Media Affects Body Image

In our society, we tell little girls to love and to be true to oneself. As they grow up, this message begins to disappear because our culture contradicts this idea. As girls enter the world, they are already confined with how the media set unrealistic standards for the female population. This leads girls to harm their own body, including eating disorders such as bulimia, and anorexia. The most prominent cause of these acts is advertisements. Advertisements are everywhere and they have the power to promote, sell, encourage, and give unrealistic ideals of the common people. Advertisements and media images have a negative effect on the way women view their body image which leads to self-harm.

For many years the media has been blasted as the cause of numerous negative events that continue to happen in our society. Anti-media supporters have placed the blame for increased violence in the nation on media’s exposure to violent entertainment shows and movies. Media’s promotion of the thin ideal in female models and actors as well as media’s use of very muscular male models and actors may perpetuate the idea that the average person should either be skinny or muscular. An average person who is not skinny or muscular may feel as though they are not living up to society standards which greatly effects their emotional self-esteem. However not every person encountered indicates they are negatively affected by media’s emphasis on skinny or muscular people.

Body image remains to be a very controversial topic in today’s society, because of how easy it is to become a hate crime over a small comment on how small or big someone’s body is. Today, it is unavoidable to see the look that it seems society wants us to look. Professor Susan Bordo writes the article, “Never Just Pictures”, describing her investigation between the media and its effects on how people view their bodies. She uses ethos, logos, and pathos to bring in the attention of the people, in order to get her message across to be aware of media and how they portray the ideal body image. Bordo notes the patterns of the different types of models that magazines and commercial ads use, to say that even though they have changed the face of beauty, they never really changed the body of it. And she analyzes the affects that these ads have on how people view their bodies, and alter what the ‘ideal’ body image is. Bordo uses other sources to prove her argument mainly allowing readers to have more reasons to side with her argument. Having reviewed this article, I think that we should publish this article in the Shorthorns, because it will attract the attention of most people, since right now young people still struggle with differentiating between what is a real body and what is a body that has been altered for the likes of what the media likes.

With the tremendous effect the media has on men & women's body image/self-esteem, there are things the media and those being effected can do to limit the impact. The media can change the portrayal of models in magazines, television, billboards, etc. By portraying unrealistic models, studies can conclude that it causes a negative effect on men and women leading to eating disorders, self-esteem problems, and possibly even sometimes more dramatic actions such as suicide (Groesz, Levine, and Murnen 2,4). So why always have these ultra-thin gorgeous female models and tall handsome masculine models in magazine ads, billboards ads, etc.? If the media would show people as who they really are and at weights and sizes that are attainable it

Ever since we were little, humans were defined by numbers and sizes, and judged by the silent eyes of humanity, and trying to fit ourselves into the undefined definition of perfect. Though there is no correct or incorrect way to look, no two human bodies will look alike (Godsey, “Male Body Stereotypes”). Thus, defining a certain ideal body type to define males or females would not allow the population of girls or boys to achieve those views. Although the media’s intentions are not primarily to degrade any human’s current body state, the media and the people utilizing social media exploit people within a society’s views on an ideal body image that is both unrealistic and nearly impossible to attain. Through negative perceptions of the body, the media influences ideal body structures for each gender, body modifications, and mental and eating disorders.

Body image is how a person feels about their physical appearance. Someone with a negative body image has a distorted view of his or her body and often feels shame, anxiety and are more likely to suffer from low self-esteem and depression. People with a poor body image have a greater chance of developing an eating disorder. Which then can lead to drastic changes of their bodies using dangerous methods such as plastic surgeries and severe eating disorders in order to meet societal ideals. Today people feel that present ideals are pressuring them to conform, in any way possible to get the ideal body, these pressures cause body dissatisfaction and self-esteem issues.The media is causing body image issues due to the lack of diversity and realistic body representation, when exposed to western media young people are more likely to have eating disorders, participate in fad diets, or drastically change their bodies with plastic surgeries.

What is your perception of beauty? For the media, it’s unhealthy, unachievable and dangerous to teenagers of today’s society. The media negatively influences our idea of body image – making us strive to be someone we are not, leaving us feeling worthless. These images prove no purpose whatsoever to society and should not be so widely available.

We live in a world where we are steadily surrounded by media through magazines, television, movies, social media, etc. With media, society learns what’s the hottest news, the latest fashion trends, make-up crazes, as well as cultural norms. Yet though this may seem like it’s beneficial for society, the biggest backlash is taken by today’s youth, girls. As young girls expose themselves to media, they are told by how to lose 20 pounds to look like Selena Gomez, how everyone’s hair should be styled exactly like Rihanna’s, and how Kylie Jenner’s lips are flirtatious, sexy, and irresistible. And of course, all women want to obtain those qualities. However,

“Today in our culture, the “thin ideal” is portrayed in every avenue of the media.” (Allie Kovar) Using a slim body figure for advertisements influences women to change their own figure. Although media keeps women updated on the latest trends, media also has a negative impact. Media’s uses unrealistic body images to influence girls to change how they look causing serious illnesses in some cases.

Negative body image has become a pandemic which has spread to nearly every country. This affliction knows no boundaries, limitations, or prejudices. Cases of this issue can be found in all age groups, socioeconomic levels, races, ethnicities, and genders. The causes of this affliction can be pinpointed to the mass media, familial pressures, and the ever changing standards of beauty.

Tactics the media utilizes to influence one’s body image includes normalizing altercations, encouraging individuals to engage in drastic behaviors, creating dissatisfaction with one’s body, and establishing false perceptions regarding one’s worth. When encountering the media, one must realize that the media’s portrayal of the ideal body is unrealistic and attaining the ideal body does not result in

My research topic is on `how body image portrayed in the media affects the body image of us civilians living everyday life. The intended audience i am trying to reach out to and perhaps even touch with my paper are not only the people like me who has been teased, bullied, and ridiculed for our appearance but the people who treat us this way and judge us as well. I hope to teach every women and girl out there that we all are beautiful and perfect in our own way and everyone has their flaws. During the process of writing my research paper I have acquired so much information on the drastic increase in rates of suicide, eating disorders, and surgical procedures in women alone since the early 90’s. The reason I chose this topic was because it speaks

All we see on tv or social media anymore are girls with a full face of makeup on and a size zero waist. Or we see every guy with washboard abs and giant biceps that could crush a skull. These are the only type of people that we see in the media today. These people are what the media says we should look like and they are forcing this “perfect” body onto everyone in America. Only when teenagers with impressionable minds see this body that they “need” to have, they are forced to believe they must have those bodies. The media is slowly destroying our image of beauty, causing the younger generation to become obsessed with having the perfect body and going through both physical and psychological changes.

Media is popular in these years now; we can see the image everywhere in the world. The celebrities on the TV, ads, Internet and magazine always look perfect. Most of the people wishes they can be look as perfect as celebrities, usually the young people and girl in particular. But most of the people do not realize that the images in the media are fake and unreal.

The emergence of body image problems has risen from the media. People, everyday, see models and famous celebrities who struggle with eating disorders like anorexia nervosa and bulimia. Because young girls, and boys, see models who weigh anywhere from 90lbs to 120lbs, for females, and 120lbs to 160lbs, for males, they think that that is beautiful because we as a nation support them. We want to buy whatever they are modeling because we want to look like them.