In the YouTube video “How to Trick People into Thinking you’re Good Looking”, Jenna Marbles elaborates on how society defines pretty. We have to trick people into thinking we are good looking because our natural self is not as accepted. This is shown by Jenna’s physical transformations and statements, such as, “if you were born very ugly like me, have no fear, there are steps you can take to be good looking.” In this quote she makes it evident that society has standards on how a girl should look. The significance of the music lyrics, “never going to give you up, never going to let you down, never going to run around and desert you” in the background also places significance on how women feel that if they succumb to what people want, then men will not leave them. When Jenna says, “the goal is to make yourself look nothing like yourself,” she explains how women feel pressured to put makeup on, tan, change their hair color, and even your personality in order to be accepted by society. The video also touches base with the fact that no matter how hard you work it’s never good enough, unless you have what society deems acceptable. Jenna emphasizes this by saying; “I pump myself up before work by crying over my masters degree.” The fact that we feel the need to fake our looks is very sad, however throughout the video, Jenna’s satirical attitude makes this concept more comical and a norm for girls to make themselves into something they’re not.
-Zoe, Kristen, Shelby, Kindra
13 comments:
This video does a great job emphasizing the negative values of todays society.The video emphasizes the idea that people need to pretend to be someone they aren't. Int todays society people are so afraid of looking like themselves because they feel they will not be accepted. More and more people are covering up their true identity through makeup, and plastic surgery just so they can be liked. Also as mentioned, Jenna's video expresses the idea that girls feel they are never good enough. That even if they try so hard to be "pretty" they never reach their full potential.
First of all let me say how funny I thought this was! It does a great job taking such a serious issue, like women poor self image self-esteem, and makes the ways women try to fix it satirical. I feel the video further expresses how women feel because of the male mind set of what a "beautiful woman" is. The girl is actually quite beautiful and more and more through her steps, she starts becoming uglier on the outside and on the inside. We see this by the over use of makeup, and by her judging her viewrs(for comedic reasons) that they are "ugly mother fucker's." By seeing the situation put into a comedic light, we are able to see how stupid it is fir retty girls to "make" themselves beautiful.
This video was extremely interesting and sums up what society expects of women in a genius way. Jenna starts out fresh faced and pretty, but as the video goes on, she makes dramatic changes to herself to become what society deems as pretty. In reality though, she is getting further and further from her true self and inner beauty and closer and closer to ugly in the emotional sense. She had to change herself so much to become “socially acceptable” including her looks, her behaviors, and her attitude. No longer are her achievements, such as her Master’s Degree, important, nor does anyone care about her opinion or feelings. The only thing considered is her looks and actions. Because she did this video in a comical manner, she was able to blatantly say exactly what she felt and what most women feel through the use of cursing and other mechanisms. At the same time though, someone viewing the video may not take her as seriously as they should because she is presenting the crucial lesson in a funny way. It could go either way.
I definitely agree with what Angel is saying about how the video points out how women always try to make themselves look good in a satirical manner. Jenna's video shows that society and mass marketing has led to women's poor self image. After all, how many times do you see regular women posing for catalogs or other such items? They're always these luxurious supermodels that are "perfect", when in reality it is Photoshop that is doing half the work there.
They dream of trading places and changing faces through any possible means. And as we look at women and analyze them taking any step they can to get accepted into society we must also look at men. Jersey Shore is a great example of both guys and girls suffering from their self-image, even though it is a reality TV show with a great joke behind it, so is this satirical example. In Jersey Shore, we see each of the cast members waste hour after hour in order to get ready just to go out. Funny enough, they are going to be spending the night in dark places where no one will see them.
Watching someone spend hours get ready for the world around them and not themselves, is degrading. We are always told we must do things for ourselves or that we cannot love another until we love ourselves so why does society teach otherwise? Just because it sells?
The fact that our culture values approval at this level is absurd. Women are brainwashed from an early age that if they aren't pretty, then they aren't good enough. It really is a problem. It narrows down to confidence. Everyone's confidence is slowly stripped away, and by their adolescent years, people need to win approval just to feel ok about themselves. So when someone actually is comfortable in their skin and not coats of make up, they are viewed as cowardly and thought to have a low self esteem, which they don't.
I like how she has such a saracastic tone the whole time to show everyone that she isn't serious. It's more funny because all the things she says are actually true about how people view women these days, and how women view themselves in comparison to others. I think she's trying to make a point that people put way too much emphasis on appearance, because they honestly believe that people will like them more if they look a certain way, instead of for their actual personalities. She uses comedy to show how much society has brainwashed most of our generation, and it's a real eye opener.
This video, although very satirical and extreme, successfully addresses an issue in today's society. According to popular culture, women are only useful for their looks and actions. It is unfortunate that this is the way that society thinks. We are forced to believe that there is a set standard for appearances, when it is truly better to just be ourselves. Our appearance should not determine our self-esteem. It may be used to enhance our self-esteem, but it should not determine it. In my opinion, the amount of makeup women wear is inversely proportional to their personal levels of self-esteem. The men of society strongly affect this entire thought process. Women are forced to continuously think that they are not good enough. If all women went through with this notion, there would be no such thing as individuality. Women are always striving for beauty; therefore, this is a never-ending cycle.
What I find interesting about this about is that Jenna points out the issue that girls feel like they HAVE to change in order to fit in with the social norm. Beautiful girls have the idea that they need to change everything about themselves because they aren't like the women they see on tv, magazines, and even in school. We have all experienced the emotions that go along with school; feeling like we're different from the group, picked on for something that's different about you and is you, or even pushed out of group activities because of different ideas. Conforming to society's standards is a way to escape the consequences of being different. It's sad to see that "different" isn't welcomed with an open mind.
This video takes an interesting kind of sarcastic view on the topic of how society looks at women and expects them to act. As Rebecca said, people cannot be someone that they truly are. They must change their appearance to the extent of looking nothing like themselves in order to meet society's standards of what is pretty and attractive just to fit in with the rest of the women that are trying to stay socially attractive.
This shows that society tends to not pay attention to the more important aspects of someone as a person, such as their college degrees, or really anything that gives the ability to actually be successful. I feel that girls feel like they need to do this sort of thing but in reality, they shouldn't have to worry about it as much as they do. Jenna starts out being a perfectly looking girl and obviously has the smarts to be a successful woman, but the impact society has on people makes it to where she feels that she cannot be herself and go somewhere.
As Rebecca said in today's society try to be people they aren't. Some girls seem to try to taylor their personality to what a man likes, whether good or bad. Today's society is always about first impressions. In many cases, when men try to find a mate they are interested in looks first. Many people don't look past first impressions, so to get noticed one has to look "good." This shows that girls have low self-esteem and are very insecure of themselves. Females are afraid of not being loved for who they are. In conclusion I will say looks aren't everything and the man that loves you for who you are and not looks is the right man for you.
This video uses satire and mockery to draw attention to societal issues such as self worth, beauty, self deprecation, and the economic state in America. I liked that Jena started out with a more natural look and in an effort to look more beautiful, she actually made herself look much worse that when she started. She used make up and self tanner as a shield against insecurity she felt about her looks and the hopelessness she feels about her prospective jobs. She comically points out how idiotic each step of her beautification process is while the tone in her voice seems to suggest that she is trying to make these steps sound appealing.
Blame men. Scott Byers, Max Factor, Eugène Schueller, they are the ones who pioneered in cosmetics. I wonder what has greater expenditures the beauty industry or the military. Money spent on cosmetics can easily end up as an investment in cancer treatment. It is good for the society as a whole, but apparently bad for some female individuals who make videos on the Internet.
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