A woman's journey with herself.

Last night was the annual Victoria's Secret Fashion Show on CBS. The hour-long show featured all of the brand's most well-known models as they "set the tone for what is sexy this winter." Beautiful, thin women strutted their stuff in expensive lingerie and some variation of wings to bumping music and rounds of applause.

I personally love the brand and the quality of clothing that it makes. Of course, for any woman who does not resemble these models, the show can be a bittersweet experience as I realized that my body may not be in the shape I'd prefer it to be, especially following the carb-loading Thanksgiving break.

There has been talk for years about this sort of advertising and the effects on females' body images. As Cultivation Theory suggests, the exposure to these images over time start to shape the viewer's view of reality -- in other words, women have been exposed to these type of "perfect" women through media and begin to believe that this is what they should look like. It also does not help when men reinforce this kind of thinking. Consider this Facebook status I saw last night when I logged on:

"to all the women i know out there. can you please lose some weight, go to the gym, get some plastic surgery or say a prayer so that you can look like these models. just saying.."

As expected, guys liked the status and agreed, girls commented with sad faces and less-than-friendly words. His dad also wrote "...........Wow........I don't remember dropping him on his head!"

While this may have been intended to be a joke, or a desperate plea for attention, I think it's important for both women and men to not overemphasize the importance of having a body type that less than 1% of women have. If you watch the fashion show with  an entertainment mindset and understand that these models have made this a career for a reason, I don't feel there is anything wrong with this sort of TV special.

Take a look for yourself.

I'm too sexy for...Halloween

Roaming the streets of State College this weekend, I saw a lot of female Halloween costumes that would have probably made many fathers uncomfortable: high heels, low necklines, short hemlines, and in some cases, close to nothing at all. Despite the low temperatures, it seemed like very few girls chose comfort over fashion. I've come to accept this Halloween tradition at college, and while I chose to dress as Elmo instead of a sexy Disney Princess, I support fully the idea of women having enough freedrom and confidence to embrace their femininity through dress. The disturbing part of this weekend was seeing pictures of girls in middle school and high school wearing corset tops and "booty shorts" as costumes. Many of my friends younger sisters opted for "sexy" costumes -- many of which took innocent icons and cartoons and raised the hemline. It's scary to see how quickly young girls seem to be growing up. It's even scarier to consider what this trend could lead to.

Check out this blog by a woman who works to spread awareness of modern slavery, including human trafficking. She addresses the idea of an over-sexified Halloween and the potential consequences.

Also, consider this Newsweek article from 2007 which addresses this issue as well.