Annotated Bibliography: Body Image And Magazine Advertising

Over the years there have been several studies on the effects the media has on shaping an individual’s body image. A long with these studies came scientific social theories; some of these theories include the social comparison theory, self-schema theory, self-discrepancy theory. The social comparison was developed in the 1950’s by Leon Festinger. This theory states that that we determine our own social and personal worth based on how we stack up against others. Individuals will compare themselves to others as a way to measure success. In the Self-schema

A day hardly ever goes by without hearing something about body image in our society. It seems to be all around us today and there is little we can do to avoid it being around us. I don’t like seeing this affecting our society, because I see it changing us in a bad way. In gathering information on just how and why people worry about their body image, ideas on how to prevent this obsess on were also

Today in modern society, we are driven by social forces. Not only do we strive for human approval and companionship, we also thrive on social media. The media plays such a pivotal role in what we buy, eat, wear, etc. that we are conditioning ourselves to fit the mold for the “perfect” or “ideal” body type. This social construct has been a pressing issue for many years regarding the female physique, but not as much has been said on behalf of men. When confronted with appearance based advertisements, men are more likely to experience muscle dissatisfaction, weight disparities, and anger and/or anxiety toward showing their body in public. This paper will address these facets of the media’s effect on male body image as well as presenting what has been done to address this quietly debilitating issue.

The media group that retouches images skews the “normal” body image of people through many of its outlets, including models in advertising and magazines, and actors in TV and movie productions. “The average model portrayed in the media is approximately 5’11” and 120 pounds. By contrast, the average American woman is 5’4” and 140 pounds” (Holmstrom, 2004). This statistic shows how the media manipulates consumers into believing that because they are not what the average model looks like, they are not living up to a certain standard which implies that they need to look like that to be beautiful. Another research fact that shows a similar concept is that, “In the United States, 94% of female characters in television programs are thinner than the average American woman, with whom the media frequently associate happiness, desirability, and success in life” (Yamamiya et al., 2005). This association of female thinness and happiness, desirability and success makes consumers believe they must achieve this unrealistic thinness to achieve more ultimate goals and fulfillment in life. “The media also explicitly instruct how to attain thin bodies by dieting, exercising, and body-contouring surgery, encouraging female consumers to believe that they can and should be thin” (Yamamiya et al., 2005). This idealization of thinness in the media is seen so much, and is extremely harmful to women’s self confidence and is often associated with body image dissatisfaction, which can be a precursor to social anxiety, depression, eating disturbances, and poor self-esteem (Yamamiya et al.,

Body image remains to be a very controversial topic in today’s society, because of how easy it is to become a hate crime over a small comment on how small or big someone’s body is. Today, it is unavoidable to see the look that it seems society wants us to look. Professor Susan Bordo writes the article, “Never Just Pictures”, describing her investigation between the media and its effects on how people view their bodies. She uses ethos, logos, and pathos to bring in the attention of the people, in order to get her message across to be aware of media and how they portray the ideal body image. Bordo notes the patterns of the different types of models that magazines and commercial ads use, to say that even though they have changed the face of beauty, they never really changed the body of it. And she analyzes the affects that these ads have on how people view their bodies, and alter what the ‘ideal’ body image is. Bordo uses other sources to prove her argument mainly allowing readers to have more reasons to side with her argument. Having reviewed this article, I think that we should publish this article in the Shorthorns, because it will attract the attention of most people, since right now young people still struggle with differentiating between what is a real body and what is a body that has been altered for the likes of what the media likes.

It seems that the media’s portrayal of women has negatively affected the body image of The Wykeham Collegiate senior school girls. The media has a negative effect on the youth of today, primarily amongst the female population when it comes to how young girls and women regard

Researchers have utilized various theoretical findings for examining the relationship between media and body image (Holmstrom, 2004 ). Here is the review of the theories that has been used by the researchers in the area. The most common of these theories is Festinger’s social comparison theory (1954, P. 120) where he argues that people assess themselves through comparison with others and more likely to compare themselves to those who are similar to them and who are attractive. This theory is aimed to encourage one to improve if she finds herself

(Posavac, Posavac & Posavac, 1998). It has even been suggested that the Medias overwhelming representation of thinness has a large contributing factor towards young women’s attitudes of their own body weight dissatisfaction (Jacobi & Cash‚ 1994). This dissatisfaction stems from discrepancies between the accepted standard of female body image repeatedly shown in today’s media and their own bodies leading to the formation of attitudes that their own weight is not adequate. For example, a meta-analysis comparing the results of 25 studies that presented media images of thin models, reported a significant effect size (of d= -0.31) across all studies, showing that women feel worse about their own body image after exposure to thin images than

Our project centred around a health concern that receives less spotlight than the female counterpart - male body image issues. The media’s portrayal of the ideal body for men is often centred around built, muscular figures, setting an unrealistic standard for men in today’s society. Contrary to popular belief, men and women do not vary in their level of body dissatisfaction, according to research by Siberstein (1998). Many men are unhappy with their bodies, and even the men within the healthy range are not satisfied - they are often found with the desire to increase their body size (Varnado-Sullivan et al., 2006; as cited in Hughes et al., 2015) When males are compared and compare themselves with the ‘popularised cultural standards of attractiveness’

The media displays the “average man” as being hairless and very well built which may negatively affect the male population. The public blames the media and celebrities for supporting the idea of the "ideal" body type. Both men and women want slim, fit bodies. But the media has turned both genders against each other making it a competition, which is negatively affecting the public ("Body image concerns more men than women, research finds"). “According to Chris Godsey, emphasis on male physical beauty in the media may contribute to negative body image in boys and young men. He contends that repeated images of perfectly sculpted, hairless male torsos

Seeing overly skinny models in the media does not enhance women’s self-esteem, self-worth, or self-image. The degree of thinness exhibited by models is both unachievable and biologically inappropriate and provides unhelpful role model for women.

The internalization of the “thin ideal” denotes a key cause of such dissatisfaction (Dittmar). Thin-ideal internalization is the degree to which a person will consciously accept a social definition of beauty, and in turn take action to parallel these values (Thompson and Stice). The mass media is viewed by countless body image experts as a “particularly potent and pervasive” root of thin-ideal internalization because of the notoriously unattainable idea of perfection it portrays (Boone et al.). Young girls and women are plagued every day by images of pin-thin, underweight women, not-so-subtle implications of the standard of attractiveness that they feel expected to meet, and are made to feel inadequate when they inevitably fail.

Additionally, in “Body Image and the Media,” Walker affirms that “People compare themselves to images, internalize these idealized images as the norm, and absorb the message that they should judge themselves based on their appearance” (1+). The study published in “An Intervention…”, contemplated that the image of a woman with a slim figure would cause the viewer’s self-appreciation to decline, yet when presented with media fallacies, her self-appreciation would increase (Haas et. al. 405+). Haas postulates that “Interaction effects and post-hoc analyses revealed significant positive changes in the experimental group’s view of their overall boy esteem, sexual

In roughly three decades, the number of advertisement exposed to consumers daily went from 500 in the 1970’s to as many as 5000 today (Johnson, 2006). Fashion advertisements often promote models that have an ideal body which is often models with thin bodies (Diedrichs & Lee 2011). Consequently, these advertisements set unrealistic standards to the public (Yu, Damhorst & Russell, 2011). Researchers have found that consumers are constantly comparing themselves to media ideals which could affect their body image (Yu, Damhorst & Russell, 2011). Body image is “the way an individual perceives their physical self, but more importantly the thoughts and feelings the person experience due to that perception” (Healey, 2014). There are four aspects of body image, it includes perceptual, affective, cognitive and behavioural (Healey, 2014). Perceptual is the way you see yourself (Healey, 2014). Affective is the way you feel about the way you look (Healey, 2014). Cognitive is the thoughts and beliefs you have about your body (Healey, 2014). Behavioural is the things you do in relation to the way you look (Healey, 2014). These aspects are taken into consideration whenever a consumer compares their own body to those that are shown in fashion advertisements. In addition, study have shown that someone that has a negative body image is associated with physical and psychological health problems (Diedrichs & Lee, 2011). The ideal bodies that are shown in

Through all forms of media, you can find petit images of the “ideal” woman's body. These images are seen on billboards, magazines, in commercials and in ads. There has been anl interest in women’s body image throughout the years. Women’s self-esteem, eating patterns and how these two concepts are affected by what a women sees in the media have been researched. This line of research is important through discovering the link between poor body image and the media’s portrayal of how women should look. If more advocates spoke more about society's unrealistic standards of what beauty is, there could potentially fewer cases of anorexia and bulimia in teens and young adults looking to change their image. It could lead to increased self-esteem and a more positive body image amongst women. The purpose of this research paper is to advocate for more realistic images. Use everyday women. Often times, there is a correlation between the way individuals view themselves, after seeing the media images of women. Women begin to feel less physically attractive.