Body Versus Stereotypes

“These words sank deep into my heart, stirred up sentiments within that lay slumbering, and called into existence an entirely new train of thought. It was a new and special revelation, explaining dark mysterious things, with which my youthful understanding had struggled, but struggled in vain. I now understood what had been to me a most perplexing difficulty – to wit, the white man’s power to enslave black men. It was a grand achievement, and I prized it highly. From that moment, I understood the pathway from slavery to freedom” (20).

What if I were to tell you that you that for the rest of your life, you would be unfairly judged, and possibly even discriminated against, based on false perceptions and ideas gathered from influences that only resemble you in the vaguest of ways, most likely being, skin color? And what if no matter how an individual person chooses to carry oneself, they will still commonly be regarded as a member of said misconceptions? Enter, stereotype: “A widely held but fixed and oversimplified image or idea of a particular type of person or thing.”(1)

The controversy over the unrealistic body image portrayed by the culturally iconic Barbie doll has been a topic of interest in sociology for many years. The research on this subject aims to determine the role that Barbie plays, if any, in the prevalence of negative body image and self esteem issues in young girls. The Barbie doll, introduced by Mattel, Inc. in 1959, can easily be considered the most popular doll in the world with 99% of 3 to 10 year olds owning at least one Barbie doll, and an average of eight Barbie dolls each just in the United States (Rogers, 1999). Barbie has received extensive criticism over the years for her ultrathin and highly unattainable body proportions. A majority of the relevant literature has focused on the influence of body ideals on adults, and not enough has been directed towards the impact it may have on children (Brownell & Napolitano, 1994). Some overall trends in the research on the influence of Barbie on young girl’s developing body image and self concept include Barbie’s role in socializing young girls, scaling Barbie dolls to an adult height in order to compare body proportions to real life adults, and conducting studies to assess the impact on body image that exposure to Barbies may produce. The following section will elaborate on these key themes in the current research discussing how the female body image is unrealistically depicted by Barbie dolls.

‘I now understood what had been to me a most perplexing difficulty-to wit, the white man’s power to enslave the black man. It was a grand achievement, and I prized it highly. From that moment, I understood the pathway from slavery to

Our brain is the physical organ that sits inside our skull. Though the mind, the intangible

Body image is the perception that a person has of their physical self and the thoughts and feelings that result from that perception. These feelings can be positive, negative or both and are influenced by individual and environmental factors.Many modern celebrities are known for being excessive sharers on social media.

Why is it so difficult for people to live in a society where they truly feel comfortable with being themselves? Whether it is the color of their skin, their hair, thier weight, their intellegence level. Its is hard for the average human to truly love and embrace who they are. For many years, society has placed pressure upon the lives of many males and females and has led them to believe that there is a certain standard for how one must look and act. All Advertisments, Television, etc. advertize do is make people feel self concious about their bodies. The 2014 Victoria Secret “Perfect Body” campaign sparked lots of uproar when it was released. On the campaign photo stands 10 tall women each with long hair, flat tummies, and long legs accompanied

Many people in modern culture have developed what has been termed a normative discontent with their bodies. Women are particularly vulnerable to this development of body dissatisfaction, which has been shown to create numerous negative heath issues. These health issues are a direct result from trying to achieve the unrealistic ideal image media has created. This idea on how the body should look floods modern media and women are discriminated upon if they are unable to meet these strict physical requirements. However, unknown to the masses, the majority of the physical characteristics portrayed are achieved from digital enhancement and not only the product of weight loss. It is my goal within this paper to discuss the populations affected

In general, when you think of a Doctor, are they male or female? It’s more likely that most people would say male. This is due to the stereotype that doctors are usually males, not females. This stereotype evolved from the idea that women do not excel in STEM ( Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) courses compared to men. However, this is not the case men and women excel equally. Although at a young age, most girls are not encouraged to pursue an education in these fields. These ideologies cause many women to feel less confident in pursuing these fields or even being successful on tests such as math. This stereotype and many others create a feeling of insecurity in people.

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.

.Physical attraction stereotype which is feeling that if someone is beautiful that he also has to be smart and nice

Media has taken over the United States as well as other developed countries, and it is impacting females greatly by diminishing their self confidence, and self esteem which is leading to many big, unhealthy problems. Actress and makeup artist, Eva Devergilis, says each time any woman comes and sits in her chair, they apologize for their looks no matter what age, race, weight, etc. they are because the bar for beauty in women is set so high that no one person is satisfied (Ozborne). Lucy-Anne Holmes said, “One gender is allowed to be fully clothed, look old and be overweight while the other isn’t. The impact this has on girls and young women is sad and unfair,” (Martinson). This is true because the idea of men and beauty is set a lot looser,

- risk factors for body image disturbances are experienced by gay men at higher rates and are thought to be exacerbated by the challenges of navigating their sexual identity (Bozard and Young, 2016)

The fascination of television shows such as American Idol and The Voice, has grabbed the attention of people all over as they watch others attempt to become the next big music icon. In fact, the television show industry has shown that appearance and personality have a huge effect towards successful careers. Musicians today really worry about trying to stand out as different. As they say, looks can be deceiving, but aside of their incredible singing, what makes some of them so special? Is it his or her style, appearance, or personality? Having uniqueness, talent, appearance, and good personality are all important factors when it comes to being a music icon. But, there has to be something else that make people like Elvis Presley, Michael Jackson,

The aim of this research is to find out if there are stereotypes of physical appearance especially in dressing and to find out what these stereotypes are. In psychology and sociology researches, different types of stereotyping people are found. However, these stereotypes generally depend on race, sex and ethnicity. In this study, existence of stereotyping people according to clothing styles is tried to be proved.