Body Image Problems

As a wise man once said, “To love yourself is to understand you don't need to be perfect to be good.” However young girls have so much pressure put on them to look in a way that is not only unrealistic but also unhealthy. As a result of this, young girls have a very negative body image and self-confidence.The problem is the unrealistic body standards that media and society have set for girls. According to SSCC, the average American woman is 5’4 and 140 pounds. There is a clear problem when the media is only advertising women that are 5’11 and 117 pounds, which is the average American model. Even though the body of a model is very rare and uncommon,girls are expected to look like they do. However, by promoting a positive body campaign, stopping the portrayal of fake and photoshopped models in the media, and expanding the diversity of models, we could lift unrealistic body standards and start accepting everybody as beautiful.

We all in some point of our lives been, so delighted with a fairy tale movie or a book, but do not think about the drastic consequence it is portraying on having an ideal body image? Over, the decades we have seen how fairy tales have impacted every individual. From having our great grandparents to our parents reading and watching fairy tales at a very young age. Fairy Tales have been a great phenomenon for a very long time. With the making of Cinderella, Snow White, Beauty and the Beast, Rapunzel, and much more loved by many people. As time his passing, people are realizing that fairy tales are affecting young girls at a very young age. Targeting mainly their body image. Body image is really important for many girls because they need to be up to date with the fashion trends society is putting out there. Now, a day’s many Fairy Tales movies are being created in looking slim, pretty, blonde, long beautiful dress, and perfect with no imperfection. In creating these false expectations on how a girl is supposed to look is drastically changing their minds. Also, is affecting their self-esteem in being low, due to not being satisfied with their body. Young girls want to be a princess because they have everything and receive all the attention. Having the characteristic of a princess is changing girls in evolving a false identity. In having a perfect body like a princess is causing other girls to not fit in because they do not fit in the category of perfect. Although, some accept

According to the article “Beauty and the Boy”, Dr. Peggy Drexler, argues that not only females are objectified to look a certain way, young males are also pressured by society to appear more masculine and aggressive. Dr. Drexler starts off with a statement saying that society is applying pressure on young girls to look a certain way, then supporting her argument with evidence from NYU’s Child Study Center, which state “girls become aware of the role physical appearance plays in how they're perceived, and received, by others as early as age nine, when their self-esteem peaks before plummeting drastically” (1); However, Dr. Drexler provide a counter statement to impose the idea that boys are impacted by negative body image as well, with confirmation from the National

The article by Aviva Braun, “5 Ways to Prevent Body Image Issues” is straightforward to the point of what the author is trying to say on how to prevent body image issues. This article is more about to teach mothers to teach young girls to be comfortable and happy about themselves inside and out. These tips are good to teach these young girls that they should not put themselves down, because they aren’t skinny enough just because society portrays ultra-thin models on advertisements. The author has had practice as a psychotherapist specializing in eating and body image problems. Braun lets her readers in on how she has witnessed teens and young adult women with eating and body image problems that stem from growing up. Braun uses statistics in

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

All women should have a slim body and a big butt. All men should have washboard abs and big biceps. These are just expectations that society has built up of how one should look. Often when we don’t reach it, there are consequences of developing negative body image issues. So what is negative body image exactly? According to NEDA (Australia’s national eating disorder association), body image issue is the dissatisfaction someone may have of their body not meeting unrealistic criterias. It is the negative thoughts and emotion that result from someone’s perception of their physical self. Unfortunately, in today’s day and age this is an existing issue because we live in a world that promotes unrealistic body ideals. It becomes a challenge to not compare yourself to these ideals when you see images of instagram models floating around in your everyday life.

Sports Illustrated, Victoria’s Secret, Vogue. What do these titles have in common? They are all brands that are prevalent in the media, all brands that feature the same underweight, unrealistic figures, with models void of stretch marks or body fat. In today’s technological society, the influence of the media is irrefutable; however, it has become increasingly evident that on the issue of body image, the media has failed its audience. Rather than portraying the average population, media such as television and magazines have become accustomed to casting actors and actresses who have similar, ideal body types, and photoshopping models beyond the point of recognition. By perpetuating these unhealthy, unrealistic images, the media is, perhaps unintentionally,

"Haven't we learned anything from the research done on female eating disorders...except to extend it across the gender line?" asks Kevin Coleary, a doctoral student in education at Harvard University. "You would think we would have learned to make our culture more accepting of healthy, natural physiques," he says in the New York Times (“More Boys”). Magazines are brought up for making women look thinner or curvier but everyone seems to forget the alterations to make men look more muscular making teen boys want to bulk up which can cause them to develop an eating disorder or worse, abuse drugs such as steroids.

They may think that that is what they have to look like and can lead to things like eating disorders. Some girls who usually enjoy physical activity will avoid sports and running because they think they don 't look attractive while running or playing sports. For boys at this same age it becomes a little more physical. Some boys think that when someone offends or mocks them they are forced to fight them. They might think they have to show the extent of their manliness. This stress every day could lead to certain mental health strains too. This image of manliness is created again through media and television. They see all of the basketball or soccer players and think they have to be like that or else they won 't be cool or manly.

Trying to decide what outfit to wear to school? What compliments your shape? Makes your legs look skinny? However you hate everything that you try on because you continually think that it looked so much better on the thin model in your latest magazine. Recent research is showing that you aren’t alone in your negative thinking. A research study in South- East England is showing that a growing problem is negative body image amongst females between the ages of 14-16. What is negative body image? Negative body image is when you feel uncomfortable and awkward in your body, having misleading views of certain body parts, and having feelings of humiliation, self- consciousness and unease about your body.

Body image issues are a delicate topic within the male gender. The ideal man by American societal standards, is supposedly tall, slender, and tan, with somewhat defined muscles at the least. Body dissatisfaction is generally seen as feminine issue, something that is a likely factor in why so few men speak up about their body image problems. Homosexual males, however, generally do speak up more about the issues they face with how they look. A lot of these men are affected by the beauty myth in a similar manner as females; because they are not seen as masculine, they tend to turn to their looks as what they have to offer to potential partners and their peers. Unlike females, homosexual male’s body issues go beyond the too fat narrative, many

high prevalence of body image concerns, there has been an increase in observed and medical attention, as it found to have negative consequences on audiences alike.

While many women claim to be objectified as objects of beauty, boys and young men are fighting the same battle. Especially in middle and high school, boys who have “strong” and “manly” features such as big arms and a defined jaw line

For kids, school can be one of the main reasons as to why they feel self-conscious about their appearance. This environment has the power to be a harsh place for pubescent teens. In elementary school, kids usually aren't as adamant about wanting to look a certain way. For example, not even ten years ago, elementary schoolers were simply concerned with the dilemma of whether or not the swings at recess would be taken; however, now, approximately 42% of girls in the first through third grade wished to be thinner (Vaynshteyn np). These statistics tend to leave people bewildered and baffled. In first grade, a child should not be concerned with their body; instead, they should be preoccupied deciding what to bring to show-and-tell. The amount of

Jamie Santa Cruz is the author of the article Body-Image Pressure Increasingly Affects Boys. Santa Cruz is an author of many different articles that have appeared on a numerous amount of websites. In the article, Jamie Santa Cruz states that adolescent boys are becoming increasingly self-conscious of their body image. Factors including weight, height, and overall physical physique have affected the way young boys look at themselves today. Santa Cruz does an excellent job in proving that this has been an increasingly concerning issue in all young men today.