information. In the 1950's though, the print media was one of onluy three sources a person could recive news. There was much more trust in those times. Journalist were respected, they citizens weren't so skeptical of the content.

I had no clue that black journalism was so huge and financially successful. I thought it was just a few mom and pop papers that really made no significance or impact on America. My was I wrong. I like to think about if I had been born in 1930's how I personally could have made an impact on the black journalist movement. I hope that Black newspapers make a nostalgic comeback. I would love to be involvved in that part of history.

Plus I absolutely love the "Double V" slogan :)

Inés Sainz: Sympathy or just plain Stupidity

This past Monday, the New York Jets were charged with sexual harassment by female reporter Inés Sainz. She claims that unprofessional comments were said that were sexually charged and made her feel uncomfortable. Now upon initially hearing of this story, I immediately felt sympathy for Sainz. As a woman in a male dominated field, it can be very intimidating at times, especially in what is considered "men-only" territory.

 A woman in a man's field is expected to tough it out, not shake the boat or complain. That we chose to be in this field so we need to accept whatever criticism or harassment we are subjected to. My boyfriend, a sports broadcaster, and I got into a heated debate over Sainz's claims. My argument was that a woman should not be sexually harassed in any shape or form if it is in a professional environment.  Nor should she expect to be harassed simply because she is an attractive woman. My boyfriend's argument was that if a woman is in a locker room, then she should understand that that is a very social atmosphere for those men and they speak without a sensor.

Now, much has come to light regarding the character and professional ability of Sainz. She dresses provocatively, uses her beauty to enhance her career and is not highly recognized as having the best journalist integrity. But, all that being said, does she deserve to be sexually harassed for simply doing her job?

After speaking to several people, men and woman, it seems the answer lies in which sex you ask. Men say she was asking for it, woman say that it's not her fault she beautiful and simply trying to complete her job.

But honestly, shouldn't the conversation be leaning more towards the sexual harassment?

Apple's Interesting PR Strategy

I would consider myself an atypical Apple customer. I don't own a Macbook nor an iPad, I only own an iPhone (3G) and a very old iPod nano. Yet, I like to be knowledgeable about Apple and the new technological advances. I find Apple intriguing and their innovation is inspirational. They have the ability to notice an opening in the market and cater to that market. 

So needless to say, whenever Steve Jobs makes an announcement, I am always receptive. Not only do I pay attention to the speech itself, I am even more intrigued by the media response. 

The media response to Apple is enormous. In my opinion, the response rivals that of President Obama. After Steve Jobs presents some new invention or upgrade of an Apple product, the media response can be seen on various different channels from entertainment to business to sports.

Yet, in this media response, I often do not hear much about the negative aspects of the product. I find this highly interesting because in my opinion, the media and consumers are very quick to point out the negatives of a highly touted product. 

Upon further investigation, I read an article from a fellow blogger that hinted towards Apple's unethical way of controlling their public relations. It has been claimed that Apple will delete unflattering comments from their support boards. 

As a public relations professional I tout this as highly unethical, unprofessional, and downright wrong. By Apple applying this strategy they undermine the entire public relations profession. I fear that if other smaller companies see Apple conducting their public relations in this manner, they will believe this an logical method of PRand follow suit. It will a perpetual cycle.

Why I Sit with Black Girls

During class we were asked to sit with people who we thought were most like ourselves. I surveyed the room and realized that out of a class of about 50 people, there was a total of four African-American students present. So, of course, I sat with them.

By coincidence my best friend and roommate, who is a Caucasian female, is also in the same class. Even though I know we are quite similar, in fact we can finish each others sentences, I still chose to sit with the other African-Americans.

As I was sitting with other students "like me" I began to notice, that we really don't have much in common besides our skin color. Yet, that simple factor was unifying enough to cause us all to sit together.

So I wonder now, If I was joining the other African-American students because as a covert way of exhibiting to world that the African-American race is unified or simply because it was the easy and expected choice.

Black in America: Media Edition

During the first Race, Gender, Media class of the semester our discussion primarily focused on the perceptions of Blacks in the media. As a young Black female, I found this particularly interesting.

The video we watched in class confirmed the bias of the media. The bias being Black portrayed negatively in the media, more specifically prime time news. As the video progressed, I could only recount personal experiences and correlate them with the findings.

Growing up, I went to a school that was predominately white. I was part of a sprinkle of pepper in a sea of salt, so to speak. Many times, my friends would commend me on being the  "friendly black woman." They would mention a part of town as the "ghetto" and how only people who lived there were poor, on welfare, and black. Interesting enough, I had several family members who lived on that side of town. Some wealthy, some poor. But what bothered me was the lack of acknowledgement that other races besides Black lived in the "ghetto." Crime was being committed by people of all colors and races, yet the only race we heard about on a daily basis was African-American.

Surely one cannot miss the correlation between how the "White" part of town viewed the "ghetto" and the media's perception of the ghetto.

In my opinion, its like a self-fulling prophecy. Because Blacks were portrayed as weak, violent, uneducated people, that is how they felt they should act.

The Anti-Bloggers Blog

So as a requirement for several senior classes, I have to initiate a blog and a twitter account. To those who know me, I am the most extreme anti-twitter person around. I do recognize the hypocrisy as I am an avid Facebook advocate, but Twitter and blogging seem too invasive.  I mean really, why does someone need to know your every movement. If they were really curious, that's what texting is for :)


But, seeing as I must blog, I might as well go all out and completely commit to it. So I will document my senior year, the last two semesters of my adolescence. 


Here we go...

(This is my "I'm-really-excited-about-blogging" face)