Mass Media 's Influence On Body Image

As a wise man once said, “To love yourself is to understand you don't need to be perfect to be good.” However young girls have so much pressure put on them to look in a way that is not only unrealistic but also unhealthy. As a result of this, young girls have a very negative body image and self-confidence.The problem is the unrealistic body standards that media and society have set for girls. According to SSCC, the average American woman is 5’4 and 140 pounds. There is a clear problem when the media is only advertising women that are 5’11 and 117 pounds, which is the average American model. Even though the body of a model is very rare and uncommon,girls are expected to look like they do. However, by promoting a positive body campaign, stopping the portrayal of fake and photoshopped models in the media, and expanding the diversity of models, we could lift unrealistic body standards and start accepting everybody as beautiful.

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.

Under society’s norms for decades, young women have been put under the pressure and anticipation to have perfect bodies. That is, thin and curved, beautified by applying pounds of the makeup to their face but not appear ridiculously overdone. Who’s responsible for these standards imposed on young women? When a young girl picks up the model along the cover of Vogue being called flawless, it’s easy for her to then aspire to be a real-life imitation of the photocopy. These companies produce magazine covers shown with girls’ images daily. As if keeping the perfect body wasn’t hard enough our culture also forces girls into the forever expanding world of composition, however, body image is a pressing issue for young women. Advertisements and posters of skinny female models are all over. Young girls not only could be better but need to be more upright and feel driven to throw the perfect figure. Moreover, girls are evaluated and oppressed by their physical appearances. With supplements and apparel designed to enhance a facial expression; social media, magazines, and marketing campaigns and advertisements add to the burden of perfection. The fashion industry is a prime object of body image issues, as they believe clothes look better on tall and svelte women. Established on a survey participated by 13 to 17-year-old in the U.S., 90% “felt pressured by fashion and media industries to be skinny”, with more than 60% routinely compares themselves to models, while 46%

In todays society media has many different represtionations of womens body ideals and they are portrayed in many different ways. The majority of body images are female and represented with negative connotations. Women are plasteted on billboards magazine covers and play an very important role in the way young women are viewed and how they feel they should look. Through out this essay I will look how media has such a massive impact on our lives and the power it has to control the ideals of young women and how the industries with in the use of media are exploting women of today and how they are benifitting from it to make multibillion companys with out the a second thought to the explotation and harm it is causing to our socity and health with in the new generorations. I will also explore how some organistions are fighting against this ideal and how this is creating a more healthy view of women and challenging what we have had drummed into since an early age.

Mental health is a big part of obesity many children are suffering from disorders like depression, anxiety, low self-esteem and even suicide attempts. With the way media portrays body image today it is hard for a child to not get discouraged. Women in magizes are photo shopped and air brushed to look as skinny as possible, men are photo shopped and air brushed to look toned and fit. Young men, women and children look at these photos and see an unrealistic person. With that they set unrealistic goals and end up harming themselves in the end. By forming eating disorders and mental disorders, eating disorders by trying to archive a body type that is not real and mental disorders by looking at the results of not having that body type. Children

Teens often feel flawed if their bodies do not match up to those of models and actors. Media’s portrayal of women is a mirror image of what society wants teenagers to look like. Advertisements often stress sexuality and the importance of being physically attractive in an attempt to sell products, however people are concerned that this is pressure on women to focus on their appearance.Photoshop and airbrush are currently at their extreme such programs have existed for removing minor imperfection such as stray hairs, the advancement in technology has made it possible to manipulate an image creating unrealistic perfection. Celebrities are airbrushed to perfection on their album or movie covers but it is not actually them. Aside from enlarging eyes,trimming thighs, and airbrushing away wrinkles, more dramatic measures are now taken Images were not inclined to the manipulation with Photoshop and airbrushing which create images as it is seen today. Magazines did not start airbrush and Photoshop their models until the 1980s. In the fifties, models like Marilyn Monroe would grace the weekly covers but they would have been seen as overweight by today’s

America is obsessed with body image. In today’s world, you can't go through the day without seeing the television, advertisements, magazines, or really any type of media portraying women's bodies. Due to the immense societal pressure that women should have the “perfect body” to be accepted, the nonstop reminders to change what they look like, struggling with body image has now become a major social phenomenon- and it's time for women to challenge that narrative. Women of all ages are facing face increasing scrutinization over their body image through media influence leading to invasive surgeries, increased depression, and eating disorders.

Female body image and the Media's influence Media has become a main influence in Western society, as well as all over the world. Beauty has been defined by the media, and it has impacted how females are viewed by themselves and others. The ideal body has changed significantly over recent years from curvy to thin. Women all over the world thrive to be like the models and celebrities in the media and ads who are much thinner than the average woman.

Society and the media play a big influence on body image and self esteem, which are two big reasons why people look to cosmetic surgery. Women make up for a really big majority of all cosmetic procedures. Of the 7.2 million cosmetic procedures in 2008, women make up 87 percent of those procedures. (Driscoll and Griswold). Why is this statistic so high? The reason is that the media and society pressure women to look a certain way, and if they do not look that way, the women look to cosmetic procedures to conform to society's expectations. Doctors and surgeons will even use societal influences to rack up patients. Doctors use advertising that connected cosmetic surgery to improving self-image, and that attracted people who had aesthetic insecurities.

Through my research I have discovered also that teen’s social groups play a role on influencing body image.

(Why would something like the Tv, magazines, or pictures effect a way girl thinks or sees herself) It affects girls because it's basically all they see, polluted all over the world like waste. In media today they somehow find a way to interject body image into everything. “It’s like welcome to the dazzling world of social media where today’s youth are often living their lives out loud and on full view of an online audience.” We should restrict the aspect of appearances out of the media, even if it’s a bit. The media makes girls want to change themselves. Girls mental understanding of what they look like is disoriented by their thoughts, because of the media..Younger girls are getting ideals presented and pushed onto them

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.

In comparison to the time span of history, the media is a relatively new presence in the world. Despite its rather contemporary status, the media is a wide-spread entity in modern society. From television to the internet, and from social media to online news sources, almost every modern American has access to the media in some way. Media has affected the way of life in many ways, including the way people view themselves. Body image and the media have formed a relationship, and this relationship effects many people. It becomes particularly important to focus on this relationship, especially when it comes to how it is changing the way people feel about themselves.

With the ever increasing size and influence of mass media in our daily lives, we are seeing more and more individuals suffer the negative effects of being constantly exposed to images of “ideal” bodies in the media. This can cause a negative perception of one’s body image and contribute to developing eating disorders. We have to focus on developing effective interventions that will decrease the negative effects of media and photoshop on body image. There have been numerous studies that have shown us how he media can lead to a negative perception of a person’s body image. The movie and music industries, as well as advertisements constantly portray an ideal and beautiful body for women and men as one that is thin (in many cases, extremely and/or unhealthily thin).When people see these images and then look at their own bodies, which are often times different from what is portrayed as ideal, they begin to think they are not beautiful, are too fat, too pale, too-whatever. This dissatisfaction with one’s body can often lead to low self-esteem, depression, and can even lead to developing eating disorders. There are websites devoted to eating disorders, such as anorexia, encouraging people to engage in harmful behaviors in order to be thin. Studies have shown that just visiting this websites can lead to a more negative self-image and increase the desire to be thinner. Also, many of the celebrities and models that women and men look up to as having the ideal body have admitted to

Media such as the internet, broadcasting, and publishing is a way to express opinions and keep up to date with the latest fashion trends. While these trends continue to go on, new trends are thought of, the trends may be a little tricky to keep up with even for celebrities. While the thought of being perfect for society, cause many adolescents to breakdown for following the false beliefs of society. Some people may use the media to be updated on important news. On the other hand, others believe the media is a horrible setting, resulting in adolescent to do whatever it takes to become just like them, poisoning their minds to become something they are not. The media produces bad influences for body image and messes with adolescents’ minds.