The Iron Maiden.

Had to write an essay on this video for my Photography and Culture class.

An interesting idea, especially in the context of photography. The video is a little long and old but it clarifies some of the already common ideas of beauty, advertising, our culture, and photography.

The Iron Maiden, in this context does not mean to the band or the medieval torture device, it is the idealized image of the perfect woman. Usually around seventeen, beautiful, thin and tall, she is unrealistic and in fact does not exist. It is unfortunate that this is what we are subjected too. Advertising is meant to produce feelings of insecurity and longing. It implies that if one owned the product being displayed somehow a better version of oneself would be possible. It would be nice to believe that we are above these influences but with more than 3,000 advertising images being projected at us a day it is entirely unrealistic to believe that we are not influenced by these kinds of forced insecurities

Although, I feel she takes some of these ideas and puts them out of their true contexts. It's nevertheless an interesting idea.

I'm so exhausted. With only a few weeks left of winter term I am become neurotic and sleep deprived.  Everyday I am up usually before sunrise and I don't crawl into bed until the early morning hours. The labs, my backpack, and the library are my new home. I'm not even making sense anymore. Exhausted.