...The Media’s Effect on Women’s Body Image Women and young girls are obsessively trying to alter their appearance just to look like the perfect body images we see in movies and magazines. What is body image? Body image is how people picture themselves and how they think other people picture them. It is basically how you feel about your body, and it includes your imagination, emotions, and perception. Images portrayed by the media tend to make people strive to be someone else's idea of perfect, while ignoring their own goals. The media influences us through television, health magazines, fashion, music videos, film, commercials, and various other advertisements. Sadly, as a result, this frequent exposure, the "thin" ideal, can lead many young girls in triggering depression, stress, low self-esteem, and suicide. The media's ideal body image has led to wide-ranging effects including, surgical procedures, body dissatisfaction, and clinical eating disorders. In “Body Image of Women” by Tabitha Farrar, she points out that the “thin-ideal media” concept highlights thinness as a desirable thing to be even if it comes to the point of damaging a person’s health. Farrar indicated that marketers will do anything that they can to sell a product and make a profit. She also mentioned that poor body image can lead to depression, anxiety, problems in relationships, unhappiness, and various health problems. Farrar suggested that people can focus on their good qualities, work with self-esteem...
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...Research shows that women are negatively impacted by the media’s presentation of unattainable yet desirable portrayals of women’s bodies because it causes women to be discontented with their own bodies-often leading to body dysmorphic disorder, women focus on their perceptions of themselves comparatively to what they are exposed to through media instead of simply living healthfully as they try to copy what they see as desirable in the media and are therefore losing their individuality. Annotated Bibliography: Alexandra Ossala (2010). The Media's Effect on Women's Body Imade. New York: Hamilton College. In this article, Arielle Cutler, explores the emphasis that woman have on how they view themselves, beauty standards set by society, how body image is impacted by the media and the impacts of all of this on young women. It goes on to explain how she spent a summer exploring the efficacy of media literacy programs to use as a solution to the cycle of media affecting women and their body image. Arielle Cutler's findings are that the cultural standards in American society believes that the beauty standard is to be thin. Cutler explains that there is great concern for this as being thin is accepted over being average and that the norm of being thin is obsessive and unhealthy in American society. A study of girls, whom are European American and African American that are ages 7-12 years, when the media exposure is greater, such as television, they are more likely to have an eating...
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...Sexualization and Media influence our perception of what men and women are supposed to be. In addition how GQ magazine enables women to be sexualized and forces men into the media’s ideal masculinity. All these three factors are intertwined. In today’s media there is an outflow of how body image, masculinity and femininity, also how gender roles should be determined. We look into the basis that in the modern age, we are predetermined to look a certain way, mainly by the media’s portrayal of what a man and women should exhibit. Subliminal messages are thrown out in our everyday life. For example, to toy Bratz force children at a young age to associate this toy with what beauty should be. Another example, young boys are forced into a vicious cycle of what a man is supposed to be. They are subjected to the media’s voice of how a man should act....
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...about $55-billion on cosmetics, it is no surprise that 82% of women apply makeup to increase their self-confidence (Cash, 1989, p.351). This depressing statistic means that only 18% of women do not need to apply makeup to increase their self-confidence. In today’s American society, we are constantly bombarded by images of flawless, perfect figured girls in the media. The media is allowed to set the beauty standard, and its presence can become harmful towards women, and society as a whole. The media reinforces its message through a number of outlets such as: advertisements, social media, and magazines, ultimately making its influence inescapable. Although it may be too late to change the media’s grip on our generation,...
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...this social influence there is a lot to take in, especially when it comes to the media’s influence in beauty. Most people think that they can decide what to take in from it all. Like all they have to do is to just say yes or no, like whether or not to buy something off a commercial. However, there is countless evidence that shows that it’s not that easy. Today’s media is influencing people’s perception of beauty without even realizing it. The way people are seeing themselves and others is being negatively impacted by media from media’s “ideal body image.” Thanks to the constant exposure everyday throughout our lives from early is radiating on people making them...
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...Body image is a complicated aspect of the self-concept that concerns an individual's perceptions and feelings about their body and physical appearance (Cash & Pruzinsky, 2002). Having a positive body image means that, most of the time, you see yourself accurately and you feel comfortable in your own body. Many women of all sizes and ages struggle with issues involving confidence and body image. Whether it’s the size of your nose or the size of your lips, hair or skin color, More than 90 percent of girls – age 15 to 17 years – want to change at least one aspect of their physical appearance. Body weight of course ranking in at the highest. Images in the media today project an unrealistic and even dangerous standard of feminine beauty that can have a powerful influence on the way women view themselves. Young girls are buying into waist training belts and lip injections just to fulfill the image of celebrities that they admire such as Kylie Jenner and Nicki Minaj. Images of Women in the Media Thinness is idealized and expected for women to be considered “attractive”. The media is bombarded with images of women who fulfill these unrealistic standards. Making it seem as if it is normal for women to live...
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...Body image is how one views their own body, for example, how it looks, how it feels and how it moves. One’s perception of their body is molded by insight, emotion, and physical perceptions, but can change depending on the mood and environment. Because adolescents undergo significant physical transformations to their bodies during puberty, they are likely to experience highly distorted images of their bodies. Body image is strongly affected by self-esteem and more so than by opinions of others. It can, however, be strongly influenced by the cultural messages and standards of society regarding appearance and what is deemed attractive. Given the prevalence of thin and toned female images and the strong and likenesses of the lean and muscled male, which is common to most American societies, body image issues have become widespread among teens and adolescents. The issue of body image come into the spotlight in recent years because of the incidence of obese people in America. The ideal body, as...
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...Research Assignment: Body Image “If your hair isn’t beautiful, the rest hardly matters” (an ad for shampoo). A woman in a diet ad exults, “I’d probably never be married now if I hadn’t lost 49 pounds.” Society never noticed beauty because it is too busy trying to create it. What role is media playing in the effects it has on people? Today's media in America affects social standards, and many often identify the media as their primary source of information. The mass media serves as a mediating structure between individuals and how we address identity by sending a powerful message to society: only a determined physical stereotype of beauty is valued. Reiterated by other primary agents of socialization, such as families, peers and schools, the idea is taken seriously by individuals. Body image is a complicated aspect of the self-concept that concerns an individual's perceptions and feelings about their body and physical appearance. Media negatively affects body image through ideal appearance, health issues and self-esteem. Effects of Advertisement: Society is extremely immersed in media. Media portrays the ideal body image negatively and impacts ideal appearance through magazines, commercials, and advertisement. The mass media's depiction of women portrays a standard of beauty that is unrealistic and unattainable for a majority of women in society. For example, Amy Finley, a community leader advocating advice for women, discusses a healthy message that women shouldn't be judged...
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...Objectification.” Psychology of Women Quarterly, vol. 32, no. 3, 1 Sept. 2008, pp. 245–256. Sage Journals, doi:10.1111/j.1471-6402.2008.00433.x. Accessed 15 Sept. 2017. In this article, Maya Gordon explores how sexual objectification can hinder and influence girls’ beliefs about their appearance. She specifically focuses on young African American girls whose ideals have been affected by the media’s distortion of beauty. To study this, Gordon took a survey of 176 young African American girls to understand the correlations between media and their need to focus on their appearance. The measures used within this study...
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...Harmful Effects of Media on Teenage Girls’ Self Image Media is one of the most effective tools in the world. People learn more from the media than any other single source of information. No matter where people look, they are constantly assaulted with images and ads, whether it is online, watching television, or even walking down the street. Because of the media’s ease of accessibility, it is vital that America understands the subliminal messaging behind the entertainment and advertising, not necessarily for the adults’ sake, but for the sake of their children’s impressionable minds. With the average teenager spending 10 and a half hours a day absorbing the media’s messages, it is imperative that parents become aware of the negative effects it is having on their child, especially young teenage girls. The media has targeted this demographic and the results are tragic. The average teenage girl spends 31 hours a week watching TV, 10 hours a week online, and 17 hours a week listening to music. (Kaiser Family par. 13) With that much time spent doing these things it’s a safe assumption that the media has a huge influence on teens and takes up a majority of their free time. Drew Altman, Ph.D., President and CEO of the Kaiser Family Foundation said, “When children are spending this much time doing anything, we need to understand how it’s affecting them – for good and bad” (par. 7). With the media imposing so much influence over young America, it is crucial that action be taken to mitigate...
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...60% of men and 50% of women read a newspaper each day and nearly half of all girls, from the age of 7 read a girls magazine each week. (Jade 2012). The media is a very important aspect of life in our culture. Through this idolization of media, pressure is inflicted onto the public to live up to these expectations that are set. The epidemic proportions of drive for thinness, body dissatisfaction, and unsafe weight among women have led theorists to posit the existence of mechanisms that are capable of impacting a large number of women. The media is one such mechanism that has an ever-increasing influence and reach on women around the world. In the United States, negative body image issues are well established in the female culture. The media and peer pressure are key catalysts that...
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...fit this definition act as role models for women who want to look like they do, and magazines and television advertisements are constantly telling women how they too can be “beautiful” by selling them weight loss products, exercise programs, and other image enhancers. The constant exposure to the media’s version of beautiful is not something that is often thought of as negative. However, their portrayal of what is beautiful has become distorted over the years, to the point where achieving this “thin-ideal”, which will be defined later, is nearly impossible for women if done through healthy means. Because of this, many women develop body dissatisfaction, which can lead to serious and dangerous consequences, such as the development of eating disorders, in order to be “beautiful”. While there are many factors that can be linked to eating disorders, research has found that the media’s influence on society’s portrayal of extremely thin females as the ideal body is directly correlated to the increase in body dissatisfaction, eating disorders and other harmful conditions found in women. By analyzing this from a feminist perspective, it can be argued that not only does the media’s influence on the idealization of thinness effect females physical and mental health negatively, but it also acts as reinforcement for the patriarchal culture prevalent in today’s society. There is a wide range of eating disorders, ranging from minor to severe. Body dissatisfaction, which is “a psychiatric condition...
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...The Media’s role in a Woman’s Beauty For such a long time, for as long as anybody could remember women have consistently been perceived as the inferior and weaker sex. Many may argue and say that this isn’t the case anymore but unfortunately it is considering the fact that although women now have equal rights as men and aren’t necessarily controlled by them anymore, men still are considered the dominant, stronger and more powerful sex. Due to this, women's physical appearance plays a very important role in society. Because of women being perceived in such a way, the only thing that gives women absolute power over men is their physical appearance, a man goes weak for a beautiful female. The sad thing is that we have let society define the beauty of a women and a major part of this society is the media. Women have always been perceived and portrayed as sex symbols, as if that is what they are only good for. Men and others in society don’t care about a woman’s intelligence if they look good. Our society has let a woman’s looks overshadow everything else that she is. Our society, has constructed itself into a society so image obsessed when it comes to women, in which color, body figure, and every aspect of a woman’s face is the source to why people approve or disapprove of that woman. Media affects the way young girls and adult women all around the world view themselves. This is why our generation of women is so self-conscious about their physical appearance, and this...
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...decades ago, when we as a society became fixated with tall, thin, women, and muscular men. Many popular magazines tell us to focus on physical, outside attributes (such as body shape, muscle tone, bone structure, hair, makeup, and clothing). Rarely mentioning the importance of being smart, sophisticated, funny, or any other characteristics which does not involve physical attributes. The media have brainwashed our minds, with the same body type, causing us to lose confidence in ourselves. These actors and actresses displayed, show bodies which are not realistic of the general population. Self-harm has increased over the years due to body distortion, diagnoses such as depression, suicide, anorexia, substance abuse, and eating disorders...
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...Media: Mirror of Society Everywhere in the world, society keeps evolving and changing. The thoughts, mindsets, and ideas of cultures all over the world are constantly changing due to the influences of what they see. The media has always had a role in the construction of an individual’s body image and ideal self. In the article “How does the media influence our thoughts on body image?” Kayhan, Baig, Mehmi and Basra argue that during the early 20th century the ideal, beautiful woman was 5’4 tall and about 140 pounds with a small mid-section; yet, for some if not most women, in order to achieve a small waist they would be put into a Victorian hourglass corset, which shrunk the woman’s waist to a much smaller size, we still see these tactics used by today’s women. This issue isn’t only occurring in the United States, it is a worldwide problem that continues to grow. The media uses the social elite, such as athletes and actresses, to advertise products and goods; the use of these models can have significant outcomes, both negative and positive, on individuals in our society. The positive being that viewers of these magazines that advertise skinny models and fit athletes may be influenced to change their lifestyle from unhealthy to healthy. The negative being that viewer’s want to take the quickest and easiest ways in order to achieve results, which can lead to dangerous side effects and habits. So the question is, is it even worth it to try to look perfect if dangerous methods...
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