Name: Farin Weinger

Social Justice Group: 2018-2019, Sexualization of Women in Fashion

Date of Fieldwork: December 12, 2018

Name of Organization: The Paley Center for Media

Person (people) with whom I met and their job titles: Caroline Quigley: Manager of School & Family Programs, Education

Type of Fieldwork: Class

What I did:

We took a class on Girls, Body, and Media. Ms. Quigley showed us various videos from the past 50 years that are examples of some of the sexism around body image and fashion. After each group of videos, we would talk about the videos and digest it.

What I learned:

I learned how detrimental body image and fashion ideals are not a recent additions, and that they have been around since the start of television (late 1950s). We talked about how at first the producers were trying to sell “cute girls” for publicity, but it soon turned into selling sex. The body ideals have changed from petite small girls to skinny girls with big breasts and butts.

What I learned about Social Justice “work” and/or Civil and Human rights “work” from this fieldwork:

Through the fieldwork, I learned that even though there has been a lot of diversity added to the fashion industry/media there is not enough. The standard is skinny, straight, blonde, white girls and that ends up making the majority of women feel upset with themselves. I learned that this is not new and even in the past they were selling dieting and sex. Looking through the videos over time helped me get a grasp on that.