Media And Body Image Essay

The media has become a powerful source for changes in our society. There are so many factors and reasons for our society changing. Today I find most people obsessively worried about their body image. We all have a body and at one time or another, we worry about it. Women and men are both being affected by media sources such as television, advertising, magazines, music, and video games; not to mention the photo manipulation that goes along with it all. Questions can be asked; such as, “Is this the way our society should be leaning [obsessing over our bodies]? What could happen from here? Are there any solutions?”

The purpose of this study is to determine if media is the primary factor affecting a person’s body image or if the person’s body image is impacted more by their social relationships in their life or if their body image is affected by the combination both the media and relationship within peer

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.

Another perspective one can look at to better understand the overall influence of the media is to look at it from a male view. Commonly body image is almost synonymous with woman, but men too are targeted by the media. In an article by Huff Post they delve into the male side of body image. The article starts off with a personal account by a mother whose six year old son whose only goal is to get bigger, and he’s so consumed with this he weighs himself at least seven times a day after meals and even wears larger clothes in an attempt to make himself seem bigger. While women are told to be smaller and slimmer, men are told to be muscular and large as to show the level of their masculinity, both of these ideals are unhealthy for each gender. In the article a clinical psychologist Raymond Lemberg states that in stead of the 1 in 10 ratio applied to the

Man, I wish I could look like that! How does she get her makeup to look so perfect? Her eyebrows are on point! She 's so skinny and fit looking. Her skin is absolutely flawless! I wish I looked like her! Why can 't I be like those girls? How many times have you watched television, searched the web, looked at magazines, or used your cell phone and have thought those things about a woman/teen girl that you have seen? Media has photoshopped, airbrushed, and tweaked pictures and videos to appear as perfect! The media has made young women feel as if their bodies are not good enough. Young women are being convinced that if they do not look like the “perfect” women on television then they aren 't good enough.

Images of female bodies are everywhere. Women, and their bodies, sell everything from food to cars. Women's magazines are full of articles urging women to fit a certain mold. While standing in a grocery store line you can see all different magazines promoting fashion, weight loss, and the latest diet. Although the magazines differ, they all seemingly convey the same idea: if you have the perfect body image you can have it all…the perfect marriage, loving children, great sex, and a rewarding career. The media, whether TV, print, or Internet advertising, seems to play a huge role in influencing women of all ages; from adolescence and teens, to women in their twenties and thirties, as well as

Media messages play a significant role in forming gender norms and body satisfaction. Social media is one of the causes for the negative body image in teens. Some teens struggle with self-esteem and body image when they begin puberty because their body goes through many changes, they want to be accepted by their friends.

We live in a world where women want the ‘perfect’ body, but what really is the perfect body? Many individuals look to media to define the perfect body. This perception then directly influences the individual’s body image. Body image involves how a person sees him/herself, how they feel about the way they look and how they think others perceive them. In reality, men and women come in different shapes and sizes, therefore it is unrealistic to represent one body as perfect. Comparing oneself to images seen in social or other forms of media can produce negative results, up to and including loss of life.

Are people's opinions really their own, or are they a subset of others thoughts and opinions put together? The media is intended to send its message to the audience and many times, it is a great influence on the general population. The media has the power to influence the audience on what is appealing and what is not. One of the main controversies going on now, is how the media portrays the body image. The media promotes negative body images by aiming their attention on perfection, using subliminal messages, and reaching out to towards younger children.

Most people have been exposed to social media at some point in their lives and although it may seem harmless it can play a major role on how people perceive themselves. Dieting and maintaining a well balanced lifestyle is healthy, but that can all change when the media gets involved. The media's impact on body image is mainly negative because people tend to abuse what information they are given and turn it into an unhealthy lifestyle. The media has a major impact on how people perceive themselves it can affect your mental stability, lower self-esteem, and contribute to unhealthy habits.

It has always been known that the media can have impacts on several aspects of our lives. Both the young and the old are both affected by whatever the media puts out, positive or negative. However, women in particular are the ones that are most affected by the media. Magazines, television commercials, and even fast food ads all subject women. Women in those ads are usually seen to be thin, busty, or are known to have certain features that “supposedly” make them more attractive than those of their other female counterparts. Women often compare themselves to what they see in the media and may feel that they are not good enough when they do not match up to society’s “required” standard of beauty. They often develop eating disorders and do other harmful things to their body in order to achieve the “ideal” body type. Should the media take all the blame for bad body images or are there other factors involved?

“My childhood was happy and pleasantly uneventful. I was the youngest child by 11 years and grew up in a middle class family with loving parents and sisters. I was a good student, a strong athlete and a happy and well­-adjusted child. Somewhere in the middle of Grade 6, however, my safe and simple childhood world began to unravel – and I didn't know how to react.

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.

For a long time, the media has been renown for falsely or inaccurately representing different groups, genders and races of people. Representation can be defined as a view or portrayal someone has on a person or group of people. Two of the most common representations the media makes are that men are dominant, aggressive and muscular, while women are submissive, blonde haired - blue eyed, slim and beautiful. However this is not the case. What the media shows as being normal is in fact abnormal and does not reflect reality. Quite often these representations affect the values of those who consume media, in turn, this affects society in ways that may be detrimental to them, because the portrayals of themselves they have seen in the media of which they try to become, aren’t reality. The reason the media affects people's value systems so strongly is because people just want to fit in, so they try to be like the representations of others they see on TV, online, and in other forms of media.

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.