Body Stereotyping Within The Media

Whether society is watching a show on television, reading their favorite magazine, or scrolling through the news feed on social media, they will notice that there is a specific body type that is portrayed in America today. Through these images that are viewed, a trend has been set by Americans to achieve the ideal body image, and the effect is detrimental to society today because it increases eating disorders, mental illnesses, chronic health issues, suicide, and unhealthy lifestyles in men, women, and teenagers.

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.

Eating disorders are not the only thing males also suffer from. Expectations from the media are also a strong push into worries about body image. Despite popular belief, guys struggle with images broadcasted by the media as much as girls do. Andrew Shrout, a junior at U.C. Berkeley feels the weight that is put on him to “be a man” and pretend like nothing is wrong. “Men are pressured to have as little fat as possible--but you’ve got to pretend like you don’t watch what you eat” (Alpert 1). Also, men are expected to “up their game” as women get more power financially as well as keep their bodies well maintained. Clinical instructor at the Harvard Medical school psychiatry department Roberto Olivardia states that men and young boys deal with the same images broadcasted out as women and young girls do. “Boys are growing up now with the billboard of the guy with perfect pecs and biceps” (Alpert 2). Media pushes the perfect way to look at men in commercials, magazines, male models, and even movies. Girls often complain about the unfair portrayal of women in comic books and video games with enormous boobs and tiny waists, but guys deal

My sister is eleven, and is slightly overweight. Up until a year ago she never had a problem with her body image, she was content with the way that she looked. However, recently she has brought up questions regarding her weight and if she looks okay. It has become evident that she is no longer okay with her body, and her self-image. Over the past year her Internet and television use has dramatically gone up, and her self-esteem has equally gone down. The ads shown in media portray women in a way that my sister, along with many adolescent girls, cannot identify with; they draw from stereotypical understandings, and fail to represent healthy girls. The media, and lack of sexual education for kids, ultimately leads to eating disorders,

The female body type has been looked at, analyzed, focused on, and picked at overwhelmingly throughout history. Whether it is through the media or directly analyzed. The media portrays women and their body image in a negative and unrealistic way. Women struggle with their bodies, all because of the media and how the media interprets women. Given that the “perfect" body image for women has changed over time, indicates no particular definition on what is most desired. Although, there is a classification for what is healthy and unhealthy for a woman's shape and body kind. Due to the media, many women and young teenagers go to the extremes to meet this body image, sometimes leading to health concerns. The major factor that causes these body image

One of the largest components of the media's portrayal of beauty standards is body shaming, an action that has exponentially increased with the advancement of technology. Women are exposed daily to articles in tabloid magazines and gossip websites that shames female celebrities for what they wearing, claiming that some women with certain body types should not be wearing certain types of clothing. Young women and girls, who already have tumultuous relationships with their bodies and their self-images, are now subjected to a trend that can severely damage their mental health. Shame arises when a woman’s body image does not match the societal ideal, and a recent study found that women who reported high levels of body shame also reported high levels of hopeless depression, showing a correlation between the two (Evans). When women are repeatedly told that their bodies are unacceptable to a societal ideal, it can cause them to feel as if they will never reach this impossible standard, leading to hopeless depression. The fat-shaming trend can be apparent in many forms of media, and it is not always directed at women. An advertisements for the children's movie “Red Shoes and the 7 Dwarves” exemplifies the body shaming movie. The advertisement depicts a tall and thin Snow White standing next to a shorter and heavier image of herself, with the tag line “What if Snow White was no longer beautiful and the 7 dwarves not so short?” (Ferguson). The advertisement insinuates that the thinner

Media is a powerful communicative tool, which can be said, is very easy to influence in many different ways. Although some aspects of media are important to bring to our attention, some other aspects, however, create an incredible amount of negative impact one of these which is body image. In order to identify this issue a qualitative research by using five different magazine articles, which included the Heat, Now, Star & Reveal; major and minor themes relating to the media and body image were identified. Thematic analysis was used to analyses the data.

Body image is a huge issue around the world. It has affected so many teens,adults,and children all around the world. Since many people are so use to seeing media images,it becomes their basis or their main idea for how their body should look like. If people don't say anything or speak up, future generations of body image will get worse, increasing the amount of stress on young children.

When a person goes home and turns on his or her television, logs onto social media, or picks up a magazine, what is the first thing that he or she sees? In each form of media, a person is more likely to see a woman who is scantily dressed or has a perfectly toned body. One is less likely to find a woman who is of average weight or obese, and if a person is lucky enough to find such a woman in the media, it is likely that the media is slandering the woman for not being thin. The media has an extensive control of how our society views certain aspects of life, and body image certainly doesn’t miss the radar. The interest in body image versus media, however, is whether or not it affects how women view their personal body images and if there are

Preview of Main Points: I will begin by explaining how the perfect body image shown in the media is unrealistic, then, I will talk about how the unrealistic images lead to both men and women to have a low self-esteem and eating disorders that develop due to people wanting to look like the images shown in the media. Lastly, I’ll talk about a solution we can do to stop the portrayal of an unrealistic body image.

discrimination, and condemnation. The thin ideal has been constructed by the society and by the media. But women are affected that kind of construction.

and all around the world has been changed. Now in 2015, everywhere you look in magazines and advertisements there are these thin, beautiful  women and strong muscular men with six packs. Body image is something which girls struggle with on an almost daily basis. Societal pressure to be thin has caused many females to resort to extreme dieting, excessive exercise, eating disorders such as bulimia and anorexia and self abuse (Cutting, and Binding). Body image directly affects sexuality as well as our perception of it. According to studies at Stanford University and the University of Massachusetts, found that 70% of college women say they feel worse about their own looks after reading women’s magazines. A 2006 study published in the journal of Psychology of Men and Masculinity showed that not only did watching prime-time television and music videos appear to make men more uncomfortable with themselves, but that the discomfort led to sexual problems (Brown.edu). Personally I struggle with body image and have since I was 7. Usually I would look at the people in magazines, but also I would look at my friends, who could eat anything they want, and never gain a single

Anyone who has ever been online has seen food, transformation, or other health related images and videos on social media, online magazines/blogs, and mass media in general. Mass media has caused an enormous amount of controversy within the last few years concerning body image and what is politically correct. However, mass media’s impact on health can be beneficial if it is used the correct way. The social media aspect of mass media has become something that is involved in most people’s everyday lives; and it’s not going away anytime soon. Mass media posts need to be controlled so companies and public figures do not promote unhealthy, unrealistic body images; and instead endorse a healthy standard to benefit readers both physically and

Have you ever thought about why so many people today have such a negative view of their body and what they look like? Most commonly the media has a big play in this. Media messages directed at teens and young adults can negatively affect how they see their bodies. Social media, the media’s ideals of “beauty”, and the media’s ways of getting the “ideal” body can cause many negative thoughts and emotions within both women and men.

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.