Assignment: Recognizing and Responding to Those Who Self-Harm For some adolescents, experiencing physical pain becomes a regular practice for managing psychological pain. Whether used as a coping mechanism, a way to express anger, or to deal with intense emotional pain, self-harming is often a call for help. In school settings, faculty and staff are charged with protecting students, but how can they protect those students who choose to harm themselves? The importance of educators understanding the circumstances, causes, and effects of self-harming behavior so they can respond quickly and effectively cannot be overstated. For this Assignment, consider your role as a social worker and think about how you would raise awareness for educators to respond to this increasing maladaptive coping mechanism. Submit a 5- to 6-slide PowerPoint presentation explaining the indicators of self-harm, appropriate interventions, and follow-up steps for educators needing to respond to those who self-harm. Please provide a page for references. Media Influences on Women's Health.html The recent news has been reporting this event that occured late 2014. This article was posted on a website called ThinkProgress but similar articles were found on other sites, including USA Today. This select article contains very informative links that provide opportunites for further exploration.  1. Navigate this article with the links provided and develop a position statement addressing how the media impacts women and potentially impacts health related issues for women. (For example, does advertising only showing women as thin and beautiful likely contribute to eating disorders, depression, or poor self-esteem.) One of the contestants in this year’s Miss USA pageant made national headlines last week even though she didn’t ultimately win the competition. Social media users praised Miss Indiana for having a “normal body,” rather than being a “complete twig” in her bikini. “I think the normality that everybody keeps talking about is just the fact that I’m relatable,” the contestant, whose real name is Mekayla Diehl, said in an interview with People Magazine. “I’m confident in my own skin. I didn’t obsess over being too skinny or not being tall enough.” The positive reception for Diehl isn’t the only recent example of pop culture sparking a larger conversation around the unrealistic expectations for women’s bodies. Earlier this year, the lingerie line Aerie and the British department store Debenthams won widespreadpraise for announcing they won’t retouch their underwear models anymore. Brands like Pantene, Special K, and Dove have released ads specifically intended to empower women. Seventeen Magazine promised not to alter the body sizes or face shapes of its models after anonline petition asking for more images of “real girls” went viral. An increasing number of celebrities are expressing disappointment with having their photographs altered. And this past spring, TV viewers reacte.

1. Assignment: Recognizing and Responding to Those Who Self-
Harm
For some adolescents, experiencing physical pain becomes a
regular practice for managing psychological pain. Whether used
as a coping mechanism, a way to express anger, or to deal with
intense emotional pain, self-harming is often a call for help.
In school settings, faculty and staff are charged with protecting
students, but how can they protect those students who choose to
harm themselves? The importance of educators understanding
the circumstances, causes, and effects of self-harming behavior
so they can respond quickly and effectively cannot be
overstated. For this Assignment, consider your role as a social
worker and think about how you would raise awareness for
educators to respond to this increasing maladaptive coping
mechanism.
Submit a 5- to 6-slide PowerPoint presentation explaining the
indicators of self-harm, appropriate interventions, and follow-
up steps for educators needing to respond to those who self-
harm.
Please provide a page for references.
Media Influences on Women's Health.html
The recent news has been reporting this event that occured late
2014. This article was posted on a website called ThinkProgress
but similar articles were found on other sites, including USA
Today. This select article contains very informative links that
provide opportunites for further exploration.
1. Navigate this article with the links provided and develop a
position statement addressing how the media impacts women
and potentially impacts health related issues for women. (For

2. example, does advertising only showing women as thin and
beautiful likely contribute to eating disorders, depression, or
poor self-esteem.)
One of the contestants in this year’s Miss USA pageant made
national headlines last week even though she didn’t ultimately
win the competition. Social media users praised Miss Indiana
for having a “normal body,” rather than being a “complete twig”
in her bikini. “I think the normality that everybody keeps
talking about is just the fact that I’m relatable,” the contestant,
whose real name is Mekayla Diehl, said in an interview with
People Magazine. “I’m confident in my own skin. I didn’t
obsess over being too skinny or not being tall enough.”
The positive reception for Diehl isn’t the only recent example
of pop culture sparking a larger conversation around the
unrealistic expectations for women’s bodies.
Earlier this year, the lingerie line Aerie and the British
department store Debenthams won widespreadpraise for
announcing they won’t retouch their underwear
models anymore. Brands like Pantene, Special K,
and Dove have released ads specifically intended to empower
women. Seventeen Magazine promised not to alter the body
sizes or face shapes of its models after anonline petition asking
for more images of “real girls” went viral. An increasing
number of celebrities are expressing disappointment with
having their photographs altered. And this past spring, TV
viewers reacted with horrorwhen the winner of the reality show
“The Biggest Loser” appeared to have losttoo much weight.
So are we getting closer to a tipping point where unrealistic
images of women’s beauty are going out of style? Are brands
starting to recognize that photoshopping hurts their bottom
lines? Will TV viewers start rejecting contestants who
are unrealistically thin?
Well, not exactly, according to Dr. Renee Engeln, a psychology
professor at Northwestern University who studies media
objectification and body image issues.
“I think it tells us how far down the rabbit hole we’ve gone

3. when an unusually tall and thin woman with no visible cellulite
and plenty of visible musculature is seen as representing the
‘average’ American woman simply because she is not
dangerously thin,” Engeln said in reference to Miss Indiana,
who is a size 4. “She looks healthy — and that’s great. But it’s
worth backing up for a moment and noticing that we’re talking
about a contest that involves women walking around in bikinis
while others evaluate the worthiness of their physical
appearance.”
And of top of that, it’s important to remember that companies
like Aerie, Debenthams, and Dove are still very much in the
minority. The movement toward non-airbrushed images is “so
minuscule as to be practically invisible,” according to Engeln,
and even ads that aren’t retouched don’t necessarily feature real
diversity when it comes to age, race, and body size.
“There’s a paradox at work here: Many women like looking at
the very same images they feel hurt by,” Engeln pointed out.
“Advertisers shows us highly idealized, airbrushed images
because we find them so compelling, because they help to sell
products. Much of the effectiveness of advertising rests on
creating a sense of vulnerability in the consumer and offering a
product to allay that vulnerability. We claim we want to see
more realistic images, but we also like looking at beautiful
people.”
“There’s certainly a middle ground there,” she added, “and I
hope more advertisers find it.”
Conversations about unrealistic portrayals of women are hardly
new. Dove’s “real beauty” campaign — which purports to
celebrate women of all shapes and sizes, but which has garnered
some criticism for being too patronizing — recently marked its
10th anniversary. Over the past two decades, the issue of
retouching models was covered in documentary
films and television showsbefore it was
the subject of Jezebelposts. But thanks to the internet, these
discussions now have wider reach.
“We’ve known this was going on for a long time. However,

4. women may be starting to care about the issue more than they
used to,” Engeln said. “What we’re seeing in the past few years
is that ‘sharing’ instances of particularly egregious
photoshopping and videos about photoshopping has become a
regular part of social media for women.”
Some members of Congress are beginning to take notice, too.
The “Truth In Advertising Act of 2014,” introduced by Reps.
Lois Capps (D-CA) and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL) this past
March, would allow the Federal Trade Commission to crack
down on companies that use overly retouched images in their
ads. “The dissemination of unrealistic body standards has been
linked to eating disorders among men and women of varying age
groups, but it has a particularly destructive health effect on
children and teenagers,” the legislationnotes. Anti-eating
disorder groups lobbied in support of the bill this spring, but
it hasn’t moved yet.
2. Construct a position statement that addresses whether media
portayal of women appears more positive or more negative
based on examples(s) gathered from actual advertisements,
films, television, and other displays of women during women-
focused events. Create a position statement to contribute to a
debate concerning: Do you feel that the present media portrays
women more positively or more negatively? Utilizing the
resources in this module, formulate a position statement and
post to the open forum. At the conclusion of this assignment, we
will analyze to identify the consensus for this question.
Although no citation is required, I will require that you provide
at least one example for your position. This may be derived
from television or magazine advertisements or events that will
reflect validation for your statement.
The recent news has been reporting this event that occured late
2014. This article was posted on a website called ThinkProgress
but similar articles were found on other sites, including USA
Today. This select article contains very informative links that

5. provide opportunites for further exploration.
1. Navigate this article with the links provided and develop a
position statement addressing how the media impacts women
and potentially impacts health related issues for women. (For
example, does advertising only showing women as thin and
beautiful likely contribute to eating disorders, depression, or
poor self-esteem.)
One of the contestants in this year’s Miss USA pageant made
national headlines last week even though she didn’t ultimately
win the competition. Social media users praised Miss Indiana
for having a “normal body,” rather than being a “complete twig”
in her bikini. “I think the normality that everybody keeps
talking about is just the fact that I’m relatable,” the contestant,
whose real name is Mekayla Diehl, said in an interview with
People Magazine. “I’m confident in my own skin. I didn’t
obsess over being too skinny or not being tall enough.”
The positive reception for Diehl isn’t the only recent example
of pop culture sparking a larger conversation around the
unrealistic expectations for women’s bodies.
Earlier this year, the lingerie line Aerie and the British
department store Debenthams won widespreadpraise for
announcing they won’t retouch their underwear
models anymore. Brands like Pantene, Special K,
and Dove have released ads specifically intended to empower
women. Seventeen Magazine promised not to alter the body
sizes or face shapes of its models after anonline petition asking
for more images of “real girls” went viral. An increasing
number of celebrities are expressing disappointment with
having their photographs altered. And this past spring, TV
viewers reacted with horrorwhen the winner of the reality show
“The Biggest Loser” appeared to have losttoo much weight.
So are we getting closer to a tipping point where unrealistic
images of women’s beauty are going out of style? Are brands
starting to recognize that photoshopping hurts their bottom
lines? Will TV viewers start rejecting contestants who
are unrealistically thin?

6. Well, not exactly, according to Dr. Renee Engeln, a psychology
professor at Northwestern University who studies media
objectification and body image issues.
“I think it tells us how far down the rabbit hole we’ve gone
when an unusually tall and thin woman with no visible cellulite
and plenty of visible musculature is seen as representing the
‘average’ American woman simply because she is not
dangerously thin,” Engeln said in reference to Miss Indiana,
who is a size 4. “She looks healthy — and that’s great. But it’s
worth backing up for a moment and noticing that we’re talking
about a contest that involves women walking around in bikinis
while others evaluate the worthiness of their physical
appearance.”
And of top of that, it’s important to remember that companies
like Aerie, Debenthams, and Dove are still very much in the
minority. The movement toward non-airbrushed images is “so
minuscule as to be practically invisible,” according to Engeln,
and even ads that aren’t retouched don’t necessarily feature real
diversity when it comes to age, race, and body size.
“There’s a paradox at work here: Many women like looking at
the very same images they feel hurt by,” Engeln pointed out.
“Advertisers shows us highly idealized, airbrushed images
because we find them so compelling, because they help to sell
products. Much of the effectiveness of advertising rests on
creating a sense of vulnerability in the consumer and offering a
product to allay that vulnerability. We claim we want to see
more realistic images, but we also like looking at beautiful
people.”
“There’s certainly a middle ground there,” she added, “and I
hope more advertisers find it.”
Conversations about unrealistic portrayals of women are hardly
new. Dove’s “real beauty” campaign — which purports to
celebrate women of all shapes and sizes, but which has garnered
some criticism for being too patronizing — recently marked its
10th anniversary. Over the past two decades, the issue of
retouching models was covered in documentary

7. films and television showsbefore it was
the subject of Jezebelposts. But thanks to the internet, these
discussions now have wider reach.
“We’ve known this was going on for a long time. However,
women may be starting to care about the issue more than they
used to,” Engeln said. “What we’re seeing in the past few years
is that ‘sharing’ instances of particularly egregious
photoshopping and videos about photoshopping has become a
regular part of social media for women.”
Some members of Congress are beginning to take notice, too.
The “Truth In Advertising Act of 2014,” introduced by Reps.
Lois Capps (D-CA) and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL) this past
March, would allow the Federal Trade Commission to crack
down on companies that use overly retouched images in their
ads. “The dissemination of unrealistic body standards has been
linked to eating disorders among men and women of varying age
groups, but it has a particularly destructive health effect on
children and teenagers,” the legislationnotes. Anti-eating
disorder groups lobbied in support of the bill this spring, but
it hasn’t moved yet.
2. Construct a position statement that addresses whether media
portayal of women appears more positive or more negative
based on examples(s) gathered from actual advertisements,
films, television, and other displays of women during women-
focused events. Create a position statement to contribute to a
debate concerning: Do you feel that the present media portrays
women more positively or more negatively? Utilizing the
resources in this module, formulate a position statement and
post to the open forum. At the conclusion of this assignment, we
will analyze to identify the consensus for this question.
Although no citation is required, I will require that you provide
at least one example for your position. This may be derived
from television or magazine advertisements or events that will
reflect validation for your statement.