Body Positivity

Growing up, I played with Barbie. Barbie had her own house, car and airplane. She had clothes and shoes for every occasion. She was independent and successful. She was tall, blonde and beautiful. She was everything I hoped to be as an adult. Barbie continues to be a role model for many little girls today. Little boys have their own role model, G.I. Joe. He is strong, a warrior, the good guy. Unfortunately, these iconic role models represent the unobtainable physique. Their body shapes are unrealistic. Perceiving these toys as physical role models has become detrimental to the health of children because when they fail to size up, or down, to these figures, serious illnesses, disease and even death can occur.

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 article talks about how different ideal body types came to be and also how these standards affect male’s body image. The authors state that previous studies have shown the negative effects of perfect body exposure to women, therefore they try to do a similar experiment to men to see if it comes to the same conclusion. It comes to conclusion that men that exposed to ideal male images became significantly more depressed

Modern people live media-saturated lives, even children as young as 6 years old, have had some type of media exposure. Extensive exposure to media outlets can lead to body image issues. Body image is defined as, the subjective picture or mental image of one's own body (Smolak 2003). Body image is formed as people compare themselves to others. Because, people are exposed to countless media images; these images become the basis for such comparisons. These mental comparisons, have a strong influence on an individual’s personal perception of beauty. Media outlets create images and pressures about what our bodies should look like; however, sometimes these images have been manipulated, creating an unrealistic expectation of beauty. When an individual believes that their body is substandard, they can become depressed, suffer from low self-esteem, or develop eating disorders.

As with females, body image among males is a prevailing symptom and underlying motivation for the development and continuation of the disorder.

“Enhancing Your Body Image” (2015) discusses the impact popular culture has on women strive to have Twiggy’s body and men hope to be the tough guy like Clint Eastwood (p.340). People are willing to alter their appearance physically; for example, people try to lose weight or change their personality by playing sports or instruments to find the sense of belonging. Society has a fascination of trying to belong within a social group.

In recent decades, acquiring the body image and figure popularized by mass media and popular culture is becoming a rising and prevalent concern amongst people. Apparent increases in the efforts to achieve, match, and maintain the ideal body gathers attention and worry that it might impact perceptions on what sort of body stature is acceptable or not. Even some youths are beginning to pick up the idea that a body type that is not ideal to the type popularly portrayed by society is unfavorable. This desire for the ideal body is becoming immensely widespread that some people have even come to sign it as a priority, making this matter as an issue of concern. Susan Bordo expands and discusses in her essay “Never Just Pictures,” the development of

Today in modern society, we are driven by social forces. Not only do we strive for human approval and companionship, we also thrive on social media. The media plays such a pivotal role in what we buy, eat, wear, etc. that we are conditioning ourselves to fit the mold for the “perfect” or “ideal” body type. This social construct has been a pressing issue for many years regarding the female physique, but not as much has been said on behalf of men. When confronted with appearance based advertisements, men are more likely to experience muscle dissatisfaction, weight disparities, and anger and/or anxiety toward showing their body in public. This paper will address these facets of the media’s effect on male body image as well as presenting what has been done to address this quietly debilitating issue.

Drexler uses statistics from a pediatrics report which quotes “40 percent of boys in middle and high school exercise regularly -- and 90 percent at least occasionally -- with the specific goal of bulking up” (1). As studies progress it shows that boys are under pressure to fit a physical aesthetic. Dr. Drexler believe that the male stereotype is not catching up with the stereotype of the females, but instead reverting back to the traditional notion of what it means to be masculine and she quote from a traditional saying “It's fine if boys want to go around wearing sparkly nail polish as kids, as long as they grow up to be big and strong and macho”. Dr. Drexler state that the false image of male aesthetic is difficult to avoid because on a daily basis, boys are engulfed by Magazines, DVDs, and Malls, all displaying the same body image. Dr. Drexler explained that the biggest pressure boys receive are from their coaches and peers, where muscle building are encouraged and dieting and grooming are condemned. This ideal cultivates a system where girls are supposed to be fragile and decorated, whereas boys are supposed to be tough and

People now a days have a problem with the way they appear. For hundreds of years, people, especially females, have been concerned with their weight, the way they look, and the way people perceive them. In the article, Do You Have a Body Image Problem? author Dr. Katharine A. Phillips discusses the concerns with body dysmorphic disorder (BDD). Dr. Phillips uses her knowledge or ethics to discuss the effects that BDD has on people today. She also uses emotion to show the reader how people are seriously affected by this disorder. In Dr. Phillips article, she discusses how people are emotionally and socially affected by the body dysmorphic disorder, and how society is also affected by it.

The Ideal Men People often say that the youth of today are more exposed and affected by Medias such as televisions, ads, and internet. For example, magazines often portray flawless models wearing trendy clothing which causes the viewers to idealize how the society should look and behave. In the text X-Large Body written by Alissa Quart, the author reveals that many young men are influenced to take body building supplements and practice extreme work out routines in order to gain muscles and fit in the society. Analyzing and closely examining the text, Quart successfully emphasizes that young men are being introduced to the idea of having a masculine body in an early age due to the impacts of media advertisement.

When researching online for issues about body image, one can definitely find articles concerning young women. Of course, when hearing about body image issues, one can only think of anorexia, obesity, and low self-esteem. However, a body image problem is not just an issue affecting young women; it’s actually an issue that is also affecting young men. Over time, a growing number of young men have been showing issues with their body image. This is mainly due to the way media portrays men in television shows, movies, and advertisements. Because of this, it leads to low self-esteem, peer pressure, and over exercising among young men. Low self-esteem can be caused by having the feeling of being inferior to everyone and always having the mindset

The amount of males that are unsatisfied with their bodies has tripled in the last twenty-five years. According to Helen Fawkner, doctor of philosophy, it has increased from fifteen percent of the male population to forty-five percent. It is an extremely severe problem that most people are not aware of. It can lead to suicidal thoughts, self-harm, and eating disorders, but the majority of people think that males do not have to worry about it as much as females. However, they have the same amount of pressure to have the perfect figure as females, it is just not delineated. Body image and eating disorders are not just female problems, men go through the same issues.

These are just some of the comments I stumble upon on someone’s body positive Instagram post. The post is often a photo of the said person - be it a selfie or a full body photo - along with hashtags such as “#bodypositivity,” “#loveyourself,” “#bodyacceptance,” and other hashtags along those lines. It also isn’t uncommon for me to come across body positive articles by media outlets like Buzzfeed or Huffington Post on my timeline, with headlines such as “X Star is a Huge Inspiration for the Body Positive Movement” or “X Star Opens Up about Body Positivity” appearing more frequently on my news feed. People are starting to talk

In today’s society we let the media decide everything in our lives from what clothes we should wear, music we should listen to, and how we should look. One of the biggest problems that both men and women face is body shaming, because the media sets standards for young kids and young adults., they often times try and fit the description of “perfect” which leads these people to either be depressed because they do not look like people want them to look or harm themselves in order to achieve the desired look. The most common ways the media shames both men and women are by celebrities and how they are the “perfect” body, publishing magazines of what is the ideal man and woman, and by the people who believe being “too” fat is bad and being “too” skinny is bad.