“Media Images: Influence on Concepts of Race and Beauty,” is a photographic essay which was motivated by my own personal struggles with concepts of beauty and race as a woman of colour growing up in Canada surrounded by media images of white beauty. In my project, I propose that the media institutionalizes a distorted perception of beauty, which reflect imperialist white supremacist capitalist patriarchal ideologies. Representation across multiple groups of gender, race, ability, age, class, etc. is excluded in the media. The lack of diversity in the media has a significant effect on women and girls who do not fit the narrow portrayals of the white, thin, blue-eyed beauty archetype. These women learn that the essentialist, biological elements of their identity are neither desirable nor worthy. The exclusion of women and girls across a wide range of groups legitimizes the dominance and normalization of white power and privilege, as the only representation of beauty that is seen in the media is one constructed by the white gaze. The deeply embedded ideologies within media images affect our consciousness, ideas, and perceptions of beauty and race. Along with my essay, I used photographs to illustrate the struggle that women of colour face with concepts of race and beauty, as a result of media images. Through these photographs, I wanted to portray the gaze from different perspectives – the white supremacist, imperialistic, capitalist, patriarchal gaze that society holds as well as the internal gaze that women of colour personally hold of themselves. I wanted to include photographs to demonstrate the strength that images possess in portraying messages. The message that I seek to portray through my photographic essay is that a more diverse representation of women in the media is crucial in order to challenge the imperialist white supremacist capitalist patriarchal ideologies and make progress towards a healthier environment for girls and women of colour, among other marginalized groups. The photo-essay can be viewed at: http://leneeson.com/2014/03/19/media-images-girls-and-identity/
