Body Image And Self-Esteem

Her research reviewed 21 studies of the media’s affect on more than 6,000 girls, 10 years or older. The results showed that the more the girls were exposed to the fashion magazines, the more they struggled to have a positive body image. (L2)

Sexualisation is a way that mass media, celebrities or advertising can make young or old people, especially young girls, become more provocative in the way that they speak, dress and behave

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).

Eleven million women in the United States suffer from eating disorders- either self-induced semi-starvation (anorexia nervosa) or a cycle of bingeing and purging with laxatives, self-induced vomiting, or excessive exercise (bulimia nervosa) (Dunn, 1992). Many eating disorder specialists agree that chronic dieting is a direct consequence of the social pressure on American females to achieve a nearly impossible thinness. The media has been denounced for upholding and perhaps even creating the emaciated standard of beauty by which females are taught from childhood to judge the worth of their own bodies (Stephens & Hill, 1994). To explore the broader context of this controversial issue, this paper draws upon several aspects on how the media

Flawless images used throughout the media saturate young girl’s minds, highlighting superlative women. For teenage girls this is hard to ignore with the line between fantasy and reality skewed my mass media and stress placed on obtaining an idealistic body portrait. In modern, Western society children are constantly bombarded with images of a false nature: many of which are photo-shopped to remove ‘imperfections’. But one of the most outraging/staggering facts is that children are not unaware of the demeaning and derogatory methods used by the media with ‘81% of 10 year olds scared of becoming fat’ (World Health Organisation) showing that the prominence of the media is becoming ever more apparent.

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

sexualation of young girls \ females: Sexualization is to make something sexual in character or quality. sexualization occurs when "individuals are regarded as sex objects and evaluated in terms of their physical characteristics and sexiness, in this case young girls

Some young girls are already experiencing body dissatisfaction. By the age of 5-8, numerous young girls were familiar with the idea of dieting and weight loss. Due to media exposure, such as reading magazines, watching television, or listening to peers often cause girls of age 6 to desire a thin woman’s figure opposed to a thicker one. Girls at this young of age should not be worried about their physical appearance, they should play outside and enjoy being young while it lasts. Not only does media affect women, it affects very young women as well.

Positive or negative body image can highly affect one’s self-esteem. High self-esteem is important because “[self-esteem] can be viewed as a key indicator of psychological well-being” (Clay, 2005). Cognitive health can be just as vital as physical health. However, a study found a profound drop in teenage girls’ self-esteem (Clay, 2005). Young girls’ mental health is being affected by their poor body image. While lack of education, weight loss advertisements, and celebrities portrayal of healthy lifestyles are often underlying causes for girls’ poor body image, digital editing and media overrepresentation of underweight women are the biggest culprit.

Over a period of time the media has portrayed body image in young women and the effects have been so damaging that majority of young women have developed eating disorders and self-oriented perfectionism. Magazines, social media, and television have been the linked sources of influence. You have to look like a Victoria Secret model or try to look like a “top” model (a television reality show). To look the “norm” is too be thin, and in the minds of some young girl’s, an eating disorder is the only way to become thin. Life satisfaction is when individuals evaluate the value of their life by their own standards. Young girls tend to struggle with social transitions which can affect their perception of their body image and their life satisfaction. Adolescence is a period in time of young lives where reflection on appearance and body image may take a toll on their life satisfaction.

Eating disorders in children and teens cause serious changes in their health. Eating disorders are characteristics and cause by eating behaviors, also people with this disorder use eating, purging or restructuring with their issues. Eating disorders is divided into three parts as anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, compulsive overeating, etc (Eating Disorders,n.d.).Eating disorders can overlap between and alternate of anorexia and bulimia. Eating disorders around the adolescence, but it can also start in childhood. Girls with bulimia nervosa fall within their normal range of body weight, but to them some girls feel that they are overweight. Almost 25 percent of females have bulimia in their lifetime. There are many celebrities who suffer from eating disorders while coming up in Hollywood or currently battling the disorder. Like, former pop singer/ performer Lady Gaga struggled with bulimia and anorexia while beginning her career. Another singer name Kesha, has recently been treated for an unspecified eating disorder (n.d.). Karen Carpenter, a former singer, died from cardiac arrest at the age of 32, for years she suffer from severe anorexia. Another singer name Demi Lovato, has become one of the most outspoken about her mental issues within her eating disorder (n.d.). Sharon Osbourne, wife of Ozzy Osbourne and former ‘The Talk’ host, Sharon has struggled with bulimia for over 30 years. Another famous daytime talk show host, Oprah Winfrey is a sufferer of disordered eating.

The media has a strong influence on how girls view themselves and their peers. The media- magazines, television shows, music videos, billboards, etc- sends the message that the only way to look good and be happy is to be skinny (Kirchheimer). Girls who have a healthy weight feel uncomfortable with how they look and feel that they are not skinny enough to be accepted by society’s standards. “…at age thirteen, 53% of American girls are ‘unhappy with their bodies.’ This grows up to 78% by the time girls reach seventeen,” says J.J. Brumberg. (qtd. in National Institute on Media and the Family). This statistic is overwhelming; it is upsetting that young girls can not be comfortable in their own skin. According to D. Hargreaves, many thin models have a weight that is mistaken as the best way to be beautiful and causes young girls to have a low self esteem (qtd. in National Institute on Media and the Family). In order to get to this “perfect” weight, many girls fall to eating disorders to attain their desired weight. Unfortunately, this method of losing weight is unhealthy and extremely dangerous to the human body. These different methods include “fasting, skipping meals, excessive exercise, laxative abuse, and self-induced vomiting” (Media Awareness Network). The fact that girls go to these extremes to get thin is scary and heartbreaking. This is why the media needs to send a more positive message about body image to young girls.

According to Merriam Webster’s Dictionary, diet is food and drink regularly provided or consumed. It is also defined as the regimen of eating and drinking sparingly so as to reduce one’s weight. The latter definition will be the one used for this research paper. Currently, up to fifty percent of women have tried dieting at some point in their lives and at least 90 percent of teenagers diet regularly. Due to this, the “diet fad” is worth billions with its government, pharmaceutical, and weight loss agencies funding it. Americans alone spend more money on weight loss programs and products than any other nation.

To lack self esteem means to lack confidence in yourself, essentially, its how you see your body, not only when you look in a mirror but the mental image of how you perceive your body. With a damaged self esteem an individual can feel worthless. Media can seriously damage a young teenagers self esteem with the way it portrays the female body. According to thinspiration alludes to symbolism normally shared via web-based networking media that urges a client to be thin. It is a self-perception that is perfect to numerous around the globe, particularly by models in media. Models are advertised so falsely that young girls may begin to wonder if there is something wrong with them or why they don’t look like what people perceive as beautiful. The way they view their body is affected negatively as a result. This then leads to feeling overwhelmed and low. Threads on fat shaming or discussions about ideal body weight can be found all over social media lowering the self esteem of venerable teenagers.. Thousands of images with hashtags of thinspiration and bonespiration (which just happens to be very thin images meant inspire certain body ideals) can be found all over social media With the promotion of unrealistic body images, adolescents begin to envy the way they look and viewing it in a negative manner. discuss how body image dissatisfaction is obtaining negative views about one’s physical body, shape and weight. Individuals with a big level of confidence know who they are. They think using logic and reason and discover companions that accept them for who they are. Individuals with a high level of confidence feel responsible for their lives and are aware of their gifts and abilities.. With studies showing self esteem is impacted by social media, anything on the internet can influence someone, somewhere. Negative images impact self esteem negatively and vise versa, meaning if body image is portrayed as unrealistic and negative, it will cause individuals to feel negatively about themselves.

Research in psychology today seems to be drawn towards particular fields of interest especially when it comes to understanding human behavior. One of the most common research topics for social psychology is body image and the perceptions that are related to age groups, genders, and ethnicities. Young people today are pressured by society to make physical appearance a dominant factor in their everyday lives, and the pressure is found not only through media influence but friends and family as well (Pavica, 2010). These pressures can affect many different aspects of a person’s life and significantly influence their actions. The aspects affected by body image can include popularity among peers, social comfort, and the attitudes an individual