Name: Amelia Mundy

Social Justice Group: 2023-2024, Beauty Standards and the Media

Date of Fieldwork: January 29, 2024

Name of Organization and person (people) with whom you met and their title(s):The Paley Center for Media with Rebekah Fisk, directer and educator

Type of Fieldwork: [69]

What I did and what I learned about my topic, activism, social justice work or civil and human rights work from this fieldwork?:

On January 29, 2024, the two groups focusing on the topic of beauty standards traveled to the Paley Center for Media and met with Rebekah Fisk, who is a director and educator there. We had some amazing conversations, we watched some clips and videos, and overall we learned a lot. It was great to be able to speak with someone with so many good ideas, thoughts, and information. We spoke a little bit about how people are trying to make a difference and sort of fix this issue, and we explored a few of the ways people are trying to demolish stereotypes and put to sleep the many problematic ideas of women and girls.

One thing that we talked about in specific that was interesting to me was the portrayal of women and girls in TV shows, movies, commercials, and music videos. We dug deep into how girls are often expected to be a certain way and a lot of times they don’t want to be like that. We watched a clip from Buffy the Vampire Slayer where Buffy fought a vampire and saved a boy. At the end, the boy was asking how she did that and says: “But you’re just a girl,” and Buffy replies with “That’s exactly what I’ve been saying.” This is a great representation of how girls have extremely high expectations set for them, and although they do try to meet those expectations, a lot of times they don’t want to.