Body Image Analysis

Every time you flip a magazine, change channels, or go online, you are struck with images of models who are super skinny with flashy outfits and have excessive make-up on. Ads not only try to sell their products, but also promote how females should look like. These models are airbrushed and photo shopped which is false advertisement. The media progressively encourages a thinner body image as the ideal for women. We see advertisements every day. Some of these ads use manipulative strategies that influence our choices and spending habits. For example, “One in every three articles in leading teen girl magazines included a focus on appearance, and most advertisements used appeal to beauty to sell their products.”(Teen Health) To grab the viewers’ attention, especially females, they include

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

The message of this photograph I chose is that you can in any case be seen as appealing even at a more mature age. In this image we can see how the woman is kind of modeling for her partner in a “diaper” as if it were a thong, which is what is most commonly worn by women of younger age. This would make us believe or understand that she is in a way secure about her sexuality, despite the fact that she is of greater age and she attempts to remain in touch and with knowledge of what is socially and sexually modern. In the image we can see that her partner is in a way embarrassed or ashamed of her behavior. He demonstrates to be at peace with his current sexuality and that he does not need to be current with any current sexuality behavior.

The first reason for promoting a healthy body figures in women is because fat Acceptance Promotes Well-Being .When people are accepted they are happier. a robust, laughing 12-year-old from University Heights in the Bronx, says. The ads show girls of different races and sizes, some playing sports and one in a wheelchair. that it is beautiful. girls are getting more happier with their bodies, accepting themselves girls are not depressed it helps

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.

Jean Kilbourne (2010) in the video Killing Us Softly 4: Advertising’s image of women pointed out that people always assume the women in advertisements have the perfect look and a good figure. Many women even feel ashamed when they failed to achieve ideal beauty and retain slim figure after they saw the advertisements. I agree with her idea that the advertisement depict women in a very dangerous way. Many people started to judge women by perfect look and slim figure. These kinds of advertisements may do harm to women’s health mentally and physically, especially to teenagers, when they are trying to achieve perfect appearance as perfect women depicted in advertisements.

The culture of media has now taken a large affect on young girls and their body images. Young girls are feeling dissatisfied with their bodies because of the way society views women. The media tells us what to look like, what clothes to wear, make-up, what cars to drive, and sometimes what to eat. Media is changing people constantly through advertising and by showing us the looks and fashions of celebrities. Advertising has negative effects on the formation of oneself as seen through the nature of the promotion of its’ products. This effect is particularly prevalent among young adolescent girls. Young girls feel the need to join dietary plans or result to eating disorders Advertising in society results in negative effects on girls through self-image that leads to harmful consequences. The media is the biggest factor contributing to girls’ dissatisfaction with their bodies, causing eating disorders.

“Over one-half of teenage girls and nearly one-third of teenage boys use unhealthy weight control behaviors such as skipping meals, fasting, smoking cigarettes, vomiting, and taking laxatives.” (National Association of Anorexia Nervosa and Associated Disorders, n.d.) It’s hard to believe isn’t it? That one-half of teenage girls and one-third of boys use unhealthy weight loss techniques, because they are unhappy with the way they look and their weight. If I’m being entirely honest I do not blame these teenagers for wanting to lose weight. Because predominantly everything we see, even as children, shows us that to be happy we have to be white, good looking, and thin.

The message is being sent loud and clear that the body you were born with isn’t beautiful enough. Roder states that, “The average American encounters 3,000 advertisements every day, and spends a total of two years watching TV commercials in their lifetime.” These ads hunt down our self confidence like wolves, shining the light on six foot tall supermodels weighing only 120 pounds . According to the National Center for Health Statistics, the average weight for an American woman is 166.2 pounds, a number that many women see as overweight (False advertising, photoshopping mars our body image). The drastic difference between the reality of teenage bodies and media portrayals only adds to the escalating insecurity among American children. Teens who are insecure about their bodies are more likely to buy beauty and bodybuilding products, new clothes, and diet aids, spending anywhere between $40 and $100 billion (Beverly and Geraldine). For the past few years, much of the media has had its eye concentrated solely on women, this has changed since the 1990s. Young teenage boys have also been victims of unrealistic male physiques, such as the famous series of Calvin Klein underwear ads. (Ballaro, Wagner) Not only do we allow media images to tear

This article explores how the media defines a perfect body, and its effect on adolescents. The media portrays the perfect female and male as having the best hair, skin, teeth, slimiest waist, being tall; altogether being “perfect”. The single blind study that was conducted shows how exactly adolescents are effected by television commercials without even realizing it. The smallest changes someone makes can suggest that they need to be in the media’s perfect person standard such as a change of appearance. The study consists of adolescent boys and girls between the ages 13-15 years old from an Australian high school. The study that is performed consists of a single blind study and has randomly picked boys and girls that had to wear dress up attire

Photos of models and women on magazines are being retouched, do they want to promote higher expectations of a perfect body image? Females see it everywhere and every day, in the media. The images we see are retouched by fixing the hair, to a women shedding off a few pounds, to hiding a pimple. Even though these images seem to be perfect, these pictures might be devising. The magazine industry and fashion seem to be aware of the photo shopping, but will not admit it. The unrealistic of these images make women feel ashamed of the way they look from weight, height, to wrinkles, and pimples, and the industry knows that but instead of changing the fact that they photo shop these images these magazines are making money off of selling women the

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.

I have always been interested in teenagers perception of perfection concerning their body image. Body image has become a big problem in some teenager’s lives and can affect them in everyday life, as teenagers are involved with the media and other advertisements promoting positive and negative ideas of the way you should look and feel in your own skin. I will research how teenagers are affected by advertisements such as magazines, newspapers and posters.

According to an article by the Raising Children Network, “Your child’s body image is influenced by many factors. These factors include family environment, ability or disability, peer attitudes, the fashion industry, cultural background – and mainstream media, social media and advertising, if teenagers see unrealistic ‘thin’ or ‘muscly’ body types often enough, it can have an impact on their body image and dieting behavior. This is especially when there’s no-one to disagree with messages like ‘thin is beautiful’. Body image ideals in the media have increased teenagers’ desire for plastic surgery. For example, some teenage girls now want breast implants and laser hair removal, and some boys want soft tissue fillers (muscle enhancers)”( “Raising Children Network, Media Influence on Teenagers”). It’s true most teens will fall easily to peer pressure, but what’s even more true is that almost every teen in the world cares about how some part of their body looks. Whether its girls trying to look thinner, guys trying to get those movie star Hollywood actor super muscles, or a random teen wanting to improve how noticeable certain other aspects of their body are, the average teen will jump at any chance that the media depicts to make themselves look better in their minds

This gives advertisers they ability to greatly effect the body image of Americans. This advertising showcases what women and girls are considering a normal body. Even cartoons and children’s shows put an importance on being attractive. This is why young children do not feel as if they are pretty enough. These are shows that were thought to be innocent and to send good messages to children. The second most common place to see magazine advertisements with women and girls being sexually objectified is in magazines directed at teenage girls (“The Media, Body Image, and Eating Disorders”). This is making girls feel like they have to look a certain way. With our culture being so centered around media and watching so much television we are becoming obsessed with how we look. This media centered society is seriously effecting how women and girls feel about their sizes and body types.