Ideal Body Types in Hong Kong Essay

Every time you flip a magazine, change channels, or go online, you are struck with images of models who are super skinny with flashy outfits and have excessive make-up on. Ads not only try to sell their products, but also promote how females should look like. These models are airbrushed and photo shopped which is false advertisement. The media progressively encourages a thinner body image as the ideal for women. We see advertisements every day. Some of these ads use manipulative strategies that influence our choices and spending habits. For example, “One in every three articles in leading teen girl magazines included a focus on appearance, and most advertisements used appeal to beauty to sell their products.”(Teen Health) To grab the viewers’ attention, especially females, they include

The article talks about how different ideal body types came to be and also how these standards affect male’s body image. The authors state that previous studies have shown the negative effects of perfect body exposure to women, therefore they try to do a similar experiment to men to see if it comes to the same conclusion. It comes to conclusion that men that exposed to ideal male images became significantly more depressed

In his essay, “Building a Bigger Action Hero”, Logan Hill examines the things it takes for actors to be taken seriously by Hollywood. He wrote, “Today’s actors spend more time in the gym than they do rehearsing, more time with their trainers than with their directors” (Hill 59). We see that acting is no longer the Hollywood actor’s priority here. What matters more is the actor’s external body appearance. According to Hill, they have to go to extreme lengths to meet Hollywood’s unrealistic expectations. It is not natural for the human body to have only 5% body fat or to be able to retain it easily, but Hollywood actors are required to meet that standard. Thus, they are put through rigorous exercises, starved, and dehydrated, especially on days of the shoot where they would have to take off their clothes and show off their bodies, “A fat Superman can’t fly, a pudgy Spiderman can’t swing. And an actor who can’t get jacked on a deadline doesn’t have a shot at being the leading man in Hollywood. Given the choice between better acting chops and physique, producers and directors will often choose the better body” (61-62). In other words, a Hollywood actor is no

There were many instances where individuals have stated many negative and positive remarks about my bodily features that have both impacted me in various ways that stem from being, not only an Asian Canadian but in a more specific sense, a Korean Canadian phenomenon. In this paper, I will discuss where the judgements of ‘societal norms” come from, and how it relates to “me and my body in society” as a Korean Canadian. Through my convictions developed from vast amounts of past experiences of what people have stated, have also enlightened me, I have gained the body of knowledge as a result, through my personal experiences of which I will be discussing. I will be using western ideology and my experiences of being a Korean Canadian, how it particularly

Were all preoccupied with our bodies , and dissatisfied with our looks, that most of us are willing to try anything in order to obtain that perfect figure. The standards that are set are unbelievably high, as they’re unrealistic for what the ‘normal’ body figure should be.

In our society today a business is not a business without an advertisement. These advertisements advertise what American’s want and desire in their lives. According to Jack Solomon in his essay, “Master’s of Desire: The Culture of American Advertising,” Jack Solomon claims: “Because ours is a highly diverse, pluralistic society, various advertisements may say different things depending on their intended audiences, but in every case they say something about America, about the status of our hopes, fears, desires, and beliefs”(Solomon). Advertisers continue to promote the American dream of what a women’s body should look like. They advertise their products in hopes for consumers to buy them, so they can look like the models pictures in the ads. Behind these ads, advertisers tend to picture flawless unrealistic woman with the help of Photoshop. In our society today to look like a model is an American dream and can be the reasons why we fantasizes and buy these products being advertised. “America’s consumer economy runs on desire, and advertising stokes the engines by transforming common objects;signs of all things that Americans covet most”(Solomon).

Have you ever been watching television and a commercial for Hydroxycut comes on featuring a male or female who went from 250 pounds to 150 pounds and looks like a fitness model just from using Hydroxycut? Although these results may seem extreme this is what many fitness advertisements promote; portraying unrealistic body images and displaying false results. Fitness advertising can be found in print and broadcast forms. While fitness advertising can be viewed as having both positives and negatives, I believe fitness advertising is negative. This paper will discuss the negatives of fitness advertising, to include creating negative body images and promoting false results. It will, also, address the counterarguments against fitness advertising being negative.

In “Feeding Hard Bodies: Food and Masculinities in Men’s Fitness Magazines” Fabio Parasecoli addresses the increasing popularity of men’s health and body image. Many magazines, including Men’s Health, Men’s Fitness, and Muscle and Fitness, are targeted toward men of all ages who wish to improve their physical appearance. The particular body ideal they reinforce is one of high muscle and low fat, a body that can be hard to achieve for the average man. Therefore, specific nutrition is the key in obtaining the ideal body. Men are now becoming more aware of their appearance, body image and body health. With the standards, dedications and effort put into obtaining the ideal body type, food industry is giving men easier ways to get and maintain

Smith focuses on Koreans’ desire to achieve or acquire Caucasian like features. He examines South Korean history in order to uncover the reasons why plastic surgery became so important in South Korean culture. He also explains the benefits of having an attractive appearance not only for social purposes but also for work.

As exposure to the male body expands, the demand for “chiseled” bodies greatens. In recent years, the number of memberships and frequency of visits to health clubs has increased (Luciano 3). In one year alone, four billion dollars was spent on exercise equipment and health club memberships. “An estimated eighty-five million Americans, mostly male, are doing some sort of weight

Napoli, Murgolo-Poor, and Boudville examine advertisements across three Australian magazines, aimed at females aged 5-15, in order to see if there is a difference in the images presented to younger and older readers. The physical characteristics and ethnic backgrounds of the females represented in the publication’s advertisements are examined. In their study, the authors discover that regardless of the publication type or the age of the model, the females portrayed in these magazines’ advertisements tend to be of the “ideal” body type—that is, thin and Caucasian.

How should I look like to have the ideal body? An increasing number of women ask themselves this question many times in their lives. Deborah Sullivan’s essay, “Social Bodies: Tightening the Bonds of Beauty”, discloses the different cultural traditions that require various methods of body modifications. Women should undergo such modifications to obtain social acceptance. Similarly, “Pressures to Conform” by Celia Milne discusses the effects of media and society on women, and how women view their physical appearance. The media gives women a plethora of choices for the perfect body and even provides ways on how to achieve them. There is no escaping. There is no excuse of not getting the ideal body that ranges from that of a stick-thin ramp

While in the Women and the Body course, I was able to dissect the images, constraints, and beliefs associated with the woman’s body. The debate over body image originated from patriarchal constraints, deeming that women have to fit into an ideal of womanhood. A woman’s body image is suppose to be a direct link to the man she is with. She should have childbearing hips, a stature that is associated in being motherly, and breasts to breast feed the children. With that it grew into using man made objects to reinforce the patriarchal power about body

Today 's society is constantly presented with misrepresentations of the ideal body image through the advertising of diet plans and supplements. Companies in the fitness industry scam people into buying useless products or services by advertising with individuals that have, what the mass media sees as, the 'perfect ' body composition. In addition to getting consumers to buy into a product or service, these companies also aid society with the spreading of this fake idea of what classifies as the perfect body. They portray a body image that is unattainable for most individuals in society, despite how many of those supplements being advertised they buy. The models used in these advertisements, are in most cases, starving themselves, enhanced via illegal substances, or are photo-shopped to the point where even they do not look like the model displayed in the ad. All this has led to many people wanting to strive for that perfect body, that in reality, is impossible to achieve. In order to show the affect these advertisements play in our society, I will be deconstructing multiple ads in the fitness industry, as well as multiple peer-reviewed scholarly journal articles centered around the impact media has on an individual 's self-image.

The men in these advertisements look nothing like me, despite me being tall, it is still not enough. The media has put into my perception that slender, though muscular, bodies are more successful in romance, career and are self-confidence. These assumptions that the media has portrayed in my mind has left me questioning myself about my own physical body. I quite remember looking at the mirror and seeing that I had belly fat and my arms looked like a shrimp’s compared to the ideal men. I felt incompetent and worthless because the ideology that was put into my mind and my assumption that without the ideal body my career and romance life would come to an end. So I decided I needed to change, so I signed up for the gym to bulk up. This was no accident that I retreated to the gym, supposedly the media idea of achieving the ideal body is realized by working out, dieting, and cosmetic surgery. Pressure was also put on me by women, friends, other men and my parents, especially my father. Through advice like “Be a Man”, something that is easily said, but carried the weight of its message. I was expected to take charge. So I did by taking control of my body with exercise and drinking protein shakes and cutting down my food intake to meet the standards of society. This provided me with a sense of direction, control and achievement; however, it risked my health with symptoms of having eating disorders. Similarly, I have seen many men and women, mostly women,