Ciało w kulturze wizualnej : wybrane konteksty

Abstract

Modern man is exposed to countless images, mainly products of the pop culture. Generally, the reception of these does not require a great intellectual effort; visual content is easily absorbed by a mass recipient. Dominant in this visual content is the body whose “shape” is determined by social and cultural processes. A repeated exposure to images of an ideal body propagated by the western culture results in this image being internalized and conceived as a model, especially by young people. Consequently, young people define and evaluate themselves by the appearance of their body, simultaneously making many efforts to improve this appearance and social presentation. This behaviour can, however, cause various negative consequences both for an individual and society. The author’s awareness that the images of the body presented by the media usually do not reflect reality makes her emphasize the need to develop a strategy in media education promoting critical interpretation and evaluation of the visual coverage.