How Is The Media Affecting Young Women's Body Image?

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

Young Women tend to feel that if they are not as skinny and beautiful as the women portrayed on television that they will be bullied or harassed by peers, for the lack of not following the rules of an “ideal” society. Bullying has become a large factor between peers over body image. It is what is called “The Mean Girls Effect”. Students are harassed by their peers because their are not the same size as them. Body image at a young age changes the outlook on young teens futures. If they are slightly overweight they are seen as “pudgy” or “thick”. Peer judgement is destructive to the self satisfaction of female adolescents. Many girls do not perceive their bodies as normal because of unrealistic, extremely thin images illustrated in the media. Reality is that the impractical images portrayed on the internet and in media has changed the “real” image of what women appear to be.

Furthermore, media surrounds teenage girls in today’s culture. It is impossible to escape the sight of media. The media’s constant idealistic beauty is ever present to a vast amount of self-conscious girls. This image of beauty causes girls to have low self-esteem (Clay, Vignoles, and Dittmar). Media defining this perfect body image causes many adolescent girls to feel dissatisfied with their bodies and become depressed. “Viewing ultra-thin or average-size models led to decreases in both body satisfaction and self-esteem in adolescent girls aged eleven to sixteen, with changes in self-esteem fully mediated by changes in body satisfaction” (Clay, Vignoles, and Dittmar).

Teenage girls are at an impressionable time in their lives. Mass Media is a key idea in one of the factors of socialization that become important to teenagers. Teenagers look to the media for a sense of entertainment. Whether it is movies, magazines, or even some aspects of social media, teenagers get a lot of influence from the media’s message. The problem with this is the media has a specific way of doing things and can be negative to a susceptible teenage girl. Media’s way of portraying a woman can be skewed and unrealistic way from what reality is. Teenage girls then have a desire for this look or way. In this essay the three ways I will describe as to why the media can negatively affect a teenage girls body image is by showing

Over time, the perfect body image has changed in many ways. This is very evident in the female sex, especially through media. “Americans spend about 68 hours per week exposed to various forms of media” (US Census Bureau 2009). This media exposure through outlets such as t.v., radio, music videos, movies, and the internet, all influence the way people think about gender. The media influence is very evident in the way people view women and think about women in different cultures. Media influence on women creates negative viewpoints with how women view themselves and even how men view themselves, in turn making it hard to break certain beliefs and stereotypes instilled on society.

The increasing and widespread use of media, as well as it tremendous ability to influence its audience, has raised various concerns over the effects the media has on its viewers. One of the fields of increasing concerns is the idea that the media portrays unrealistic body images and that these portrayals have negative consequences on their viewers, especially so for women. Women have always been associated with ideals of beauty and a particular body image. The question arises as to how far the media further perpetuate these models and body images, and what are the consequences of these effects? When the media works to perpetuate such ideals of beauty and body image, the majority of the female population, who do not conform to such ideals and body type, fall prey to psychological issues resulting from body dissatisfaction such as depression, self-hate, negative moods, and emotions, particularly for the younger women. Such negative emotions, when evoked, can lead to negative consequences and actions for the affected female population, which include drastic, harmful steps such as crash diets, self-harm, or cosmetic surgery.

The influence of the media on all aspects of culture and society has been a issue around the world. One of the social cultural aspects particularly influenced by the media is body image. A surprisingly large number of individuals, the majority of which are young women, develop their body image in with the ideas advanced by the media, which judge women’s attractiveness based on how thin they are. Body-image plays a very important role in our individualistic society. Modern beauty image standards which favor thin body image create an unrealistic expectation on young women, often resulting in eating disorders and other destructive practices, like self-harming, unnecessary or elective cosmetic surgery, decreased self-esteem and the use of harmful substances, like diuretics.

As girls begin to hit puberty, their bodies start to change. Their bodies will gain fat and move away from this ideal thin body image (Kerr 2010). In a study done by Clay, Vignoles and Dittmar they showed three groups of adolescent girls magazine images. Two groups viewed magazine covers with female models who were somewhere between underweight or a little below average weight, while the third group viewed magazine covers with inanimate objects. The researchers found that the first two groups resulted in a less likely report of body satisfaction and self-esteem than the third group (2005). This demonstrates that when adolescent girls are exposed to the media’s thinness they feel like their size and shape is not good enough.

The portrayal of women in the media is destroying positive body image in young girls. According to Sarah Grogan, body image is “a person’s perceptions, thoughts and feelings about his or her body”. The media sends the message, from very early on, that what is most important is the way women look to the heterosexual male gaze, and that their value and their worth depends on that. It is easy to understand that the media perpetuates an unattainable beauty standard, but what is more difficult is realising how that affects our adolescents.

Due to young women being constantly indoctrinated by being told how to look and act, it is no surprise that effects on a young woman’s body-image are primarily psychological. Within the group of young women, adolescent girls are targeted when it comes to thin-ideals and negative body-images. Throughout many psychological studies, it has been noted that this is because a young girl’s body is going through many psychological and physiological changes that make them more vulnerable to a negative body-image. Bell and Dittmar describe why adolescent girls are more defenseless by saying, “ During adolescence, a primary psychological task faced is that of identity formation, and being socially accepted by one’s peers becomes

Once upon a time, you probably liked your body and appreciated the many things it could do, but the route to adulthood, doubts and insecurities may have crept in. The images the media exposures the society to are of thin and beautiful women and extremely muscular men. There are negative affects to what the media is showing the body image and mood states of young women and men. The mass media is designed to reach large audiences through the use of technology. From the moment nations wakes up until they fall asleep they are confronted with media. Every home in America has at least one or more of these things a TV, the internet, and cell phones. When driving down the highway it is almost impossible not to see some type of advertisement. What the media portrays of body image affects teens negatively through using stereotypes, and promoting unnecessary products. The media uses stereotypes to portray what a "normal" body should look like. Women are often shown unrealistically thin and men with abnormally great muscle tone. These advertisements are damaging the youths mental health but also the physical state. When the youth gets too damaged it could lead to eating disorders and other not so healthy things. Never fear though if they develop a eating disorder there are many places to seek help. Thesis: Although accepting more normal body types has become a recent trend, the mass media should not have such a big effect on the society’s body image.

There were three questions that arose in a study by Spurr and Berry and they were ‘‘what are adolescent understandings of psychological wellness, are there positive or negative influences on an adolescent’s sense of psychological wellness, and does the psychological dimension influence adolescent wellness?’’ (Spurr & Berry, 2013, p. 18-19). The study targeted ages 16-19, this raised a reoccurring concern of the participants, the effect of media on their views of physical appearance. These adolescents are comparing themselves to the models and celebrities and it’s causing them to feel bad about themselves. Other adolescents expressed their views of how the media affected their thoughts. One stated ‘‘you think about it more. Like, once you see someone like that, you think about what you’re eating, and why you don’t look like that.’’ (Spurr & Berry, 2013, p. 26). Other participants made references that girls are hurting their bodies trying to lose weight to look like the women in the media. Male adolescents are also feeling the same way. When they see a toned male, they want to be like that so they start working out or popping drugs to make themselves bigger. Men and women struggle with the same ideology that the perfect body is skinny and muscular but this has negative repercussions, this body dissatisfaction leads to harmful weight control

Even though these issues are known, maintaining a good confidence level has become a difficult challenge in today’s society because everyday women face the challenge to keep their heads held high while being surrounded by images of “perfect” models and actresses. Research indicates a correlation between women’s exposure to media and self-esteem levels. Kevin Thompson and Leslie Heinberg’s research article “The Media’s Influence on Body Image Disturbance and Eating Disorders: We’ve Reviled Then, Now can we Rehabilitate them?” plainly identifies media’s negative effects on women, “It has been clearly demonstrated that print media and television affect how individuals feel about their bodies. Exposure to magazines and television may lead to body image dissatisfaction and eating disordered symptomatology among girls and women” (344). This scientific study establishes that both magazines and the television cause low self-esteem and eating disorders for women and girls. Therefore the study supports the claim that the constant exposure of media in the world has negative effects on both women and girls. In the study “Searching Out the Ideal: Awareness of Ideal Body Standards Predicts Lower Global Self-esteem in Women” by Emily Balcetis and

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.

Social media plays an immense role in the way that stereotypes about attractiveness is conveyed in regards to body image. As Gerbner and Gross wrote in 1976, the cultivation theory states that high frequency viewers of television are more susceptible to media messages and the belief that they are real and valid. The subjection to social media can cause an idealistic view amongst young girls and women alike. Among the mechanisms of human agency none is more central or pervasive than beliefs of personal efficacy (Bandura, 1997). This belief that these body types are achievable can lead to females being dissatisfied within their own skin. The result of the discontent can potentially lead to eating disorders. Body dissatisfaction occurs when views of the body are negative and involves a perceived discrepancy between a person 's assessment of their actual and ideal body (Cash and Szymanski, 1995 and Grogan, 2008). It is estimated that approximately 50% of adolescent girls report being unhappy with their bodies (Bearman, Presnell, & Martinez, 2006). Surveys have revealed that the exposure to social media can cause body dissatisfaction, eating disorder symptoms’ and the concept that thin is “beautiful” amongst young girls and women (Botta 1999; Harrison and Hefner 2006; and Stice et al. 1994). With media influence, the question is the strength of the effect, studies indicate the effects are small in scale; they are likely to operate in accordance with particular differences in