Media and Self Image

As a student worker for University Relations part of my job duties is to produce a weekly video called Across Campus.  Each week I come up with a new question to ask students and record their answers on my video camera.  I then edit the footage and publish the video on Arkansas Tech's YouTube channel.  Over the course of two years I have heard a wide variety of replies to my question of, "Do you mind answering a quick question on camera?" Some students are all for it, others are camera shy, and I do get a bizarre excuse every now and then.

First off, I completely understand why people do not always feeling comfortable in front of a camera. I personally prefer to be behind the camera.  The one response that I have heard consistently over the past two years is one that I find the most irritating. When I ask a female student (or a table of them) if they want to answer a question on camera sometimes I get the response of, "I look ugly today" or "I look like crap." Using my sociological imagination I began to think of reasons why I was getting this response.  I noticed there were two different categories for this response. One, some female students were recovering from being sick, or just got out of bed and genuinely did not want to be on camera. That is understandable. The group I want to focus on are the female students that have full hair and make up done and still say to me, "I am ugly today".  One day I had a girl speak for the entire table of sorority sisters and say to me, "We all look ugly today, none of us want to do it." Now, as a young woman myself I find it disheartening to hear this kind of negativeness about the self-body image. Especially in a world where women  are judged on what we wear,what we eat and the size of our body. My first reaction was a little bit of shock because I did not see a reason why these students should think of themselves as unattractive.  One possible reason, which I think is more likely why, is that they say that as an excuse to not be camera.  I do believe we are all intelligent adults, and I personally would much prefer just a simple, "No, maybe next time" than an excuse that either portrays them negatively or attempts to pull one over me. I would like to address that another perspective could be that our society encourages this behavior as acceptable.  That only a certain over -the-top look is the set standard of beauty that is only acceptable for a camera.  I disagree with this and that when it comes to the media, we should promote individual expression.