Does The Media Create Negative Self Image?

There are no questions to whether the media has influenced the self-consciousness people have on their body or not. Whether it is the front of a magazine cover or in a film or television show, the selection of models or actors are primarily thin or fit leading readers and viewers to worry or want to change the way their body looks. Body image is the way one sees oneself and imagine how one looks. Having a positive body image means that most of the time someone sees themselves accurately, and feels comfortable in their body; negative body image, what the media exemplifies for the majority of the time, is just the opposite. The media uses unrealistic standards of beauty and bodily perfection to drive ordinary people to be dissatisfied with their body image which can result in the search to obtain these unreachable goals.

Mass media is effective in teaching us what we “should” look like. Women should be thin. Men should be muscular. The skinny and muscular ideals portrayed in advertising encourage men and women to look a certain way. The depiction of the female ideal has helped shaped society’s perspectives about beauty. The media pushes you to “improve your body” by buying their products but soon the road to a skinny and toned body leads to a self destructive path of self hatred. The powerful ideas that the media transmits through words, images, and movement can have lasting impacts on the human brain, affecting how we think and

In the article, “The Negative Effects of the Media on Body Image” by Esther Vargas, there were several issues discussed about the negative effects that media has on body image in society. Many girls

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.

For example, the images and celebrities in the media set the standard for what we find attractive. As a result of, leading people to go to dangerous extremes to have the biggest biceps or fit into size 2 jeans. Today, more than 66 percent of Americans are overweight or obese. In the American body, the media idealizes images of the male and female bodies. But, at the same time the media in the form of television, the internet, movies, and print publications is more powerful than before. “We live in a day and age where people make it IMPOSSIBLE for women, men, anyone to embrace themselves exactly how they are. Diversity is sexy! Loving yourself is sexy!” (Strecker, 2015, para. 2).

Picture the world controlled by the media. Could you imagine how ugly, scarce, and hateful it would be. What would you do if a magazine or a television show told you that your body weight had to be twenty pounds lighter to be all most perfect? Would you actually consider the fact or let ignore it? Teens, mainly girls, will be sucked into these magazines. (National Eating Disorders Info Centre 15) These could be magazines like Seventeen and Cosmo Girl. In addition with many others of course. All though, the media is a bad example at times it is not precisely the main issue for negative body image. (National Eating Disorders Association 1) All though, these constant screaming messages the media produces

People may say that while media is the root of the problem, the media itself cannot be stopped. But, if we take the spotlight and place it on media, we are allowing the effects to be unlimited. While media does play a part in causing negative body image disorders, Media is the easy blame for body image problems. By putting the blame on media, America fails to understand the body disorders and the complexity behind them because you can't stop the media but you can stop or try to understand the reasons that lead to feeling body

Firstly, my approach to media has changed in that I now view media as simply media and not ‘the’ media. “The media portrays unrealistic body image,” people say. This is only partially true; there are sources of media that portray body image in ways that most would not be able to achieve (i.e. Playboy), but there are also sources of media that

The female body image is highly influenced by the mass media and the media’s portrayal of women, ‘70% of college women say they feel worse about their own looks after reading women’s magazines’ (University of Massachusetts & Stanford University, 2006), the portrayal of women in the media has an unrealistic approach and brings out body dissatisfactions and this results in eating problems and disorders.

To begin with, media is increasingly affecting body image; men and women are steadily becoming more and more dissatisfied with their bodies and there is evidence to support that this effect may very well be because of media. Evidence to support that media is the culprit behind this negative change is the emphasis that media puts on thin bodies for women and muscular bodies for men. In fact, research states the media has consistently throughout history and today highly emphasized the importance of being below average in weight for women and hypermuscular for men; these images are unrealistic and often times lead to body dissatisfaction especially in adolescents (Benowitz-Fredericks, Garcia, Massey, Vasagar, & Borzekowski, 2012).

It is seen more in females compared to males, but studies have shown that both genders can be equally hurt by social media. This doesn't mean that social media directly impacts body image, but that there's a strong correlation between the two. Another type of media is the magazine. It is a little bit outdated in these times, but magazines have contributed in shaping body image. Magazine covers usually have these thin-photoshopped women and lean muscular men promoting beauty products or exercise plans. They reel you in with bolded words saying "Get Shredded in a Few Days!", or "5 Must Have Beauty Products". There is a sense of control and power when we can manipulate our bodies. An example is dieting, of course all these athletes and models like to talk about their bodies and diets, but we are different from them. They have specific meal plans to accommodate their body. Wrong dieting can cause eating disorders and can be extremely harmful to our bodies. We fall into the trap of eating less to be skinnier and at the same time, society is praising us for wanting to look skinny. With more differences between us and these ideals, the more we become insecure and critical of our body image. Even though many companies promote the skinny, toned models, there are other growing companies that are starting to promote different body shapes and sizes. An example is a clothing brand called "Dear Kate", they did their own underwear campaign countering Victoria Secret's "the perfect

I think that people should just stop using photo manipulation to give people in the media such unrealistic bodies and just use the real version and stop setting a standard for everyone. I also feel that when they manipulate photos, they are having a negative effect on people and that they mess up people’s perception of beauty. Knowing that society manipulates how women look in the media can say a lot about society. It can say that society believes that you have to look one way to be accepted: flawless. It also says society doesn’t accept how females look unless they have the “perfect” body, so they turn to the use of photo manipulation, and that society doesn’t believe in true beauty on the inside but only externally. This says that society

Today media ranges from television to newspaper articles. Many in society do not realize the negative effects that the media portrays to young women. Young women are more susceptible to these negative side effects resulting in low self-esteem, eating disorders, or depression. Media projects images of women that have been surgically or technologically edited, these projections are causing negative effects. These unrealistic women have a greater effect on young women today, society has enveloped this idea that we have to meet this certain image. We have become so overwhelmed with the stereotypical image causing great disapproval for women who are slightly overweight.

Media is everywhere. In classrooms, at home, in your pocket, no one can escape the temptation of media. Every little bit of information stems from media. But, all information has two sides to it, one of which media never reports. Women have always been a controversial topic in media. For example women are seen as sex symbols rather than intellectual individuals. Social media and media have targeted women to become a conquest in which reward must be given. For instance, if a man were to sleep around with multiple partners it would not be viewed as promiscuous, while a woman would be characterized as a slut or a whore. Media has always been a prominent factor in how we view certain ideals. For example, women should be treated and viewed as inferior from their male counterparts. As the media thoroughly objectifies women’s bodies it creates a stigma that women must be held to a beauty standard to be seen as acceptable in society.

The media plays a significant role in influencing and shaping individuals’ perceptions of self in American society. Additionally, the media plays a key role in how it portrays people of color (POC) and, therefore, in how it affects their perceptions of self and others. It is the way the predominantly white media interacts with POC that reinforces racial stereotypes and systematic oppression that affect their daily lives. In the past two decades, research on media has supported the “media’s ideological power over their consumers to define social reality, not simply reflect it” (Drew, 2011, p. 355). The media, is therefore, not reflecting society’s opinions and attitudes, but rather forming society’s opinions and attitudes of POC. “They not only set the agenda for public discussion (what people should think about), but more importantly, they strongly suggest how” people should think about POC (Drew, 2011, p. 355).