The Community Life Program aims to address the topics and issues students will face both in the present and later in college, career, and life: healthy relationships, wellness and stress management, drug and alcohol use, appropriate technology use, citizenship (both local and global), and leadership, to name just a few. We address these issues through organized events designed to stimulate open conversation.
During a recent Community Life meeting, students examined the role of popular culture and advertising in shaping our personal biases around beauty. Within each house, students broke up into three or four groups and cut out images from magazines to create collages depicting ideal male beauty and ideal female beauty. Faculty facilitators asked students to consider such questions as:
Are there trends/themes in the way men and women are being represented?
What do these images say about the ideal of beauty or masculinity?
What characteristics/values/traits are associated with women and men?
What “stories” do these images tell?
Are these images positive or negative?
What is the message about women/men?
Are you affected or influenced by these images?