Analysis Of The Article 'Body Image Blues'

Whether society is watching a show on television, reading their favorite magazine, or scrolling through the news feed on social media, they will notice that there is a specific body type that is portrayed in America today. Through these images that are viewed, a trend has been set by Americans to achieve the ideal body image, and the effect is detrimental to society today because it increases eating disorders, mental illnesses, chronic health issues, suicide, and unhealthy lifestyles in men, women, and teenagers.

There are no questions to whether the media has influenced the self-consciousness people have on their body or not. Whether it is the front of a magazine cover or in a film or television show, the selection of models or actors are primarily thin or fit leading readers and viewers to worry or want to change the way their body looks. Body image is the way one sees oneself and imagine how one looks. Having a positive body image means that most of the time someone sees themselves accurately, and feels comfortable in their body; negative body image, what the media exemplifies for the majority of the time, is just the opposite. The media uses unrealistic standards of beauty and bodily perfection to drive ordinary people to be dissatisfied with their body image which can result in the search to obtain these unreachable goals.

We all in some point of our lives been, so delighted with a fairy tale movie or a book, but do not think about the drastic consequence it is portraying on having an ideal body image? Over, the decades we have seen how fairy tales have impacted every individual. From having our great grandparents to our parents reading and watching fairy tales at a very young age. Fairy Tales have been a great phenomenon for a very long time. With the making of Cinderella, Snow White, Beauty and the Beast, Rapunzel, and much more loved by many people. As time his passing, people are realizing that fairy tales are affecting young girls at a very young age. Targeting mainly their body image. Body image is really important for many girls because they need to be up to date with the fashion trends society is putting out there. Now, a day’s many Fairy Tales movies are being created in looking slim, pretty, blonde, long beautiful dress, and perfect with no imperfection. In creating these false expectations on how a girl is supposed to look is drastically changing their minds. Also, is affecting their self-esteem in being low, due to not being satisfied with their body. Young girls want to be a princess because they have everything and receive all the attention. Having the characteristic of a princess is changing girls in evolving a false identity. In having a perfect body like a princess is causing other girls to not fit in because they do not fit in the category of perfect. Although, some accept

Numerous men feel the exact same way Lucy Grealy did about her appearance. Just because they are men, does not mean they cannot be insecure about their own bodies. The media has a large influence on how a person feels about his or her appearance. Many individuals feel negatively about themselves after seeing the media’s version of ideal men and women. Grealy completely ignored the leading cause of body disappointment.

In 2005 more than 10 million cosmetic procedures were done in America. People can not stand how they look, they want to look better. Almost as if there is a competition going on about who can look the best. A large majority of people do not have a good view of their body image. Body image in America has changed for the worse due to the media, a lack of self confidence, and a growing obsession with beauty.

The issue of distorting body image in the media and its effects on people is not a new concept to modern time. There is a long history of body image’s powerful place in society because of people’s impressions of each other based on body image. Research has been done on the effects and outcomes of this issue. Recently, consumers have fought with the media to try and achieve a safer way to spread information and let these media outlets be successful without having severe impacts on adolescents especially, among other age groups. The general ethical principle that the stakeholders use in this fight is similar to utilitarianism, because each stakeholder believes they are bringing the greatest good to the greatest number of people. The stakeholders

Society has conditioned women since they were young to make it one of their priorities to look their best and set unrealistic goals of looking like the perfect Barbie doll. There are so many demands to fit into the ill-fitted mold that society brought upon women that are unattainable for the majority of the population. Every women has different body types due to their genetics and lifestyle. Therefore, only a small percentage of world are able to attain the body type that everyone dreams of having. Not

Today’s culture has placed women across the globe in a position where they are constantly flooded with idealistic images that depict what the media perceives as the “perfect body.” Quite often, young university-attending females, those who are involved in social identity formation, are exposed to numerous forms of media that fabricate various experiences relative to body image. In the past, researchers have surveyed women who are exposed to body-related standards using multiple forms of mass media as a unified entity, which has caused for limitations since each means -such as magazine advertisements- differs in relation to how a thin idealistic image is portrayed. In light of prior research, Harper and Tiggman established that

According to the society/media’s beauty standards and expectations, women are supposed to have big breasts, small waist, and big butt as said in the interview by my sister. From a young age, girls are taught about what they are supposed to look like through media. All these girls grow up to be women who have low self-esteems because they have been shown pictures of women who they do not look like but want to look like. Women want to fit into these unrealistic images because they are eager to be known as beautiful. Studies show that the more reality television a young girl watches, the more likely she is to find physical appearance important (Thompson, 2014). Research shows that women who consume more mainstream media, place a greater importance on sexiness and overall appearance than those who do not consume as much (Mazur,

Body image may be viewed as the way people see themselves and even imagine how they make look based off how they may feel about themselves. Yet it could also be viewed as the way other people see you. Body image, in medicine and psychology refers to a person 's emotional attitudes, beliefs and views of their own body (Positive and Negative Body Image). According to Positive and Negative Body Image, a negative body image develops when a person feels his or her body does not amount up to family, social, or media standards. Many people feel as if they don’t measure up to the belief of others. People who have accepted the way they look often feel good about their image and would be considered to have a positive body image. One’s appearance may not be measure up to how their family expects it to be or how it is perceived to be in the media, but once people learn accept and be proud of the way they look they’ll be better off in the long run. When a person is measured against the standards of the beauty seen frequently in the media and it doesn’t compare to how they feel about themselves it become discouraging. Having said that, long-lasting negative body image can affect both your mental and physical health which could lead to eating disorders down the road.

According to Australian Daily Mail, a study conducted down under showed that, out of 10,500 Australian women questioned on how they feel about their appearance, a staggering 89% of women all hated or wanted to change something about their appearance. A further study was conducted between 1,500 women and 1,500 men. Each person were to calculate their bmi and answer questions about their feelings towards their bmi. The study concluded that women are 10 times more likely to have body image issues than men.

Many aspects of a women's life have been controlled through the media as well. The media and advertisements of a women's portrayal is like a mirror that many women chose to compare themselves to. This mirror of comparison to the “perfect body” has not only effected many young girls and women but also young boys and men. The sexism controls the media in a way that men and women can’t see any other versions of themselves. The media have always influenced human beings in their lives, like the ratings of movies or songs lets people know what's worth watching or listening to. This control also goes along with body image. Those commercials with the perfect couple with amazing bodies and smiles on their faces do influence people to believe a perfect body won’t only get you a great looking spouse but also happiness. Another type of media that influences both men and women are ads that over sexualize human bodies because now there is a mirror of comparison to judge themselves with.

In today's society, it common is knowledge that the media is pressuring girls to look a certain way. It is hard to go a couple of weeks without a new line of barbie dolls being boycotted or a news story highlighting the issue makes the evening news. But what about men? How are men's idols portraying body image? What effect is this portrayal having on the health of men? And how can we control these effects.

A female should not feel insecure with her body when she is comfortable in her own skin, whether or not she weights 130 pounds or 150 pounds at 5’5”. According to Rehab’s study of the evolution of the female figure over one hundred years, “the body shapes of the most admired models have remained consistently slimmer than that of the average American woman.” Due to the significant increase in mass media throughout the twentieth century of the United States, there has been a noteworthy impact on the popular image of women. A woman being dissatisfied with their body is a everyday trend around the world where as

Society creates a standard of beauty for women that often changes along with society due to a new perspective on what it means to be beautiful in our culture. These standards for beauty create what our society believes makes a woman desirable, attractive, perfect, and overall beautiful.  Which then enforces unhealthy and unrealistic beauty ideals that negatively affect women's self-image and their body image because society has attributed beauty to self worth. The result is with the ever changing standards of beauty means women use various ways to alter their bodies and appearance by clothing, makeup, hair, dieting, exercising, and even taking extreme measures to perfect their looks through surgery.