Brad Pitt, the sexiest man alive? I don’t think so.

People magazine just released their sexiest men issue. Although this kind of topic is suppose to be light-hearted and not be taken seriously, having Pitt voted again as the sexiest man alive concludes that the media is giving little hope for change.

I don?t know if you can tell from my Tammy Faye-esque picture, but I?m a Caucasian woman with blue eyes and blonde hair. Now, according to the media, I should count my “All-American” looks as a godsend.

But wait, I?m not really beautiful after all because I?m tall and I?m not a size two.

Oh man, my life is over.

You know what really gets my goat is how some people of authority in the media circus don?t own up to their responsibility. These people are in the position to shape opinions, provoke thoughts and create stereotypes. They do a great job and it?s amazing how much power the media has.

The increased interest and clientele at your local yoga center proves that.

No one can deny that a lot of our dialogue is based on the ideas that were fed to us by some part of the media. When you talk to other people about someone else, analyze why you think the way you do. You?ll find that your view is not entirely original.

Take your idea of beauty for example. Being confronted with the same images over and over is going to be embedded into your mind. Everywhere you turn, you see the same carbon copy image that presumably represents beauty.

This monopolized promotion of what a person should look like in order to be considered beautiful is not only racist, but also it?s boring. Personally, I?m tired of seeing every magazine cover adorned with the same Caucasian model type. Can we please have some variety here? And I don?t mean redheads.

Another example of biased hype is the portrayal of politicians. Republican presidential candidate George W. Bush was constantly berated from the press and depicted as some kind of dumbbell. Well, okay, he did get C?s at Yale, but he got an MBA from Harvard. Now usually the mere mention of being associated with such prestigious schools would have people assuming that whomever the attendee was, that person was smart. You would?ve never guessed that George W. went to those schools by the way that the media illustrated him.

It?s hard to have conversations and not feel the influence of popular culture. People have no choice but to rely heavily on the media to know everything from what?s going down in Israel to whom teen pop sensation Britney Spears is dating. She?s dating Justin Timberlake from that boy band N?Sync in case you were wondering, but is that really as important as what is going on in the Middle East?

But I?m not interested in the surplus of information the media has to offer, rather how they relay their messages to its audience. When they randomly pick certain types of people to represent what the public should look and act like in order to obtain happiness, I have no choice but to disregard it.

I notice I enjoy life a lot more when I don?t watch television or read fashion magazines.

None of us were born with the knowledge we have now. Sure, school plays a part in how we look at the world, but the well-written articles we read or the interesting debates we see on television tend to serve as the real basis of our information. It?s too bad that nowadays it?s getting harder to dissect actual fact from propaganda.

Yeah, I?m so sure I could lead a healthy lifestyle by drinking a Slim-Fast shake for breakfast and lunch.

It?s important to keep in mind that although you cannot diverge from the power of media or its messages, you can determine how you think and feel regardless of what you read, see or hear.

So I don?t care what people say, Brad Pitt is not sexy.

Georgette Todd is a Journalism major. She can be reached by mail C/O the State Hornet? CSUS, 6000 J Street, Sacramento, CA, 95819 or by e-mail at [email protected].