Is this question running around your mind, draining your self-esteem? In case you didn’t notice, what we see in the media may make us question our self-worth or how we fit in in society. Understanding how this works by talking about mediated reality and the ideology of consumerism may just change your perspective.

In our modern world, it’s without a doubt that engaging with media is part of our everyday lives. It’s inevitable. In our daily engagement with media, its content influences what we think and how we view reality. Mediated reality, as defined by Shoemaker and Reese (2014), is the view of the world that the media portrays. However, they added that the portrayal of reality through media does not mirror reality. Today, this mediated reality touches and shapes our beauty standards and the lifestyle it promotes that we “should” achieve or practice. As a Filipina woman, I can’t agree more that we have existing beauty standards which lean on Filipinas possessing more eurocentric features such as having whiter clear skin, pointy nose, long legs, skinny, or with straight long hair. Take a look at this interesting YouTube video I saw from Rec Create tackling Philippine beauty standards: