“The importance rests on the idea that mass media play a
role in structuring our understanding of reality and helping us make sense of
the world. This is particularly true when we as a community lack first-hand
knowledge.” (pg. 292).
The
quote is from the article on “First Impressions of Sarah Palin” that we read.
It particularly fits into the campaign that Catapult, a small non-profit organization,
is utilizing the covers of well-known and read magazines in the United States,
and changed the covers to reflect issues on Child Brides, Slaves and human
trafficking. The PR campaign has brought attention to the problems at hand in
time for the International Woman’s Day celebration.
I feel
like this is a particularly important issue, as we celebrate women around the
world. We need to protect our girls from
these horrific situations, and bring these issues to the forefront, just like
the women before us brought issues to the forefront for us. I believe, as a woman, that the constant
portrayal of women in the media, objectifying women, is an asset to this
campaign. It shows what the reality and
real life objectification of girls does around the world.
The
covers, like Child Brides, have captions like, “The wedding you’ll never
forget, but wish you could” or “Exercise secrets, you CAN get in shape for
giving birth, at 14” seem ridiculous in the context of American magazines, as
we turn a blind eye to these issues as a whole.
It makes the reader uncomfortable, which is the point. Make the person receiving this message
uncomfortable enough to act. Perhaps
then, we wouldn't need to use this tactic to encourage change.
Harp, Dustin, Loke, Jaime, & Bachmann, Ingrid.
(2010). First Impressions of Sarah
Palin: Pit Bulls, Politics, Gender Performance, and a Discursive Media
(Re)contextualization. Communication,
Culture & Critique 3 (2010) 291–309.
Another notion that this campaign puts forth is to show that these atrocities are as present in everyday life as the issues discussed in Cosmo and Glamour. (That is at least what the campaign is saying, whether or not it is true.) This is an important piece of information for others who may not be aware of how prevalent they are. However, by showing that exercise secrets for a 14 mother are as common as exercise secrets for a suburban mother in the US, it brings out the message that this is not a one-of problem, but a systemic one. As your quote points out, this is first-hand knowledge that many people lack. These parody covers help to bring that information forward in a manner that consumers/readers of these magazines will better be able to understand than a longer, more detailed, article might be able to.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Greg's comment that this is a great way to put the spotlight on the child marriage issue. However, I wonder how many people who are exposed to this image will care/educate themselves or do something about the issue seeing as a lot of people stateside tend to have a "It's not our problem" mindset. Good campaign though.
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