Are Negative Body Images Only Influenced By Hormonal Changes?

Furthermore, media surrounds teenage girls in today’s culture. It is impossible to escape the sight of media. The media’s constant idealistic beauty is ever present to a vast amount of self-conscious girls. This image of beauty causes girls to have low self-esteem (Clay, Vignoles, and Dittmar). Media defining this perfect body image causes many adolescent girls to feel dissatisfied with their bodies and become depressed. “Viewing ultra-thin or average-size models led to decreases in both body satisfaction and self-esteem in adolescent girls aged eleven to sixteen, with changes in self-esteem fully mediated by changes in body satisfaction” (Clay, Vignoles, and Dittmar).

Teenage girls are at an impressionable time in their lives. Mass Media is a key idea in one of the factors of socialization that become important to teenagers. Teenagers look to the media for a sense of entertainment. Whether it is movies, magazines, or even some aspects of social media, teenagers get a lot of influence from the media’s message. The problem with this is the media has a specific way of doing things and can be negative to a susceptible teenage girl. Media’s way of portraying a woman can be skewed and unrealistic way from what reality is. Teenage girls then have a desire for this look or way. In this essay the three ways I will describe as to why the media can negatively affect a teenage girls body image is by showing

Body image dissatisfaction in adolescent’s has increased significantly over the past few years. More adolescent’s have an ideal image carved in their mind that they need to be a size 0 or be thin in order to fit into society. According to Thopmson and Stice (2001), “People who endorse stereotypes of appearance presented in the media internalize them as standards of appropriate or ideal looks. Internalization can be described as the extent to which an individual cognitively buys into societal norms of size and appearance, to the point of modifying one's behavior in an attempt to approximate these standards''. This also relates to the article by Thompson and Stice (2001), "Indeed, the endorsement of media messages of attractiveness is related to the acceptance of beauty ideals and to the

The media is questioned if their presenting a healthy structure of body image for teenagers. The Majority of images portrayed on social media consists of slim, bright and/or flawless people which is known to impact teenagers personally and will feel different due to their difference in weight and appearance. This preview will indicate whether most body images shown online stand as a respectable size to teenagers viewing the image or impersonates a low point of view for the young audience. Over the decades’ social media has produced a substantial indication of how your body must look. The issue is where if this depiction is a healthy or unhealthy circumstance for the teenage perception.

Body image crisis is strong evidence which support the idea that media negatively affect the psychology and behavior of children and teenagers. There is an inherent interconnection between the modern media and body image. Today’s media creates stereotypes of perfect bodies which make children and teenagers who do not fit the image lose confidence in them and become depressed. Perfect women according to modern magazines and television should be thin and perfect men should be with large muscles. Children and teenager are not aware of the fact that images that are show in the media are often edited with Photoshop and that everyone is beautiful in his or her own way. These are the reason why they are influenced more by perfect images in the media

Researchers have discovered that “ongoing exposure to certain ideas can shape and distort our perceptions on reality.” (Mintz 2007) Because young girls are subjected to a constant display of beautiful people in the media, they have developed a negative body image of themselves. Those who have a negative body image perceive their body as being unattractive or even hideous compared to others, while those with a positive body image will see themselves as attractive, or will at least accept themselves and be comfortable in their own skin. During adolescence, negative body image is especially harmful because of the quick changes both physically and mentally occurring during puberty. Also, young girls are becoming more and more exposed to the media and the media keeps getting more and more provocative. Young girls are looking to women with unrealistic body shapes as role models. It’s hard to find, in today’s media, a “normal” looking

As young women go through puberty, they begin to mature both physically and emotionally. Particularly, women begin to gain weight when they undergo puberty. Throughout their adolescence, women are exposed to harsh opinions others have on their bodies and how they should carry themselves. Most importantly, women are exposed to society’s values through the use of media. Women begin to value their body image and force themselves to conform to society’s idea of the “perfect body”. Personally, I think of body image as a trouble of mine because I struggle to come to terms with not having a flawless figure. Each day, I see women on social media with unrealistically perfect bodies. After being so exposed to the media’s opinion of a good physique,

Adolescents are bombarded with many media messages every day. These media messages may take the form of advertisements, newspapers, magazines, broadcast media such as television, and more. Such media can have a detrimental affect on how adolescents perceive their body image. Adolescents may feel pressured to diet, to spend copious amounts of money on the latest trends, and they may even feel inadequate compared to the models they see on television. Adolescence is a time of change that is difficult for many already. The messages conveyed to these adolescents often do more harm than good.

There were three questions that arose in a study by Spurr and Berry and they were ‘‘what are adolescent understandings of psychological wellness, are there positive or negative influences on an adolescent’s sense of psychological wellness, and does the psychological dimension influence adolescent wellness?’’ (Spurr & Berry, 2013, p. 18-19). The study targeted ages 16-19, this raised a reoccurring concern of the participants, the effect of media on their views of physical appearance. These adolescents are comparing themselves to the models and celebrities and it’s causing them to feel bad about themselves. Other adolescents expressed their views of how the media affected their thoughts. One stated ‘‘you think about it more. Like, once you see someone like that, you think about what you’re eating, and why you don’t look like that.’’ (Spurr & Berry, 2013, p. 26). Other participants made references that girls are hurting their bodies trying to lose weight to look like the women in the media. Male adolescents are also feeling the same way. When they see a toned male, they want to be like that so they start working out or popping drugs to make themselves bigger. Men and women struggle with the same ideology that the perfect body is skinny and muscular but this has negative repercussions, this body dissatisfaction leads to harmful weight control

Many young girls feel insecure of their body; these adolescent girls would often wish they had the body of a model. The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison is about a young girl named Pecola, who is obsessed with blue eyes because she is insecure about hers. The novel points out how beauty can shatter the mind of an innocent young girl, Pecola, for instance, who has been abused by mostly everyone about her looks. In The Bluest Eye, Morrison explains how beauty can ruin lower one’s self-esteem, cause one to become self-obsessed, and how it made Pecola a representative to others to be thankful for the body they have. Morrison explains the psychological effect of beauty on young girls such as Pecola.

Historically, adolescent liked their bodies and appreciated the many things it could do. However, on the way to adulthood, doubts and insecurities may have crept in. Instead of admiring the many capabilities their body could do, they began to castigate its looks. In an atmosphere where many adolescents are exposed to different thin-ideal online ads, magazines, and in general social media, one can understand the struggle that many adolescents undergo. After conducting much research the issue that will be addressed in this research paper is the impact of media on body image and weight during adolescent years.

Teenagers negative body image can be caused by many factors and have many different outcomes. But, teenagers should be able to feel appreciative of themselves without being slammed by the fashion world. Would you like to feel like you have no control over the way you see yourself, because of the content you see on social media? There are many factors into why teenagers develop body dysmorphia. For examples, “These can include any of the following; family environment, ability or disability, and peer attitudes”. (Raising Children Association, 2006) This reasoning is a logical source that is medically proven by health professionals that work with Eating Disorders and Mentally Disabled patients. There are statistics to prove the accusations, “such as professional research that have be run by

The importance of the body image and what is considered to be the ‘ideal’ body are two of the primary factors that contribute to the negative affect of the media on the teenage society of today.

Research with preadolescent children reports mixed findings about at what age body image becomes a real issue for them. Body-image dissatisfaction was believed to be associated with the onset of puberty. Current literature suggests that the development of body image dissatisfaction occurs as much as 3 to 4 years prior to the onset of puberty. A study by Rolland, Farnhill, and Griffiths (1997) showed that children as young as 8 years of age report high levels of body dissatisfaction and negative

For kids, school can be one of the main reasons as to why they feel self-conscious about their appearance. This environment has the power to be a harsh place for pubescent teens. In elementary school, kids usually aren't as adamant about wanting to look a certain way. For example, not even ten years ago, elementary schoolers were simply concerned with the dilemma of whether or not the swings at recess would be taken; however, now, approximately 42% of girls in the first through third grade wished to be thinner (Vaynshteyn np). These statistics tend to leave people bewildered and baffled. In first grade, a child should not be concerned with their body; instead, they should be preoccupied deciding what to bring to show-and-tell. The amount of