'Who Is This Man, And Why Is He Screaming'

Words: 1418
Pages: 6

In today’s generation, flaws are created to try to fit the ideal look of “perfection”. In the article, “Who is this Man, and Why Is He Screaming” by Rachel Kadish, Kadish’s cousin, Noam Galai, uploads a picture to Flickr that eventually goes viral all over the world used as a symbol for different groups and cultures. Also in the article, “Ghetto Bitches, China Dolls, and Cha Cha Divas” by Jennifer Pozner, Pozner explains the show Americas Next Top Model and how Tyra Banks, the producer of the show, goes against her moral values by discriminating women’s looks and the typical stereotypes of races. Each article relates to the media and the standards of beauty in today’s generation. Whether it is based off of Gender, race or ethnicity, beauty …show more content…
The media portrays men from commercials to magazines to be muscular. Justin Beiber, teen pop star recently did a photo shoot for Calvin Klein. Citizens were shocked to see the out come of the pictures because of the manliness Beiber portrayed through his pictures. Michael Zhang who writes for PetaPixel says, “The black and white photos are causing a bit of controversy though: a leaked unretouched version of one photo suggests that quit a bit of Photoshop was used to alter Beiber’s appearance and… proportions” (Zhang). Along with a summary of the Photoshoped picture, Zhang includes the before and after pictures of Beiber and how the two drastically differ from one another. Because of the beauty standards today, even men are edited through pictures to look better and to fit the idea of “perfection”. In the article written by Kadish, Noam Galai is presented to be a neutral looking male with dark hair, brown eyes and pale skin tone. Because of his neutral look, many cultures and groups were able to use his screaming face as a type of symbol. If it were not for his neutral face, these groups and cultures would have a hard time using his photo and it would most likely not have gone worldwide if he didn’t have the neutral …show more content…
Pozner explains in her text, “She was criticized as too sexy in every episode” (Pozner 399). Sheena Sakai was a contestant in Cycle 11 on ANTM and was an Asian American Woman who was thought out to fit the “Asian” stereotype. Pozner adds, “Producers revealed only those details that reinforced the frame they’d chosen for her character” (Pozner 399). The producers themselves felt it was necessary to categorize Sakai before she even entered onto the show. The judges discussed with her at each elimination telling Sakai that she was too beautiful and “should be selling herself in that window, rather than modeling clothes” (Pozner 399). If being called “perfect” is a bad thing, then nothing can be accepted as beautiful in today’s generation. If young women are watching this show, they will find it difficult while growing up to feel comfortable in their own skin seeing someone like Sakai who is being criticized for being to pretty. In Kadish’s article, Noam Galai is never judged through his picture based off of his race but what people thought the picture meant to them. Kadish says, “When Noam learned that his self-portrait was being used by anti-Ahmadinejad protestors, he emailed some of the Iranian graffiti artists through Flickr” (Kadish 262). Kadish then continues to say, “He was cool,” Noam said, “He was ‘Nice to meet you, I like your