Body Image Is Bad Essay

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

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.

Young girls are dying trying to get to the standard of happiness that does not really exist. “ A girls physical maturation may lead to a greater dissatisfactions with her appearance” (“My Body My self”)Body image is a huge issue with young girls in today’s society. Everyday girls a starving themselves and hurting themselves to look a certain way. Although some women are very stable in their bodies, body image is still a major issue in today's society because it causes depression, low self esteem, and eating disorders.

Teens who are in college have just as many problems with their body as people in high school. The media affecting people of all ages can consist of anything from people on social media, to celebrities on T.V., to the models who walk on runways. People who struggle with their body image are all over the world and are often closed off to other people. When girls look at magazines they see all of the models posing and then they compare themselves to them because the models are what society says is pretty, and they aren’t. Media is a great way for companies to get their products out there, but when adolescents compare themselves to models, they will start to have body image issues.

The portrayal of women in the media is destroying positive body image in young girls. According to Sarah Grogan, body image is “a person’s perceptions, thoughts and feelings about his or her body”. The media sends the message, from very early on, that what is most important is the way women look to the heterosexual male gaze, and that their value and their worth depends on that. It is easy to understand that the media perpetuates an unattainable beauty standard, but what is more difficult is realising how that affects our adolescents.

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

     "Just Be" is a familiar slogan to the current American culture. It is the slogan of a well-known designer, Calvin Klein, who, in his advertisements, supposedly promotes individuality and uniqueness. Yet, Calvin Klein, along with all known designers, does not have overweight or unattractive people on his billboard ads, on his runways, in his magazine pictures or on his television commercials. Moreover, the movie, music and the mass media corroborate with the fashion industry in setting and advertising a certain standards for a physical ideal of a human body. Such propaganda promotes the public into depriving themselves of needed nutrition and generates eating disorders within people in order to fit the

There are multiple negative behavioral patterns and somatic symptoms that follow an individual who has experienced the trauma of sexual abuse: body image issues, self-harm inflictions, and anal incontinence (for women and men), are only a few effects. To reiterate, though the abuse took place in childhood, its effects can last a lifetime and one trigger can set in motion a crisis. Kremer, I., & Rosenbloom, T., (2013) defines body image as, “a set of mental representations of the body that reflect the general perceptions, emotions, expectations, cognitions, and behaviors related to the body”. How an individual use their body is based upon how they perceives themselves and their body. The sexually promiscuous married adult who is jeopardizing their family to satisfy a sexual urge may in fact have a history of sexual

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.

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.

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.

Body image is a person's perception of the aesthetics or sexual attractiveness of their own body (Wikipedia). The stress in the media and in the fashion industry on a perfect female body can be emotionally damaging to the well-being of many young women which can lead to excessive dieting or plastic surgery (Wikipedia). Media plays an enormous role in promoting products through advertisements in magazines typically by using beautiful skinny women. The media sets unrealistic standards for what body image is considered “normal” especially in magazines. Young girls are being taught at a young age to be obsess over their appearance this can affect the way they think about their ideal body image in the future.

Growing up surrounded by media brings pressure to teenage girls to have what society defines as the ideal body. As a teenager one wants to fit in with the most popular group. Recent movies like “Mean girls” and “16 wishes” have shown the role of the popular girl to be thin, beautiful, and smart. As a media consumer, females assume that if they achieve this look they will become popular as well. Many teenagers go through stressing situations in order to accomplish the ideal body image. For instance, many teenagers develop eating disorders or go through plastic surgery. Today in social media, we see celebrities going through dramatic changes; like lip injections, face thinning, hair/eyelash extensions, tummy tucks, breast enlargement, etc. Now everyone uses social media in order to see each other’s life, and one tends to follow their favorite celebrities. By following these celebrities, one sees their changes and wants to go through the same procedures in order to fit in to what society defines beautiful. Teenage girls are pressured from the media to have the “ideal body.”