Looking back at my younger self makes me laugh and cringe at the same time because of my flaws. Going back to the statement of Jessica Bennett, the writer of "Say 'Cheese!' And Now Say 'Airbrush!'" states that students and parents wants to retouch their pictures because their flaws which is a waste. It is so questionable that parents sign their young kids to retouch their grade-school pictures at such a young age. This reflect on kids, especially girls, to think negatively about their shape. To prove, in the article state,"... 42 percent of first to third grade girls want to be thinner, while 81 percent of 10 years old are afraid of getting fat..." More younger kids feel insecure about themselves with more nitpicky parent changing their flaws
On top of this, 69% of girls in 5th-12th grade reported that magazine pictures and runway models influenced their idea of a perfect body shape (only 5% of the female population naturally has the body type portrayed as ideal in advertisement). This is obviously a problem because, growing up, girls everywhere are told that they’re pretty and that being pretty is the most important thing about them and they start basing their worth on their looks. But then, every single woman they see on TV, in movies, in magazines, any woman considered “hot” and “beautiful” doesn’t look like them anymore, which brings on deadly disorders like anorexia and bulumia that wreck the lives of young girls. Since 90% of people with eating disorders are women between the ages of 12 and 25, we should be asking ourselves “what is causing my child to develop destructive habits at such a young age?” The answer is that they’ve been told that the type of body
“Nearly sixty percent of women feel it’s ok to tweak her personal pictures, and twenty-three percent of women ages twenty-five to twenty-nine do it; that number climbs to forty-one percent among those ages eighteen to twenty-four,” today, there are multiple ways to show women how they can alter their own pictures to make themselves “look better” (Dreisbach). Several years ago, it would have seemed strange and perhaps vain, even for a woman to modify her personal photos. Now, it has become a relatively common occurrence, and usually no one says anything about it. The significance of this is that today’s world is filled with many ways that women and girls can photoshop themselves and this can affect the way their perspective is changed in the way they look at themselves. Furthermore, since Seventeen Magazine decided to take the no photoshop pledge, it shows that society, women, and girls that they do not need to edit photos to look “better,” because everyone is unique, which makes everyone beautiful in their own special
On the other hand, the images of flawless skin, athletic thin bodies , and with the possibility of Photoshop, teenagers are finding it impossible to achieve this standard of beauty. With these images portrayed everywhere, it has led to more than just low-esteem, it has led to distorted body image, jealousy, eating disorders such as anorexia nervosa and bulimia. The images of being thin portrayed by media can result in teenagers feeling depressed, anxious and incline in self-worth. These feelings can then lead to depression, low self-esteem and anxiety, causing teenagers to lose
Photoshop is known to fix even the slightest imperfections. This sets impossibly high standards for what women expect for themselves. Photoshopped images are destroying America’s body image. The media sets up high beauty and body standards for women. The media takes beautiful women and tells them they are not beautiful enough. Being beautiful nowadays is having a face covered in make-up, being “skinny” is having a thigh gap, and to be perfect is to have no flaws. Women need to start realizing they are beautiful with their flaws, but it’s a hard process to love your flaws and imperfections. Dove made a commercial about loving something as simple as your curls. A handful of young women (ages 5 to 11) were asked about how they feel about their
For girls, everything changes after they start paying attention to make up and clothing. Every girl growing up especially their transition from being in Middle school to High school, change their lifestyle routine where as their mothers would use to lay out their clothes to them to them having to pick clothes out for school every morning. But when you reach that age, girls always have a place in their body they aren’t proud of or ashamed of. Magazines from big companies like, Seventeen, Girl’s Life, etc. that feature many young models and celebrities who are around their age with the perfect body shape and face which leads to lots of girls to know that they aren’t happy with their body. Article: Social Comparisons, Reflected Appraisals, and
“Companies should absolutely stand up against Photoshop, especially those that once endorsed it and now see the damage it has caused,” Legleitner said. You may be left wondering: “What damage?”. The damage left from the use of photoshop is immense and it extends much farther than what may come to mind. A research study done by Heather R. Gallivan, PsyD, LP Park Nicollet Melrose Center found that “53% of 13 year-old American girls are unhappy with their bodies. This number grows to 78% by the time girls reach 17.” Her research shows that at approximately the age of 12 girls will have the most confidence in their body and then as the years progress of their youth that confidence will plummet. Another statistic that Gallivan shared was that in 2010 the Girl Scouts Organization did a survey with over one-thousand girls ages 13-17, the results noted that: “ 9 out of 10 girls felt pressure by fashion and media industries to be skinny.” It further explained that 60% of girls compare themselves to the models and use the images put out by magazines as an ideal body to strive for. Women and girls that feel this unethical influence by the fashion industry often times go through impacts including: depression, eating disorders, anxiety or even as terrible as suicidality. Knowing that women face emotional and physical impacts based off the unrealistic edited images put out by their brand should be disheartening to the companies at fault.
Americans have grown to try and look their best no matter what and this all stems from the way people view body image. Today someone could have anything they want done to change their appearance. “We are a culture of beauty junkies, addicts continually looking for our next fix to keep us looking young and pretty” (Masterson). Masterson believes that people are addicted to beauty and it is almost like a drug. This is not far from the truth. People go overboard to look as good as they possibly can with things like plastic surgery, botox, and even simple things like makeup. With the obsession with beauty as bad as it is today one seems to never be satisfied with how they look. “But that uplifting message--I'm OK the way I am--is overshadowed by the dark view readers are left with of a society obsessed with looks that isn't showing signs of stopping” (Masteron). The idea of someone being ok with their appearance gets quickly changed when they look around and see the world and the obsession it has. This is a huge reason body image is so bad in America now, because as soon as someone feels comfortable with their looks the standard changes. America’s obsession with looks is one of the biggest factors in the negative change towards body
Over the years a debate over who is to blame over the decline in how girls perceive themselves has arisen. With Photoshop being the societal norm concerning the media, it has become difficult for many to understand where the line between real and near impossible standards lies. Youths see an image edited to “perfection” and strive to reach the standards that they imagine due to the images displayed on magazines, television and social media. From Disney to magazines like Vogue the mass media bombards audiences with fake beauty that they, as normal people, will never be able to achieve. The mass media is responsible for causing the rise in the number of people with a poor body image, eating disorders, and cosmetic surgeries.
Body image has become a topic of conversation, with girls as young as five years old. Their conversations consist of their freckled complexion, the color of their hair, and even worse, their weight compared to others. The fact that at such a young age they are already finding concern and dissatisfaction with looks, can be alarming. With images of unattainably thin and flawless bodies scattered all over the media, there is no wonder that our younger generation is questioning their beauty and image. These images appear all around; on bill boards, in magazines, on television
Women’s Body Image (www.wellesley.edu/Health/BodyImage) helped demonstrates the young influence of magazines. Those days when girls strive to be something they weren’t, were probably the most crucial days in body imaging. They succumbed into the pressure of looking how everyone else wants them to look. Such teeny bopper magazines sell to many young girls the idea of beauty. Teen Magazine is the princess of that royal court. In every young woman, or man’s mind, there is this longing to be desired. To be desired, you must be attractive. To be attractive, you have to look like that girl on page seventy-one in the latest Teen Magazine (Women’s Body Image).
Under society’s norms for decades, young women have been put under the pressure and anticipation to have perfect bodies. That is, thin and curved, beautified by applying pounds of the makeup to their face but not appear ridiculously overdone. Who’s responsible for these standards imposed on young women? When a young girl picks up the model along the cover of Vogue being called flawless, it’s easy for her to then aspire to be a real-life imitation of the photocopy. These companies produce magazine covers shown with girls’ images daily. As if keeping the perfect body wasn’t hard enough our culture also forces girls into the forever expanding world of composition, however, body image is a pressing issue for young women. Advertisements and posters of skinny female models are all over. Young girls not only could be better but need to be more upright and feel driven to throw the perfect figure. Moreover, girls are evaluated and oppressed by their physical appearances. With supplements and apparel designed to enhance a facial expression; social media, magazines, and marketing campaigns and advertisements add to the burden of perfection. The fashion industry is a prime object of body image issues, as they believe clothes look better on tall and svelte women. Established on a survey participated by 13 to 17-year-old in the U.S., 90% “felt pressured by fashion and media industries to be skinny”, with more than 60% routinely compares themselves to models, while 46%
Many teens center a large part of their self-image on the way their body looks, a negative self-image may be linked to depression, anxiety, and eating disorders, and mental health problems. People with eating disorders generally have a negative body image and social media doesn't help because they are constantly comparing themselves to other people. In American society, messages about what the perfect body looks like are constantly delivered by the mass media. Television, movies, magazines, the Internet, and advertisements show us what society views as a perfect body—the ideal we should strive for. In the 1920’s two major changes happened in women’s lives the first thing was they got the right to vote and there was a mass production of clothes. With these changes no one was alike anymore and that’s when self-image came about. As the years went on self-image became more important and fashion models set standards of how people were supposed to look. For example Twiggy was 5’7 and weighed 91 pounds, many teenage girls tried to achieve the “Twiggy look” by dieting and that made many people have a negative body-image. Today’s models haven’t changed much they still are trying to achieve the “Twiggy look” but now their body-image is more positive and models take positive and negative criticisms
With the media being a very popular way of communication and self expression in today’s culture, it influences the way of younger generations to be more involved in today’s technology, and to allow them to influence the world by the press of a button. But one of the topics that is very controversial is that in today’s society is the high expectations of what they think a girl has to look like, from girls not having stretch marks or scars, to magazines and photographers using photoshop to convince readers that the model looks like that. With all of these being factors that there is pressure is high for many girls around the world, this has to resolved.
Our tweens and early teens are a time when children become more aware of celebrities and media images — as well as how other kids look and how they fit in. Girls and boys might start to compare themselves with other people or media images. All of this can affect how they feel about themselves and their bodies even as they grow into young adults. When the kids grow into young adults, they get social media, they have all these sources to media. They see all these people with the body thats perfect. In their eyes, they are not perfect. They are not accepted. They are not good enough. What they are wanting is to be accepted and wanted and good enough. So the young women look up all these at home workouts and healthy food. All these young men hit the gym and pre workout.
In this day and age, the epidemic of these so called ‘beauty’ standards is only getting worse and worse. Because of photo modification, low self esteem in regular everyday people is starting to become something that is nearly considered normal. Today, 42% of girls from age 5-8 want to be skinnier, 52% of girls aged 9 to 13 feel better when they are dieting and by the age of 17, 78% of girls are unhappy with their own bodies. Think about