Onslaught

 

Beauty Pressure

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The short video we watched called Onslaught addresses a predominate issue in society. The video addresses beauty and its crippling affects on the female mind in a materialistic world. The video partakes in illustrating an "experimental truth" about the beauty and fashion industry taking advantage of young women. The fast cuts and edits through the montage present an intense short video, a video that "conveys emotions and meanings that were intended without actually having to say so." This film is significant toward the reading as it illustrates a unique sense of storytelling that infiltrates the audiences empathetic mind through the  utilization of a tangible representation of young women becoming corrupted by the beauty industry. By showing the little girl in the film the audience will associate a face to the "victim" of beauty making the issue appear
dire and in need of adjustment and action, while also implementing a basic truth. Not only does the film contain significance through storytelling, following the Pixar reading, but the film also contains importance through its "artistic flexibility and social significance" (Yuri Norstein Reading). The film could have been constructed through several different positions and yet it is constructed in a unique sense. Most importantly it is essential to discuss the young child portrayed in the film. In film and in theater an actor must NOT break the fourth wall but in this film the child does break the fourth wall ... but unlike common theory saying that breaking this wall makes the audience disbelieve the action, while feeling uncomfortable, this film deals a different hand. The act of breaking the fourth wall in this film establishes a social truth and seeks to challenge the audience... almost as if the child is daring you to succumb to the beauty industry and to remain unaffected. By allowing the child to break the fourth wall, to "penetrate reality," the filmmakers had to have a lot of artistic flexibility and the fact that they encourage a social truth establishes a social significance. This film is significant to me because I am tired of living in a world where beauty and materialism can allow a person to climb the steps of the ladder, to receive more opportunities, to become an "exclusive" member of society, and it saddens me to observe people who are oblivious toward the beauty God has bestowed upon them, people who only see the "ugly disfigurements" society proclaims them to be. I fear that the world will succumb to a standard definition of beauty and that what makes us unique and beautiful will be destroyed through materialism and the IDEA of beauty, therefore destroying the true beauty God has bestowed upon us. I weep for that loss and I weep for the clones the beauty industry seeks to create. I weep for the beautiful children of God who are told you are not good enough, you are not pretty enough, and that to lead a successful future you most be supermodel thin with pounds of makeup on your face and numerous cosmetic surgeries. A world in which the beauty industry creates clones, that is the world I fear. The film Onslaught provides awareness against some of these issues because a picture, or a video in this case, can indeed speak a thousand words.

                                                      Stay Beautiful and God Bless,
                                                                   Randi Orr