Does Being Thin Determine Attractiveness In Modern Society?

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 first one features thin models, the second one shows average-size models, and the third one shows no models. The authors try to prove that the exposure of thin ideal bodies in the media does negatively impacts young women’s body images. It was concluded that women that were exposed to thin ideal bodies resulted in a higher body-focused anxiety than those who are exposed to average-size models and no models. This article will be able to support my thesis because it shows the negative effects of exposure of thin ideal bodies to the female public and my thesis is about the negative impacts of ideal bodies exposure on self-esteem and self-image. This article will be used in the psychology section of the

One reason mass media is so effective at portraying unrealistic body types as normal is because the mass media helps to set what is perceived as normal. In an article about the mass media’s role in body image disturbance and eating disorders, J. Kevin Thompson and Leslie Heinberg state, “A sociocultural model emphasizes that the current societal standard for thinness, as well as other difficult-to-achieve standards of beauty

In Susan Bordo’s article “Never Just Pictures: Bodies and Fantasies” this is an article that is informative as well as interesting. Bordo mentions celebrity names like Alicia Silverstone and famous dieting products like Citra Lean to introduce the “thin” trend in today’s popular culture. The author explains how today’s society explores different media cites to acknowledge how individuals should appear in today’s world. Advertisements have also become a big part on the reflection of society’s beliefs. Bordo talks about body figures that were once considered normal, have become known as an abnormal appearance. Bordo wants to convince the audience that being thin has become an issue that must be addressed by the general public,

The subject of this article are young girls, mainly who are in their teenage years, but also the parents of teenage girls. However, anyone can be impacted and learn from this article. This article questions why society drills the idea of thinness into the minds of people, and every reader can take a different stance and have a different opinion on the issue. Some people may take a stance and say that individuals, themselves, are the only influence on their body image. However, others may take the stance and say that society, as a whole, has a huge influence on an individual and their body image. The author of this article, Erica Goode, includes many quotes from parents of teenage girls, who feel as if they need to go to extreme measures to fit in with society. In this case, the author is creating the stance that society plays a role when it comes to influencing an individual. Goode also provides many

Demi Lovato once said, “I’m not going to sacrifice my mental health to have the perfect body.” However, today we find that many individuals are doing the completely opposite. In Susan Bordo’s, “Globalization of Eating Disorders” essay, they fall into the media trap, the self-image trap, where they are concerned of what people may think about them. Americans nowadays have pageants, modeling, and media to thank for this absurd notion. Fit women, along with strong men give this motivation to others to want to be like them. Most people should be comfortable with their own bodies. Americans are mesmerized with media and enthralled by one’s body image, and ,as a result, face ramifications like eating disorders and anorexia.

The media group that retouches images skews the “normal” body image of people through many of its outlets, including models in advertising and magazines, and actors in TV and movie productions. “The average model portrayed in the media is approximately 5’11” and 120 pounds. By contrast, the average American woman is 5’4” and 140 pounds” (Holmstrom, 2004). This statistic shows how the media manipulates consumers into believing that because they are not what the average model looks like, they are not living up to a certain standard which implies that they need to look like that to be beautiful. Another research fact that shows a similar concept is that, “In the United States, 94% of female characters in television programs are thinner than the average American woman, with whom the media frequently associate happiness, desirability, and success in life” (Yamamiya et al., 2005). This association of female thinness and happiness, desirability and success makes consumers believe they must achieve this unrealistic thinness to achieve more ultimate goals and fulfillment in life. “The media also explicitly instruct how to attain thin bodies by dieting, exercising, and body-contouring surgery, encouraging female consumers to believe that they can and should be thin” (Yamamiya et al., 2005). This idealization of thinness in the media is seen so much, and is extremely harmful to women’s self confidence and is often associated with body image dissatisfaction, which can be a precursor to social anxiety, depression, eating disturbances, and poor self-esteem (Yamamiya et al.,

The media has distorted people’s views on the way they look at their own body image. The media has shown what their ideal body type is, while leaving people to feel as if the average weight is not good enough. (Cardosi, 2006) We live in a world where people feel as if having zero body fat is the idea body type to have. Pictures of models for clothing stores, bathing suits, lingerie etc. all exhibit to this to be true. Body image is perceived to be negatively influenced by the media and the way that the media displays their models. Parents, teachers, adolescence and even children all find themselves to be comparing themselves based on what the media exposes. (Levine & Murnen, 2009)

The largest forms of media we encounter in our daily lives are the advertisements and commercials we see on TV, the Internet and in magazines. One of the key strategies used to reinforce the feminine image is to depict every woman to be “thin.” This strategy is used all over the media and this depiction of “women should be thin” is negative. For example, “Seventeen” magazine, Pretty Little Liars star Troian Bellisario is featured on the cover captioning, “Get an insane body – It’s hard, but you’ll look hot.” This idea that the media is portraying to all women and girls is publicized wrongly. Everyone thinks that being thin is hot and if you are not thin, you don’t belong to society. However, this happens because women and girls are too taken away by getting slim,

Today’s culture has placed women across the globe in a position where they are constantly flooded with idealistic images that depict what the media perceives as the “perfect body.” Quite often, young university-attending females, those who are involved in social identity formation, are exposed to numerous forms of media that fabricate various experiences relative to body image. In the past, researchers have surveyed women who are exposed to body-related standards using multiple forms of mass media as a unified entity, which has caused for limitations since each means -such as magazine advertisements- differs in relation to how a thin idealistic image is portrayed. In light of prior research, Harper and Tiggman established that

In our popular culture, the media worships the beautiful, perfectly made-up, perfectly-coiffed, perfectly-dressed, THIN woman! Our current standard of beauty is based on super models, actresses, musical artists, reality TV stars, all for the most part very thin women. With the overwhelming amount of these images bombarding us every day, the message seems clear: women who do not fit this standard of beauty are unattractive, unloveable, and unacceptable.

“We are, despite our efforts at resistance, conditioned to see thin as beautiful and, more to the point, beautiful as necessarily thin. As Regina Casper points out, early in our teen years we notice that ‘female socialization emphasizes good looks above everything else, and good looks demand what is difficult to achieve in out surplus society, namely a thin body. The pursuit of thinness hence is considered an acceptable and socially desirable goal’ (1994). Furthermore, fat women are not only deemed unattractive, but also lazy, slovenly, dirty, undisciplined, and unsuccessful”

“To be happy and successful, you must be thin,” is a message women are given at a very young age (Society and Eating Disorders). In fact, eating disorders are still continuously growing because of the value society places on being thin. There are many influences in society that pressures females to strive for the “ideal” figure. According to Sheldon’s research on, “Pressure to be Perfect: Influences on College Students’ Body Esteem,” the ideal figure of an average female portrayed in the media is 5’11” and 120 pounds. In reality, the average American woman weighs 140 pounds at 5’4”. The societal pressures come from television shows, diet commercials, social media, peers, magazines and models. However, most females do not take into account of the beauty photo-shop and airbrushing. This ongoing issue is to always be a concern because of the increase in eating disorders.

Over the decades, many women of all shapes and sizes have struggled with body image and low self-esteem which has been affected by media’s portrayal of beauty. In a study performed in the United Kingdom, researchers “examined whether young women who make implicit associations between underweight models and positive attributes report elevated eating disorder symptoms” (Ahern). An eating disorder is evidence of an individual’s lack of positive body image. The person believes that he or she has to fit a certain ideal in order to be accepted and liked by others. The article states that, “societal pressure to be thin is thought to be a major contributor to the high levels of body dissatisfaction,” which once again demonstrates how much

Often, people of all ages, race, and gender catch themselves gazing into mirrors for hours, blaming themselves for the way they look, not realizing that the media is actually the one to blame for many people’s body image. Body image is the way people see themselves, or how they assume other people see them. It is not likely to see a plus sized model in a magazine or a model on the runway with blemishes on her face. A person’s negative perception of their own body is not because they think it is wrong to look and be healthy; it is because the media is telling them that being a size 2 with flawless skin is healthy and beautiful.