External Influences

Even though media vaunts an iridescent image of what every girl should look like, the simple fact is just, it is impossible. It is because the pictures in the media are not true—they all have gone through lots of Photoshop. Only 5 percent of women have the body type seen in almost all advertisements. Besides, most of fashion models are thinner than 98 percent of American women. However, women still continue to do whatever they can in order to fit into that idea of ‘perfection’. Eating disorders have harassed who want to feel like they are ‘beautiful’, for years. Women are willing to do anything even though it can cause harm to their own self due to low self-esteem. Do you want your sister, friends or girl friends always feel depressed and doing harm to themselves, as they feel dissatisfied about their

When western culture is spread, it can have adverse effects on those who it reaches. In “The Globalization of Eating Disorders” Susan Bordo attributes the spread of eating disorders to western culture. Specifically, she has noticed that the number of eating disorders has risen in Fiji, Central Africa, and Asia. For example, Central Africans favored plump women before a woman whose beauty conformed to western ideals was the first black African to win the Miss World Pageant (259). This article argues that the dominant culture can be poisonous. Not only does western culture affect how women see their bodies, but it also affects how they see their wits. “When Bright Girls Decide that Math Is ‘a Waste of Time’” by Susan Jacoby claims that girls shy away from scientific and mathematical (STEM) fields because they fear being unattractive by males and the intimidation of male-dominated careers. Women are more likely to major in fine arts, social sciences or education (32). According to Susan Jacoby, girls who decide to cut math and science out of their schedules set limitations on what they are capable of. External influences are to blame for women developing eating disorders and shying away from STEM fields.

First, women have a long history of the ideal body image that started in the early 1800’s with voluptuous figures that were made for child bearing, to the skinny boyish figure of the flapper in the 1920’s, and then the glamourous figure of Marilyn Monroe in the 1950’s. Today in society the ideal body image of women appears very slender, with flawless skin on television shows about dancing, reality television, and even sitcoms. In

It is no secret that women often change their bodies in order to meet the societal expectations that are portrayed in the media. The patriarchy and the male gaze dictate the ideal female which is depicted on television, in movies, and in magazines. Woman most often alter their weight in order to match the small slim physique of models. Weight is one of the main aspects of the female body that the patriarchy controls. Woman are taught by society that their natural body is not beautiful and that they must conform to the societal standard of a thin, size 0 woman in order to accommodate the male gaze. The patriarchy dictates this of a woman in order to maintain male dominance in society. However, these expectations have a negative effect on

In society, women relate to friends, models and actresses which are actually people who are in the industry portraying the ‘ideal body.’ Women think too much about what others think of them instead of just caring about themselves. They also choose to take the unhealthy approach and gain all these bad habits to obtain the ‘ultimate’ body image of this ‘ideal woman’ society has created.

The body image movement aims to improve the relationship between women and their bodies in a more positive manner (Dove 2014). Currently, women are suffering from an increase in body self-consciousness as a result of medias role regarding beauty ideals. Researchers have found that women worldwide do not view themselves as beautiful and are consistently troubled about their appearance and concluded that six out of ten girls are concerned about their appearances (Dove 2014). As a result, anxiety and self-consciousness are all contributing factors producing significant health concerns among women (Aubrey 2007). Media has developed a reputation in society for women to be held to unachievable beauty standards as they promote a “thin culture” (Hesse-Biber et al. 2006). This promotion of beauty standards has inspired the body image movement to educate and encourage women to love their bodies in order to achieve more self-esteem and confidence (Dove 2014). As well as, corporations are beginning to

Women have been deprived since the beginning of time. The same image of women has been show in every source of media and entertainment. The ideal image of a woman is near impossible to achieve but somehow it's made to seem as a perfect body type. Media deliveries content that is shaping our society especially young girls minds. Girls get the message from very early on that what's most important is their beauty and how they look. It is made to seem that the only thing that makes a young woman worth something depends

In the united states women expectation of beauty has change over time. Everywhere you turn their women being adversity as Victoria secret model or Barbie. Girls would want to look like this causing them to feel a shamed of their body and have eating disorder like anorexia or bulimia. Women are expected to be a Victoria secret model. Which some or most women can’t accomplish. Most girl want “that” perfect body type – slim, but not skinny; soft, but not fat. However, these goal lead to unhealthy body alteration.

In magazines, women that are skinny with curves are described to be beautiful and that puts a lot of pressures on women that don’t have those body. With this, some women will neither give up on the hope of beauty nor tries very hard to gain the beautiful body that society wants. Also, not everybody can have a curvy body, it just depend on the genes that are given to them by their parents. It’s even worse when men only look into a women with these kind expectation since it brings down women’s self-esteem. So in America with the pressure of society on women’s body can lead to difficult times in a women’s

Without even realizing it people are pear pressured to maintain a certain image for acceptance in their everyday lives. The two readings that I found particularly interesting were, “Does an employer have the right to control body art of its employees?” by Alan Shanof and “The Birthmark” by Nathaniel Hawthorn. They both can relate in the sense of how the world perceives body image and especially in women. A lot of people are turned down for a job since they have body art or appear in a certain way, even if that person possibly could have been the perfect person for the job. This stops people from being able to express themselves and do what they want with their own bodies. Girls are expected to service this presentation from the media on ‘how we are supposed to look’. Judgement has been a problem from the beginning and still till this day.

Self-esteem plays a big part of body image. People have to feel good about themselves and be comfortable in their own skin to be happy. In today's world, it feels almost impossible to be happy, this generation is all about the media which makes having self-esteem 10x harder. Millions of pictures are posted of expectations of how women should look. In an article written by Pavica Sheldon, she states that ”The average American woman is 5’4 and 140 pounds, whereas the average female model portrayed in the media is 5’11 and 120 pounds”. Women are placed into a box telling them they have to look a certain way and if they don't they're simply not good enough. Besides being put into a category women numerously get called nasty names like slut or whore if they show too much. Piggy and fatty if they're overweight. Or “stick” if she's too skinny. Nothing is ever good enough is what it feels like. For example, Kylie Jenner, if you grew up watching “Keeping up with the Kardashians” you know how she looked before all the plastic surgery she got done, she now looks completely different. An account wrote, “What are they giving Kylie?” and someone quoted the tweet and said plastic. So even if women try to fix their imperfections they still get shamed down for it by calling them fake.

Culture norms often times shapes behavior, values, personal growth, and even the way one perceives themselves, as well as the world. From the Psychology Dictionary, culture norms are defined as “a cultural regulation, moral, or guideline which designates an approved and proper action within the framework of a particular society type” (Nugent). Often, different culture norms allow women to perceive themselves in a negative way when comparing themselves to their peers, celebrities, and even advertisements. Women are always judging themselves asking if they are too skinny, too fat, ‘thicc’ enough, or counting the pimples on their faces repeatedly reminding themselves that they are not worthy enough. Even through all these negative perceptions women have on beauty and weight, there is a way to turn these effects around and maintain a healthy outlook.

A female should not feel insecure with her body when she is comfortable in her own skin, whether or not she weights 130 pounds or 150 pounds at 5’5”. According to Rehab’s study of the evolution of the female figure over one hundred years, “the body shapes of the most admired models have remained consistently slimmer than that of the average American woman.” Due to the significant increase in mass media throughout the twentieth century of the United States, there has been a noteworthy impact on the popular image of women. A woman being dissatisfied with their body is a everyday trend around the world where as

Society creates a standard of beauty for women that often changes along with society due to a new perspective on what it means to be beautiful in our culture. These standards for beauty create what our society believes makes a woman desirable, attractive, perfect, and overall beautiful.  Which then enforces unhealthy and unrealistic beauty ideals that negatively affect women's self-image and their body image because society has attributed beauty to self worth. The result is with the ever changing standards of beauty means women use various ways to alter their bodies and appearance by clothing, makeup, hair, dieting, exercising, and even taking extreme measures to perfect their looks through surgery.

Women have let the idea of looking beautiful take over their self-confidence and life. Healthy Place, an online magazine teaching women about living a healthy life, says that, “today's fashion models weigh twenty-three percent less than the average female, and a young woman between the ages of 18-34 has a seven percent chance of being as slim as a catwalk model and a one percent chance of being as thin as a supermodel.” So why do women push themselves to be excessively thin when these models are anomalies? They do it because the media tells them that this look is the only look that can attract men. Even if a woman is “beautiful” according to the media’s standards, she will always find something about her body that she hates, whether it is her hair or her belly button, no women is completely satisfied. Our society is very accepting of different religions and lifestyles, so why can we not accept different types of beauty as well?