How Society 's Ideal Woman 's Body Effects On Youth

In today’s society, concepts of gender roles and body images plague the minds of young ladies and men of the millennial generation. These are enforced by popular culture in song, video and magazines that are published. These roles and images are seen by and influence the minds of mainly young girls but not more popularly seen, young men. Magazines such as Cosmopolitan, Vogue and Sports Illustrated flaunt slim women and very muscular men with “perfect” bodies and hair on their covers and give no thought to the readers and how it may influence their minds. Also, the artists of this generation also have a large influence on how young men and women see themselves and perceive their gender roles to be. These affect the minds of persons in ways such as they end up having a lower self-esteem as they cannot live up to societal image standards, young men and women tend to follow the gender roles that they see and young girls and boys ultimately turn to drastic measures to fulfil the body images that they feel they should obtain.

You have just bought a new pair of jeans. You think that you look absolutely great in them until you turn on the television or compare yourself to the person on side of you. Today, women all over the world are focused on the way society views them, which has an influence on the way they view themselves. The field known as sociology of the body investigates the ways in which our bodies are affected by our social experiences, as well as by the norms and values of the groups to which we belong (Giddens, Duneier, et al, 2007). Body image is an ideal image of what one’s body looks like or what she wants it to look like. It can also be defined as the value one may put on physical appearance. This

Teens that fall in the age of around 14-18 are often seen as a problematic group of people. Either falling into the category of a vain and whining drama-queen or an aggressive ball of uncontrollable angst. Just one quick google search on the topic of teenagers will bring up a myriad of negative stories and articles that have been dramatized to alienate the youths as something to be looked down upon or even shunned. Teens are aware of their unfair treatment as well! According to a recent survey, four-fifths of a group of 1000 teens believe their age group is unfairly represented in the media. 85% of the teenagers

Searching for what society sees as the perfect body has caused a risk of eating disorders. Anorexia is where someone doesn’t eat at all or very little, one way a girl would accomplish ‘’the perfect body’’. When one has anorexia it can cause them to die from starvation. bulimia is where someone will eat then will proceed to make themselves throw up. If someone is to go into bulimia it causes their insides to be destroyed. Depression is where one is unhappy to an extreme and has self conflict. That can be the start of anorexia or bulimia . This brings a lot of pressure on girls to have perfect bodies and the public doesn’t help them.

Finally, teenagers sometimes give up the people they love in order to be accepted. If necessary, they sacrifice the old friend who no longer dresses well enough, listens to the right kind of music, or refuses to drink or take drugs. Potential boyfriends and girlfriends may be rejected, too, if the crowd doesn’t like their looks or values. Sadly, teenagers can even cut their families out of their lives. They may be ashamed of the parents who are too poor, too conventional, too different from friends’ parents. Even if the teens are not completely ashamed of their parents, they may still refuse to participate in family get-togethers or spend time with younger brothers or sisters.

In the emerging generation, teenagers have developed insecurities brought up by body image, advertisements, and the development of social media and its lack of privacy. These insecurities have left a mark on teenagers, and left them with fears of the future and the changes surrounding it.

Golda Poretsky once said “Don’t change your body to get respect from society. Instead let’s change society to respect our bodies.” We are in a world where we are under a microscope and constantly judged about our appearances. Society and the media has produced an ideal body image that has changed over a century. It started with a figure-8 body type in the 1900s then moved towards the flapper look in the 1920s. We have been through many perfect body types over the years some include: the hourglass, the twig, the supermodel, and the buff beauty figure. In today’s society we are taught at a young age by the media that we are supposed “to have Caucasian blue eyes, full Spanish lips, a classic button nose, hairless Asian skin with a California tan,

Female adolescent body image is an important topic to talk about. Many of the female adolescents today feel the need to be perfect. The definition of perfect for many female adolescents is being skinny or trying to look like a model. Dave Barry a humorous columnist jokingly asserts, “Today’s beauty ideal, strictly enforced by the media, is a person with the same level of body fat as a paperclip.” Dave Barry celebrates the fact that the images of beauty that people have in the society today are artificial. Magazines, blog posts, social media, and fashion companies all glamorize thin women. For example, the famous Victoria secret. Victoria secret is known for their lingerie, many of the models for Victoria Secret are looked up to by young females because of their thinness. Figure 1 is an example of the models that young females look up to. They may vary in different skin colors but not in body sizes.

Women often aspire to have their appearance look a certain way. Makeup, hair color, cosmetics, body and many other aspects are tremendously important to numerous women in order for them to achieve that desired look and body image. Beyoncé, Rihanna, Kim Kardashian, Kylie Jenner, and Nicki Minaj are some female individuals that come to mind when thinking of women with the most flattering body images that many women yearn for. Social media, celebrities, models, marketing, ads, and society in the United States influence the body image that women desire to obtain. In an excerpt from her book Girl Studies titled “From Girls’ Bodies, Girls’ Selves: Body Image, Identity, and Sexuality,” Elline Lipkin, a scholar, discusses how women are being influenced to have a certain attractive image and look a certain way, and how it is overall detrimental towards women. For the most part, I tend to agree with Lipkin’s argument and her main points. However, she does not discuss any

“The average American is exposed to 30,000 marketing messages each day, telling us where to go, what to eat, what to wear, what to drive … in fact, nearly everything we do has its roots in marketing” (C. Chambers, personal communication, May 30, 2017). With that being said, media images often times set a stereotype of what women should be. Women compare themselves to the images projected out in the media, images that are unrealistic for some and motivating for others; thus, resulting in a varied perceptions of self. “Beyond self-esteem lies the concept of self … the interpenetration of self and society” (Gecas, 1982, p. 10), of which media plays a prominent role. Girls and young women are especially susceptible to lowered self-esteem and body image issues (Grabe, Ward, & Hyde, 2008).

In our modern culture, thin is in as the beauty standard. There has been an increase in eating disorders mainly in women with an increase in men. Through the media we see many thin women and that is seen as healthy and beautiful. In the modeling industry, being bone thin is seen as beautiful when in reality is a very sick and dangerous weight to be at. Through Hollywood and the media we are seeing many women who do not fit in this “beauty glove” as overweight and they shame them for it. This message is exposed and sometimes thrust into the faces and brains of children and teenagers. Many women are not happy with their current weight and would like to lose weight because they are unhappy with their body image or are being shamed for not fitting into the beauty standard

Young women are much more likely to develop eating disorders fueled by unrealistic cultural standards for weight in Western societies (pg. 448). We often see on television or on social media, what the “ideal” body looks like. Young women are looking at this and comparing themselves to what they feel like they should look like. In reality though, the “ideal” body is a complete sham. It’s not about how “ideal” a body can look or be, but rather how healthy you are as a person. A personal example of mine was when l was around thirteen years old and l looked at a fashion magazine with a bunch of beautiful models on the front cover. At the time, l thought to myself, “Oh, they’re so pretty! I want to look like that too!” But in reality, l was hurting myself by taking extreme measures to either be as skinny or as porcelain as these models. The truth is, l would never look like them, no matter how much l tried. My body was built a certain way, and of course l can be healthy and exercise and eat nutritious food, but if l was going to do that, it would be for my own personal reason and not to look like someone l wish l could be. Like me, a lot of young women go through this, but unfortunately, go through much more extreme measures like developing eating

     A lot of people including men not just women often dream about having the perfect body. Some may work hard for it and others may think they cannot achieve that dream. In our society, we seem to make body image appear to be almost one of the most important things. Young girls less then thirteen years of age can start to see themselves as being "fat" even if they are thin. In fashion magazines for instance, you will hardly ever see pictures of overweight or slightly overweight people. They are filled with runway models who are so skinny it looks as if they are sick with a disease or are cracked out on drugs. How can people think that looking that way is attractive? It's so

Because of this, modern society defines beauty by how aesthetically pleasing one is. Families, peers, schooling and work environments all reiterate the idea that only the beautiful and thin are, happy, loved and successful (Hesse 80). Thus, children are being raised to be body conscious not just health-conscious. The obesity epidemic in western countries due to sedentary lifestyles and easy access to unhealthy food is putting more pressure on younger generations to be obsessive over what they’re eating and reaching the physical standard in society rather than being fit and healthy. This then leads to obsessive measures to maintain low body weights such as starvation or purging food before it digests fully. No matter how determined people may be, some are physically incapable of reaching society’s ideal body types and perceive their body as less than satisfactory. Distorted body images, then contribute to the aggravation of the severe measures to maintain low body weights, and the development of eating disorders.

With the rate of internet and social media usage things have become less personal and more public. Whatever you do and wherever you go, people make it public. Young boys and girls post their pictures on social media for getting maximum likes and comments, but they get judged and at times they don’t take the negative comments easily, in turn leading to self-doubt and lower self confidence, which is not good! They need to know that they are beautiful the way they are and need not change for anybody. We should feel comfortable in our own skin and not be insecure because haters are going to hate anyways.Body shaming has become so common these days that the girls have started starving or eating less to maintain that ‘hour glass figure’. Starving and under eating leads to anorexia and depression ,or one may get anaemic .That constant urge to look good ,achieve a great body and be better than others is taking a toll on these poor