I think it's part of the social pressure to conform, not necessarily to an ideal but to whatever is seen as the "norm" for the part of society with which you identify yourself -- whether that be skinhead, goth, geek, or high-flying business types.
I suspect that the problem with the media is it taps into that desire to fit in so that the magazine ideal comes to be seen as a kind of norm in itself. And because a very few people can attain it and we are vastly overexposed to images of those few, it's like being surrounded by an extended circle of people who are more popular than we are.
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zvi and
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Date: 2008-03-29 12:10 pm (UTC)I suspect that the problem with the media is it taps into that desire to fit in so that the magazine ideal comes to be seen as a kind of norm in itself. And because a very few people can attain it and we are vastly overexposed to images of those few, it's like being surrounded by an extended circle of people who are more popular than we are.