#3 Don’t read this if you’re feeling relatively happy today.

Life is such a weird concept for me. It’s common knowledge that ‘life is short’, we are reminded of this every time someone passes away. But seriously, how short is it? If I, as a woman, manage to live until my life expectancy of 82, that is a really really really long time. Well at least it seems like it to me. So basically we spend the first 20 odd years of our lives in education,  the next  FORTY working 9-5 or probably by the time I get to that age- the next FIFTY years making ends meet, only to then keep plodding on for a further ten or TWENTY years! It tires me just thinking about it. As bad or controversial as this may sound, what actually is the point of it all? We spend most of our lives working to make money that will be meaningless as soon as we die, to pass on to our children who will meet the same fate as us eventually. As morbid as this sounds, it is true. Nothing that we have in life, our possessions or relationships are permanent. After spending too long with my depressing thoughts I’ve decided that I’ll essentially not worry about anything and go and do whatever I want with my life because I’m going to die anyway, I just hope that it doesn’t come too soon. And on that lovely note I’d like to apologise if I killed your vibe.

#2 Was a feminist blog right to publish unretouched photographs of Lena Dunham?

Recently everyone seems to be going on about GIRLS creator Lena Dunham’s recent Vogue cover and how controversial the photographs of her are. Whilst retouching photographs is in no way a new phenomenon, people are still making a fuss about it. Yes it doesn’t portray a completely realistic image of a human being, yes it may feed body image issues and yes we know that Lena doesn’t need photo shopping, but it happened, it happens and we just need to get over it. Magazines are not supposed to show REAL people, if they did the supermodel would become extinct faster than Cara can record herself on the catwalk. Nobody really wants to open a magazine and see a picture of something that is less than perfect, these magazines are simply giving us what we want, and essentially what will sell. Photo shopping is just a result of this society in which we live where we idolise individuals for various reasons but then we wait, perched on the edge of our seats for them to do step out of line (cough Miley cough) so we can rip them to shreds with our words. So why would a magazine leave in certain imperfections in a photograph purely to receive tons of negative feedback. Fashion magazines are currently in a lose-lose situation in which they are damned for using retouching technology but then damned if they don’t. Surely if people genuinely want photo retouching to end they should work on changing the attitudes of society first ‘nip it in the bud’ is not a cliché for no reason, if the rest of society, or even just the target market of magazines such as Vogue make it clear that photo shopping is unacceptable to them then it will eventually stop. At the end of the day it all comes down to the bottom line and the consumer has the power to control that and so these magazines have it in their best interests to please the consumer.

#1

Ok, so this is my first time venturing into the blogging world, if you've managed to find my page, I'm guessing you wouldn't mind  knowing more about me. I am a first year student who has just moved to London from the midlands. I am still getting used to the 'London life' but I am very much enjoying it. I am the kind of person, as cliche as this sounds, who loves to keep my finger on the pulse. The first three things I do every morning are check Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and Digital Spy in that order. My interests vary from, nails, GIRLS, music, fashion, Top Shop, Katy Perry, competitions, concerts and all things media related- as broad as that is. Anyway, I hope I haven't bored anyone.