How Magazines Are Negatively Impacting Women 's Viewpoint On Body Image

The media stockpiles images that are highly retouched and they make both men and women feel bad about themselves. The models or celebrities that are depicted do not look like they are depicted in the magazine in real life. The magazines use a ton of makeup m Photoshop and airbrush their images so that they can be aesthetically pleasing.

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.

In Susan Bordo’s article “Never Just Pictures,” she expresses her understanding of how images in the media alter the way our society sees itself. She starts off addressing how critical society has become about the weight of those in the spot light. This cruelty has emerged from critics comparing those in the media such as, athletes, actors, news castors, etc. to super models who are expected to remain at an extremely low weight percentage for fashion shows and photo shoots. In just about every magazine, there are advertisements for a weight loss products or promises, or show models glamorized while they look to be on the verge of starvation. She implies that magazine editors only care about selling products and do not consider the effect the

This study was conducted to analyze the impact of media, mainly fashion magazines, on how women perceived the idealized body weight and shape as well as the impact of media on the decision to diet or initiate an exercise program. Twenty working class women were given questionnaires at different times. The exposure to fashion magazines was assessed by determining whether the participant was a high level frequency viewer of fashion magazines, viewing them once per week up to daily, or a low level frequency viewer, from never viewing them to viewing only once per month.

This is incorrect because although there are some positive outcomes because of magazine advertisements, there are far more negative ones. Wanting to be healthy and having a source of entertainment isn’t nearly as serious as eating disorders and depression which are just some of the negative effects caused by magazine ads. In “The Best Women’s Health and Fitness Magazines” it explains, “The report, which says young women look at thin models and see themselves as fat in comparison, calls on broadcasters and magazine publishers to use a more realistic range of body images. It also suggests society should put more emphasis on better eating and health to increase awareness about the impact of poor nutrition and dieting on young women.” The evidence states that since women are getting heavier, we should use more models with a realistic body shape. Most women do not look like the photoshopped models in the magazine advertisements, so seeing them causes women to feel depressed about their own body and wanting to change it which could also lead to eating disorders. Since magazine advertisements exist, they send unhealthy signals to young

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.,

Accompanying unrealistic images of women, the media spends billions of dollars yearly to advertise the various techniques that eliminate body discontents such as dieting pills and exercising machines, and exploits female magazine reader’s insecurities. Whether magazine advertisements aid in the gradual depletion of body image or fail to impact it at all will be the purpose of this investigation, supplemented by a literature review and organized by a theoretical framework, to support a firm analysis.

Today I’m going to talk about the Media and a women’s body image, and how the media could be harming you and your children. Have you ever read a magazine or watched TV and say wow I wish I look like her? The media sets out tons of images and videos of a way an average woman should look like when in reality what the media is showing is unrealistic goal to achieve. Whit the media showing off only one body image or what they would say “perfect,” body image they can cause serious problems mentally and physically in a women’s mind and body.

Women’s magazines are a form of print media that formulates and shapes the the portrayal of femininity in society. In promoting femininity, women’s magazines do not simply reflect the role of women in society; rather, magazines supply their own definition of femininity (Hesse-Biber 43-44). Magazines bombard females with images and societal pressures about body image. Magazines present adolescent girls with extremely slim pictures of women and belittle women who are not slender (Grogan 110). In 2002, the US National Eating Disorders Association noted that the average US model was 5 feet 11 inches tall and weighed 117 pounds, while the average US women weighed 140 pounds and was 5 feet 4 inches tall. Psychologist Linda Smolak found that “fashion models in the 2000’s were thinner than 98 percent of US women” (108). The portrayal of slender fashion models within magazines sets an unrealistic beauty standard for young women. In Vogue and the Ladies Home journal, the average bust-to-waist ratio of female models presented within the magazines has followed a significant decline (Hesse-Biber 69). Magazines are following a thin-ward progression in female body-shape ideals that is detrimental to women’s health. Journalists on the women’s page of the Guardian have agreed that “anorexia is powerfully fuelled by media images’ because women measure themselves against the ideal images captured on camera and distributed in the fashion and beauty magazines” (73). In 1999, A survey of 550 working class girls from the ages of 11 to 19 was conducted. 70% of the females surveyed reported pictures in magazines have altered their view of the ideal body shape. 45% of the women reported a motivation to lose weight (Levine 27). Magazines have assaulted women with images that portray unrealistic standards of beauty. The idealistic images presented within magazines have prevented many

Vogue, Cosmopolitan, People, and Seventeen magazine are some of the most popular reads available to consumers featuring the most up to date, trendy topics. New issues every month mean a constant demand for entertaining content, including the “hottest” models and “it” girls. Although the media has taken steps to become more "body positive" in recent years, Gucci and other brands are still responsible for contributing to the creation of the unrealistic beauty standard of drastic thinness.

Over the years a debate over who is to blame over the decline in how girls perceive themselves has arisen. With Photoshop being the societal norm concerning the media, it has become difficult for many to understand where the line between real and near impossible standards lies. Youths see an image edited to “perfection” and strive to reach the standards that they imagine due to the images displayed on magazines, television and social media. From Disney to magazines like Vogue the mass media bombards audiences with fake beauty that they, as normal people, will never be able to achieve. The mass media is responsible for causing the rise in the number of people with a poor body image, eating disorders, and cosmetic surgeries.

When researchers asked one hundred eighteen female, college-aged students to look at twenty pictures in ads from women's magazines, they felt a sudden change in mood after the pictures were observed. There was notable depression in the women, a depression that has seemed to hit many women after leafing through women's magazines (Key and Lindgren 11). This depression is due to the fact there are so many negative messages being conveyed in advertisements that are published in women's magazines. But who can blame the women for their depression anyway? When the majority of the ads in women's magazines show super-skinny models advertising nice clothes, makeup, jewelry, etc., one might find themselves to be a little down. Skinny models portray their figures to be the cultural norm in Western society today. How often does one find a model in a woman's magazine that is over a size six that is not shown advertising plus size merchandise? The answer is not very often, or sometimes never at all. If women do not see their body type being depicted in

Magazines like these are trying to hypnotize you into their way of thinking, and we need to critically analyze it for ourselves. The smallest text on the magazine says “It’s good to be you.” Oh. Is it now? Then why are you trying to change me by having bolded words saying to age-proof my whole body, get on the fast track to a flat belly, and “Wear this, not that!” In addition, this magazine is supposed to give us the fear that if we're fat, we're also ugly. Basically, Women’s Health Magazine is not only mocking us but also shaming us so that we'd feel bad enough about our body to change ourselves. If you think about it, this can also be seen as a marketing boost, because they’re trying to get people to subconsciously buy their beauty and exercise products. Everything is corrupted in society and as they feed us more lies we welcome it with open mouths, not even questioning. We need to start

Research indicates that exposure to thin ideal images in women's magazines is associated with heightened concerns for body shape and size in a number of young women, although the media's role in the psychopathology of body image disturbance is generally believed to be mediated by personality and socio-cultural factors. The purpose of this research study is to know and gather solid facts and reasons about fashion magazines affecting the teenagers’ body image in a form of research to self evaluation through careful accumulation of acceptable data and relevant resources for such data to be precise and spontaneous in its respected details to support results.

A large contributing factor to this problem is that many people in the fashion world encourage the use of overly thin models in editorials and fashion shows. For example, as Kathryn Shattuck, What's On Today: [The Arts/Cultural Desk], mentions that Kelly Cutrone, world renowned fashion publicist, encourages, “Clothes look better on thin people. The fabric hangs better” (1). The fashion industry’s emphasis on being thin and its use of extremely underweight models in unacceptable. Many people would agree that the fashion industry plays the majority role in eating disorders, but Lisa Hilton, British Vogue writer, disagrees. Hilton argues, “Its objective is selling clothes, and the consensus remains that in order to achieve this, models need to be thin . . . Fashion is about fantasy, about impossibility, about, dare we say it, art. Most women can’t tell the difference” (1). Hilton condescendingly continues to refute the criticisms that models are too thin and the fashion industry encourages eating disorders.