Prettier Than The Gibson Girl

Charles Dana Gibson (1867-1944) "The Gibson Girl"

"a tall, radiant being, her gaze clear, fearless and direct, her nose slightly and piquantly uptilted.  Her lips fine-modelled and alluring.  Her soft hair crowning a serene brow and caught up into a dainty chignon.  The graceful column of her neck rising from the decolletage that barely concealed her delicately-rounded bosom.  Her slim waist emphasized by the bodice cut of her gowns, gowns still with the vestige of a bustle and with full, smoothly-fluent skirts." - Fairfax Downey on Gibson Girl's first appearance in 1890

What makes a woman beautiful?  Today our society has turned beauty into something that is unrealistic.  Many are familiar with features that classify a woman as beautiful such as having a pretty face, flawless skin, skinny figure and sparkling eyes. And advertising plays a big role in defining beauty.  From the Gibson Girl to the modern Victoria's Secret Angels, advertising agencies have set a standard of an ideal beauty.  These affect the teens for they are in the stage of looking for a role model.  Beautiful cover girls on the magazines, billboards of women in sexy outfits - they tend to look up to them.  And most of the times, these causes problems to the teens.  Psychological problems like bulimia and anorexia haunt the teens in the western countries while the social pressure to be beautiful in the east heightened and causes depression.

In my project, I will be making a short film about two girls of two different culture.  The purpose of this film is to reduce the stress that teens receive from their insecurities.  I am hoping that this film will help the teens (or even women who have still insecurities with their image) to accept of who and what they are.  That whatever their size is, their skin color, the shape of their eyes and nose, they are beautiful.

Full preview of the documentary on Korean high school - by Kelley Katzenmeyer who won the 2010 YoungArts Gold Award in Cinema