Are you aware of what your teenage daughter is watching on TV? You might think you know, but

“Television has changed the American child from an irresistable force to an immovable object.” (Peter). There was a time when all children wanted to do was to run, play, explore, and be adventurous. As time evolved, children have found more interest in television. Statistics show that a child spends 900 hours per year in school,and they spend 1,200 hours per year watching television. When asked to choose between watching T.V. and spending time with their families fifty-four percent of four to six year olds voted they would prefer to watch television. Television has changed the mindset of children over the years it has been proven that the more programs they watch, the more harmful it is to their brain development. T.V.

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

What girl wouldn't want to be on TV right? Teenage girls today are bombarded with tabloids and news about teen pregnancy. This causes a sort of fame to be associated with it. Sixteen and pregnant may be an exception to this but there are still other movies and shows that came out in the 2000’s that promote teen pregnancy. For example, the show Gilmore Girls shows a young mother and daughter’s journey in life. What this show tells the youth of today is entirely different. It shows that if you get pregnant in high school it’s not a big deal. In fact you will have an amazing mother daughter relationship that would make anyone

Mass media can have an adverse effect teenage girls by showing body types that are unrealistic as the normal and desirable type of body to have. Young women look to the mass media to see the societal norms for beauty, and what they see can influence the way that they view themselves. By portraying women who possess a body type that is uncommon, it shows teenage girls that they need to change themselves to reflect the images they are shown. Portraying body types that emphasize thinness and exaggerated features, the mass media try to establish what is socially acceptable. Teenage girls who see this message feel pressured to become what they see, often not realizing that the body types portrayed in media are unrealistic.

Although ads and the media play a big part in the psyche of children, people with influence over our children also play a major part. Swimme said in his quotation “So as we soak it all up, it sinks down deep in our psyche. And if this takes place in the adult soul, imagine how much more damage is done in the psyches of our children,” (148) this goes both ways between ads, media, and parents/trusted people in children’s lives. Swimme says “An ad’s job is to make us unhappy with what we have.” which is exactly what they are doing. They use pictures of unrealistic looking models to make children, especially little girls, feel bad about the way they look. My coach used the same tactics on me. He made me feel unhappy with the way I looked so I strived to look like the older girls did, tall, pretty, and most of all, slender. The media uses shows like Americas Next Top Model (ANTM) to show that “skinny is the way to be. On this show in particular, only the “skinny” girls making it to be ANTM. That is exactly how my coach made me feel. He made me feel like if I was not “skinny” enough I would never make it to the Olympics no matter how good I was.

This isn’t a new problem, “the popular media (television, movies, magazines, etc.) have, since World War II, increasingly held up a thinner and thinner body image as the ideal for women”. This has begun to negatively girls at younger and younger ages. One study found that when they surveyed nine and ten year old girls “40% have tried to lose weight”. Another study found that “at age thirteen, 53% of American girls are "unhappy with their bodies", by the time these girls reach the age of seventeen, this percentage grows to 78%. Young women in this country are obsessed with reaching the beauty standards set out for them by the

The media plays a major role in the way our society sets certain standards and forms opinions. No matter where we go, the media is everywhere. The message that the media illustrates today is that “thin is in”. When was the last time you flipped through a magazine or through the television channels without seeing some type of advertisement promoting a new diet or new product being promoted by a super thin model or actress? Young girls are the main targets for new products. It is common for young girls to be obsessed with what is “in”. The message that young girls are getting from the media is that having bones sticking out is the way to look. They then become preoccupied with their bodies and self image. “ The exposure to ideal images coincides with a period in their lives where self regard and self efficacy is in decline, where body image is at its most fragile due to physical changes of puberty and where tendency for social comparison is at its peak” (www.eating-disorders.org.uk/docs/media.doc). The media illustrates to young girls an “idealized” shape which leads to being beautiful, popular, successful, and loved but which is not realistic to have unless you have the “idealized” shape. Therefore, they believe that their lives will be perfect as long as they are thin and have the “idealized” shape. The two main sources of media that reach young girls are television and magazines.

Being a woman of twenty, I know how much this can affect young girls. Body image influences are everywhere, social media, television, magazine and unfortunately for us, the current presidential election. Kim, Kim and Moon describe body image as “a plastic, constantly changing concept, continually modified by bodily growth, trauma, or decline, and significantly influenced by the ever-changing interaction with the social environment” (Kim, Kim, Moon 2011). This is an extremely true statement for young girls in today’s society. With the shows on television today and social media such as Instagram and Facebook, everyone is forced to be at their peak physical fitness and look their best all the time. The only way someone can achieve a realistic body image is when their self perceived body weight is the same as their current body weight. An unrealistic body image is the result of their self perceived body weight being different than their current weight (Kim, Kim, Moon 2011). What some people fail to realize is how deeply body image can affect a persons emotional being. Having an unrealistic body image can cause people to contract eating disorders, emotional issues, anxiety, low self esteem and finally, depression (Kim, Kim, Moon 2011). These feelings can cause suicidal thoughts and behaviors especially in young adults. Multiple studies have presented evidence that adolescents who commit suicide are more likely to have different body attitudes than those who do not, though it is not always the case(Kim, Kim, Moon

In the media, reality TV stars like Snooki and Kim Kardashian are on the rise. Most channels on television have at least one reality show, from following housewives to remodeling homes of real life families. However, there are some reality programs that display bad examples, especially for young audiences that are keeping up with each episode. On MTV people see girls being drunk in public, addicts doing drugs, and young girls raising babies at young ages; these are situations seen on reality TV shows. Jeremy W. Peters’ “When Reality TV Gets Too Real” and James Poniewozik’s “Why Reality TV is Good for us” inform readers about what the general public can view on television and how it affects the minds of children. Reality TV shows such as

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

Does “sixteen and pregnant” promote, or discourage teen pregnancy? Although, “sixteen and pregnant shows some of the struggles of being a teenage parent, it doesn’t show all. MTV has given a show to children, for having children. They have put a glorification on getting pregnant at a young age. Instead of teaching and telling them what the outcome of their life could be if they are to have children while there still a child themselves. On the show they give false hope of still being able to be a regular teen. Going out with friends partying, drinking, and smoking. After dropping there kid off with a relative or parent. They don’t show children as being a responsibility. There are younger viewers who watch

1. Most girls will do whatever it takes to be skinny and look like the stars that weigh 100 pounds "...the media influence on the cultural phenomenon of dieting and the perfect body. “Commercials and reality TV shows make you feel bad about yourself so you buy into the fad," Cohn said. The diet industry earns $50 billion each year on diet pills, and $8.4 billion is spent every year on cosmetic surgery. Women -- and men, Cohn stressed -- want to be thin, because large men and women are ridiculed" (Demmel). Eating disorders continues to be problem among young girls because of their role models. Girls on reality TV shows have that 'perfect' body and girls what to be everything like them.

According to the University of Iowa's Children's Hospital, each year television exposes youth to more than 14,000 sexual references and jokes. (Skeen par. 2) From what has been observed in daily routines, you can walk through a high school and easily hear several cuss words, a good amount of sexual jokes, and maybe even some talk about drugs or alcohol. Televisions, especially reality shows, have taught our youth today that it is acceptable to behave this

I agree that television is “a vast cultural wasteland”, because it shows the lengths of what is taken just gain ratings, without any regard to the impact the content could have on audiences that happen to see it. Bad Girls Club, is a prime example of this, due to the shows violence, language, and adult behaviors. The reality show has aired on Oxygen for nine years, it has had seventeen seasons so far and two spin-off shows. The women who are casted in the show usually have behavior or psychological problems and their ages range from 21 to 28. The Bad Girls Club and Bad Girls Club All Star, “delivered Oxygen's highest rated series premiere ever among total viewers”, according to an article on Broadwayworld. Although the show is a huge success in ratings, it also has its consequence. Television is major influence on children as far as what they buy, what they wear, and how they dance. Shows like Bad Girls Club can encourage violence in young children, especially teens Tampa Juvenile Welfare Board training manager Shelba Waldron says that "Studies have shown that girls who watch these violent reality TV shows have a

Media is another component that influences a girl’s view of herself. This affects the way she believes she should look. At a very young age children are stuck in front of a TV. for entertainment. They grow up with the skinny women and diet commercials. The children are brainwashed into thinking that everyone must be a size zero. This is what they consider “healthy” living.