Our fifth fieldwork was FaceTiming the plus-size model, Jennie Runk. We asked her about her experiences doing what she does and how she thinks women are being portrayed in media and magazines. It was very interesting because she has been working in the modeling industry since she was fourteen and so she was very experienced. She told us that media is only showing the glamorous sides to model and people, photos where the person looks the best, and they are not showing the hard side to their lives whatever it is. But what surprised us was that she also talked about how social media is also positive because it is letting us feel good about ourselves by posting about our life. This call had a big impact on our group because it was getting insider information on someone who has been impacted by the media both positively and negatively. Now, I wonder if we could talk with a straight sized model (The “ideal” sized model according to flawed standards, pants size 00-2) and get her opinion on the subject. Overall this experience was amazing and really helped our project.
