Style is a distinctive image and/or manner something can be expressed in the means of getting a message across. In Stuart Ewen’s, Introduction to the New Edition, Ewen explored his bias on how American society continues to focus on a set of new fascinations or images that tend to have no meaning behind it. The introduction targeted some of the various things society feels are more appealing to their eyes. This issue created a huge gap between the significant events that occurred years ago and the events that are rising now. As new values arise as the center of attention, old values are easily forgotten. Throughout the introduction, Ewen touched on key points such as the way style and image has controlled the lives of many with media, societal …show more content…
Ronald Reagan’s presidency represented the period where “image is everything.” Style and image have shifting definitions, which led to Ewen’s interests of finding the ways that their diverse meanings affect the lives of real people. As a professor at Hunter College, Ewen decided to give his students an assignment that asks how each of them defines style in their lives. This vast amount of essays enlightened Ewen on the diversification of perspectives of each student’s experience with the power of image and its influences on lives. Each student expressed the choice to either conform to the style and image that surrounded them in modern society or rebel against it, creating their own sense of identity. Introduction to the New Edition emphasized the messages media puts out to portray the “perfect” image. This false image of beauty created a division between image and reality. Consumers aren’t explicitly given moral principles of true beauty and self-identity now that media has defined perfection using ideal idols such as Barbie dolls, fashion models, and other “perfect” figures shown in films and in magazines to depict a world without