Low Self Esteem

“People often say that beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and I say that the most liberating thing about beauty is realizing that you are the beholder,” according to Salma Hayek. Society should have a positive outlook on body image, rather than face a disorder that can change one’s whole life. Negative body image can result from the media, with photoshop and editing, celebrity fad diets, and society’s look at the perfect image. Negative body image can lead to dangerous eating disorders, such as bulimia and anorexia. It can also take a risk to unhealthy habits, such as smoking, alcohol, and drugs. It is important to stress the effects of body image, because the world still struggles with this today. Society should not be affected by

Modern people live media-saturated lives, even children as young as 6 years old, have had some type of media exposure. Extensive exposure to media outlets can lead to body image issues. Body image is defined as, the subjective picture or mental image of one's own body (Smolak 2003). Body image is formed as people compare themselves to others. Because, people are exposed to countless media images; these images become the basis for such comparisons. These mental comparisons, have a strong influence on an individual’s personal perception of beauty. Media outlets create images and pressures about what our bodies should look like; however, sometimes these images have been manipulated, creating an unrealistic expectation of beauty. When an individual believes that their body is substandard, they can become depressed, suffer from low self-esteem, or develop eating disorders.

Starting as children, people are inclined to strive to be socially accepted. With social standards being very difficult to fit into, many people feel as though they do not belong to a set group of people; therefore, they tend to have a lower self esteem which causes them to act out. Being isolated causes one to feel a lack of confidence within themselves because him or her can feel as though they are not wanted and do not belong. This low sense of self esteem affects a person’s motivation and mental health. Social norms can cause people to feel alone and as though they have no one there for them. On the other hand, belonging to a community or a specific group can allow people to feel as though they have a support system, making them feel more confident in themselves and becoming better in their overall life. Feeling accepted and supported by people can increase intellectual activity and boost a person’s self esteem tremendously. Belonging and acceptance increase and decrease self esteem thus dictating a person’s behavior.

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.,

Body dissatisfaction is a growing and prominent issue in today’s society, and the media is undoubtedly the main cause for this. The media brands us with images of skinny, scrawny models and tells us that they are beautiful. As a result, the definition of beauty has changed from good health and happiness to being abnormally thin. The media’s portrayal of beauty is unquestionably unhealthy as models are well below healthy body weight and set standards for beauty that causes psychological issues and fosters body image concerns and eating disorders.

Senior Erin Jones and senior Carina Davis both argued against the harmful influence of media on body image. Models, actors, advertisements, and media have portrayed a specific body type as the normal when the reality is far different. In doing so, the media has shamed anyone who does not fit the ‘perfect body’ mold, and it has caused many people to have unrealistic standards for their bodies which leads to a negative self-image. Developing a negative body image can cause problems for the rest of a person’s life. In many cases, people have developed eating disorders and attempted suicide and self-harm because of a negative body image. Sometimes, in an attempt to make others feel better about their bodies, many people will point out flaws in his or herself to show how nobody has a perfect body; however, it is damaging because it promotes a negative self-image. Instead of shaming our bodies, we should be accepting them. Instead of having twigs as clothing models, we should have normal people represented in their place.

“Beauty is how you feel inside, and it reflects in your eyes. It is not something physical.” -Sophia Loren, a beauty icon born in 1938. The beautiful, extremely thin models in advertisements, on social media, and in the beauty industry are causing many girls to develop eating disorders in the United States such as anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, and the most abundant disorder, negative body image. Most girls that have these disorders are the audiences of the magazines, movies, videos, and social media posts of undernourished women who have “perfect” bodies. Thin-ideal media is the proposal that being terribly thin is a healthy and acceptable idea, even if the idea is to a level that can cause death or tremendous

Preview of Main Points: I will begin by explaining how the perfect body image shown in the media is unrealistic, then, I will talk about how the unrealistic images lead to both men and women to have a low self-esteem and eating disorders that develop due to people wanting to look like the images shown in the media. Lastly, I’ll talk about a solution we can do to stop the portrayal of an unrealistic body image.

Over the past decade, the media industry has vastly evolved worldwide, grasping the nations view by providing several genres of entertainment, appealing advertisements and engaging sitcoms. Due to the increase in technology, media has become an integral part of several lives. Though, some fail to notice the many consequences and inconveniences that are linked to the time spent on observing and listening to what media portrays. The aspect of looking in a mirror and being able to accept that everyone comes in different shapes and sizes is essential. However, many people may lack in acknowledging their body image as media presents an unattainable figure and captions it ‘perfect’. The exposure of media continues to gain attention broadly,

Often, people of all ages, race, and gender catch themselves gazing into mirrors for hours, blaming themselves for the way they look, not realizing that the media is actually the one to blame for many people’s body image. Body image is the way people see themselves, or how they assume other people see them. It is not likely to see a plus sized model in a magazine or a model on the runway with blemishes on her face. A person’s negative perception of their own body is not because they think it is wrong to look and be healthy; it is because the media is telling them that being a size 2 with flawless skin is healthy and beautiful.

As children we are taught to love ourselves and that we are all beautiful. But with growth of social media and the influence it has on today’s image displayed, it has lead the children of today to believe that beauty consist of how much makeup you apply to your face, how little clothing it wore and what size body image is excepted. Images of female bodies are everywhere, with women and girls selling everything from food to clothing. Popular film and television actresses are becoming younger, taller and thinner. Women’s magazines are full of articles urging that if you can just lose those last twenty pounds, you will have the perfect body. Traditionally, most of the concerns about media and body image have revolved around women but more and

Aerie’s Real Beauty Models are showing both ends of the beauty standard spectrum. Women go to extreme lengths, such as purging and starving themselves to look like an ultra thin model because it’s still not widely accepted to be a normal size. Even the fight to stop body-shaming has restrictions. In the fashion industry, one can be big and curvy, or ultra thin. Hollywood creates characters with relatively offensive names, for comedies. (Suhay 1). People don’t seem to notice how upsetting it really is. On the internet end of the spectrum, fitspo and thinspo are taking over the web. Many blogs show that society glamorizes being ultra thin. “100 years of” videos are taking over the internet and are always featured with picture perfect male and female body images. Even toys influence children’s views on size. Barbie’s body shape was made for pop culture. (Suhay

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.

Consumer continues to require IIH intervention, because of the changes she currently expiring in her life. Consume is still awaiting permanent housing placement and is residing with temporary guardianship. Due to changes and uncertainty of living arrangement ,consume continues to experience anxiety, depression, low self-esteem issues, resentment towards parents, feelings of neglect and abonnement issues, lack of support , depression and withdrawn behavior. Consumes has not had any behavioral outburst recently however she is afraid to express the feeling she is having and often appear to be depressed and worried, this is seen in her body language, and demeanor. Consume is very shy and during sessions requires lot of prompting and encouragement

In today’s society we let the media decide everything in our lives from what clothes we should wear, music we should listen to, and how we should look. One of the biggest problems that both men and women face is body shaming, because the media sets standards for young kids and young adults., they often times try and fit the description of “perfect” which leads these people to either be depressed because they do not look like people want them to look or harm themselves in order to achieve the desired look. The most common ways the media shames both men and women are by celebrities and how they are the “perfect” body, publishing magazines of what is the ideal man and woman, and by the people who believe being “too” fat is bad and being “too” skinny is bad.