Beauty and the Media

Body image encompasses how we perceive our bodies, how we feel about our physical experience as well as how we think and talk about our bodies, our sense of how other people view our bodies, our sense of our bodies in physical space, and our level of connectedness to our bodies. Over the past three decades, while America has gotten heavier, the "ideal woman" presented in the media has become thinner. Teenagers are the heaviest users of mass media, and American women are taught at a young age to take desperate measures in the form of extreme dieting to control their

The quality of American television has become a national disgrace. Young women in America who are displeased with their appearance more likely then not can trace those feelings directly back to images from the mass media on television. The unrealistic representations of women that the mass media bombards young women with indicates that the television has become a source for a distorted understanding of gender roles among adolescent women. These images warp young women’s views of their own gender identity. The mass media on television should in an attempt to provide more positive gender identities for adolescent women depict women on television in more realistic ways, should stop

One reason mass media is so effective at portraying unrealistic body types as normal is because the mass media helps to set what is perceived as normal. In an article about the mass media’s role in body image disturbance and eating disorders, J. Kevin Thompson and Leslie Heinberg state, “A sociocultural model emphasizes that the current societal standard for thinness, as well as other difficult-to-achieve standards of beauty

In a systemically patriarchal society that encourages and enforces the gender binary, we as a public are conditioned to accept and cooperate with the heteronormative paradigm. Pop-culture and the media are large contributors in the ways in which the gender binary is perpetuated. Gender norms are constantly marketed towards

Our society seems to have a lot of very stereotypical misconceptions about boys and girls and the role they are expected to play. Media has a pivotal role to play in this front concerning the idea of defining and framing gender. Media consumers transform the messages in that and make demeanors with

Body image has a huge impact on people in America today. People are constantly worrying whether they are too fat for society’s expectations, and think that being skinny is the only way to be. Advertisements and movies tend to play a huge role on attitudes towards appearance. Because they are surrounded by images of skinny people, Americans today, especially women, believe that having cellulite-free legs and a size zero waist is the best body appearance. This is what society today looks for in life, and tends to influence the reaction of others when they meet someone new.

American society has created the concept of obesity. They identified what the perfect human should look like, and has outcasted everyone who does no resemble that, most commonly obese people. The Barbie character that is a landmark fashion doll and cultural icon portrays this perfect human figure (Source E). This perception of the perfect human has a negative psychological

In the article “Distorted Images: Western Cultures are Exporting Their Dangerous Obsession with Thinness,” author Susan McClelland’s mainly focuses on how many young women idolize the women they see on T.V. The media is making many women feel as if they need to look a certain way to fit in with the world. Also the fact the western culture is spreading to other countries is a big issue because sicknesses, like bulimia, were not an issue before. Many women in other countries are starting to look at the women in the United States and want to be just like them. In this article, the author says that television, magazines, and media show

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.,

Mass media has influenced gender norms in the United States since the 1950’s when television became a household phenomenon. Per Jacqueline Coombs in an article titled Gender Differences in the Influence of Television on Gender Ideology, she asserts, “television is a powerful source in disseminating information and shaping opinion, exposing people from many different social settings to the same messages” (207). These messages can influence gender norms and reinforce personal gender identity. Throughout the evolution of television, gender roles have expanded portraying women as leading character. However, there is still an undercurrent of patriarchal ideology.

From the multicultural body image norms, which suggests women overall are much more concerned with body idealism and are earlier adopters of slim ideals, women are expected to also express a great fat stigma. Females exposed to media images reflect on current societally standards of slenderness and fell a greater mood and have a better body image. Females who viewed a neutral, or not so slender image for the adverse outcomes of such media exposures.

The media has a huge effect on the socialization of gender and can affect others attitudes and behaviors towards the opposite sex. Mass media also have a major role in the process of gender socialization because it bombards individuals with ideas and images of what men and women are supposed to be. For example, magazines that are targeted at women are different than those that seek a male audience. Media creates meanings about gender, and plays an important role in the way we understand it as part of our identity, our history, our social institutions, and our everyday lives. Gender is a word we here very often in conversations it is basically used to define an individual’s identity as male or female. Mass media uses stereotypical characters to make it easy for the audience to identify the good guys or gals and the bad guys or gals. It is easier to create programs around stock characters than to develop varied personalities. Stereotypes limit our views of ourselves and others and of the reality of the world. The media construct their own version of reality. The point of view of the message presented is driven by ethical, political, economic and social standards of the producers. Television also plays a major role in defining gender roles by the way commercials and to shows. Advertisements for an array of products describe men as being strong and masculine while women are portrayed as dependent. What does hooking up mean to me?  In the

The media must have some sort of effect on people and the portrayal of other women always resonated with me. I know that there are many people who claim that unrealistic appearances in things like magazines cause an increase in eating disorders and low self esteem. The constant strive for perfection has been evolving due to digital enhancements with programs such as Photoshop or others that assist with photo editing. It is really easy to make things appear completely changed from their natural looks. A lot of places are requiring acknowledgement of alterations via disclaimers on advertisements. This prompts a debate for who has to concede between what is considered artistic freedom and dangerous content. Technology also contributes to the amount of media exposure people have now through the Internet and social media. These are considered staples in the lives of many impressionable young people, so it could add pressure to accept a new normal.

Growing up as a child with parents that were both fairly busy with work I often found myself sat in front of a television either waiting for the day to begin or to end. I remember watching shows and seeing how the boys always seemed to be more outspoken, hyper-masculine and the leader in a given situation while the girls were always the passive ones who were depicted as shy followers. Now that I am older I find myself watching even more television, allowing me to see how the media depicts men and women in society. For example, The Big Bang Theory, in its earlier seasons, it only had one female lead, Penny. Her character was very stereotypical in the sense that she was the scattebrained neighbor. The way that men and women are portrayed has

Society is obsessed with being beautiful. One just has to examine the amount differing beauty industries earn early for this fact to be evident. For example, the diet industry is a thirty-three billion dollar industry, with the cosmetic industry following close behind with twenty billion yearly (Wolf 16). However, this obsession with beauty is not without cause. As stated in Body Image: Understanding Body Dissatisfaction in Men, Women, and Children, “In affluent Western societies, slenderness is generally associated with happiness, success, youthfulness, and social acceptability. Being overweight is linked to laziness, lack of willpower, and being out of control.”(Grogan 325) Despite common misconceptions, body image affects all groups of