A Rhetorical Analysis Of Whose Body Is This By Katherine Haines

When thirteen-year-old Alyssa looks into the mirror, she runs through a list of everything she hates about her body, “I wish my stomach was flatter, my chest was bigger, my thighs were skinnier, my arms were more toned, and my waist was smaller.” She looks into the mirror, comparing her body to the bodies of her friends, celebrities and the images she sees in magazines. Alyssa does not look like all those girls and this makes her feel gross, insecure and out of place. Beauty standards are so high they create negative body images and women who hate the way they look. Women look in the mirror and they pick themselves apart, and point out their personal flaws, and compare themselves to others. Women have a major difficulty with accepting the

In the minds of most girls, their body image is how people perceive them. They see themselves as inadequate if they do not meet up to society’s standards. However, in reality, we are not defined by what we look like on the outside. On the contrary, it is the image that Hollywood portrays that leads them to believe this. For the truth is we should live a healthy life by eating healthy and exercising daily. This is essential for our health not just because we are afraid of how others will look at us. In this essay, then, researching Hollywood’s image will show how it has a negative impact on the self-esteem and body image of young girls.

The mass media establishes ideological standards that if achieved will equate with happiness and acceptance” (19). However, most girls are never able to meet up to those standards for numerous reasons, which cause a great deal of unhappiness and distress. The media has given young women an overall negative mindset toward their body proven by women’s attempt to get the perfect Barbie image, sometimes resulting in unhealthy methods such as eating disorders and the loss of women’s individualism.

When flipping through a Victoria’s Secret magazine, one of the things that come out of every teenage girls mouth is “ Why can’t I look like that?” “I wish I looked like that”. According to the National Institute on Media and the Family “ at age thirteen, 53% of American girls are unhappy with their bodies, this grows to 78% by the time girls reach seventeen.” Sometimes most of us struggle to understand our feeling towards our bodies and our appearances. That is normal because of all of us have a body image. Body image is how we look at ourselves and also how we think people see us.

Almost every girl when they reach high school feels the expectation to conform to a certain body type and if they do not conform, then they feel awful towards themselves. We have celebrities in the world with unrealistic body types that people try to achieve, such as Kim Kardashian, Kylie Jenner, Alessandra Ambrosio and Gigi and Bella Hadid. As the growth of celebrities ‘perfect’ bodies rises, it is easy to see how the focus on how we look can slide into the dark side – negative body image.

Everyday girls are forced to be faced with the media’s image of the “perfect” body. The perfect image that the media portrays is an unrealistic version of how it thinks girls should look starting even at age five. Everyday girls are forced into thinking they aren’t “perfect” or “beautiful” enough and they have to do all these things to be the way the media wants them to be or makes them think that they need to be.

In todays society the media implicates the basic idea of the perfect woman to be skinny and beautiful. But what is beautiful? Magazines everywhere promote the latest style and the way you should look to be what is considered “normal” or acceptable. Young girls should not have to worry about the clothes they wear and if it’s the next best thing just because the model on the cover said so.

A magazine advertisement’s main selling point is a model or the “perfect body” that all girls dream of having. We all think that these advertisements cause no harm. But in reality, teenage girls are developing self-consciousness and sensitivity around their peers. They worry that their shape, size, and muscle tone is all wrong. On womensenews.org, Joan Jacobs Brumberg, author of “The Body Project: An Intimate History of American Girls”, states, “The body has become the central personal project of American girls.” A lot of young women start to question themselves, “Am I pretty enough?” or “Am I skinny enough?” Because of these questions, most girls end up depressed or having suicidal thoughts. A 15 year old girl wrote on a website stating that she worries that she’s not good enough.

Today, many women are not as self-confident about their appearance as they should be. Many would take one look at themselves in the mirror and see all flaws and no beauty. Females believe there is a “perfect body” they must have and if they don’t achieve it, they will be nothing. However, this is not the case. Every women body is beautiful. But as more and more women begin to down-grade their body, they develop low self-esteem, depression, and hate for themselves. Body image has power however, women have a greater power within them to not allow body image to take control of them. Throughout this paper, we will discuss about women having difficulties falling in love with their body, how media has influenced what a female’s “perfect body” is, what women do to get the “perfect body”, low self-esteem, depression, and women knowing their worth and loving themselves.

Current magazines and use of media demonstrate how personal body image has been a very important social value for women for over hundreds of years. Females, even more than males seem to be sensitive to the way they view their body and overall physical appearance. In the past, the pressure to have the Perfect

Women and girls no longer feel that pursuing beauty is a choice. Instead, many females feel a pressure that they must achieve the standard of beauty presented to them, and even use beauty to define themselves. Today, we are bombarded by the media, trying to sell products related to beauty, fashion and dieting products. The influence of the media conveys that individuals must improve the way they look in order to be accepted by society. People need to be educated on this problem because these unrealistic beauty standards are harmful and can cause “a schema that integrates three fundamental components: idealization of slenderness and leanness; an irrational fear of fat; and a conviction that weight and shape are central determinants of one’s identity” (McPhail 102). While societal beauty standards have been used by overweight and obese individuals, as motivational tools to lose weight, they are mainly the reasons for an increase in eating disorders and low self-esteem issues.

The media depicts an unrealistic body as ideal. Women see impractical pictures of other bodies all the time. “Women are constantly bombarded with "Barbie Doll-like" images" (Body Image par. 1). This quote conveys how women struggle with their body image since perfection is everywhere. Even though magazines and advertisements play a role in body image issues, there are other influences. “Peer groups are to blame, as well as social media and filtered photographs," says O'Neill. "Everybody is just projecting 'perfection' images instead of the gritty realities of stretch marks, lumps, and bumps. It's pervasive

Demi Lovato once said, “I’m not going to sacrifice my mental health to have the perfect body.” However, today we find that many individuals are doing the completely opposite. In Susan Bordo’s, “Globalization of Eating Disorders” essay, they fall into the media trap, the self-image trap, where they are concerned of what people may think about them. Americans nowadays have pageants, modeling, and media to thank for this absurd notion. Fit women, along with strong men give this motivation to others to want to be like them. Most people should be comfortable with their own bodies. Americans are mesmerized with media and enthralled by one’s body image, and ,as a result, face ramifications like eating disorders and anorexia.

Body image insecurity is an issue that a large majority of females in our world face on a daily basis. Celebrities have been idealized by the media to a point of unreachable standards, not always by their own desire. Modifications and enhancements are made to nearly all published photos, making the perfect body type one that does not truly exist in the real world. Because of today’s technological advances, celebrity news is never more than a smart phone click away. This constant availability has enabled females to compare and analyze their own bodies more than ever before. Individuals ideal self-image seems to have grown farther and farther from their actual self-image, presumably due to the “perfect body” stereotype that is projected to

In order to meet the society’s standards for looking “perfect” is not always easy, especially for girls. Girls are judged by their appearance everyday more than guys, and the standards are based on what’s being shown in the media. Researches has pointed to these influences as having a heavy impact on a person’s body image. Media is constantly showing what a perfect female or male is supposed to look like. Which led to negative affect body images in teens and adolescents more than any other age group.”About 58 percent of college-aged girls feel they need to be a certain weight to be considered attractive.”( Body images, facts, 2017).