Media Portrayal Of Beauty

Scrolling through Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc., humans tend to automatically compare themselves to others. The most common comparison is appearances. People will completely change their physical appearance to match with whatever is trending. If they do not succeed in “mastering” the new look, some will consider themselves below average, or ugly. This creates a lot of self-doubt especial in youth. Over the last 20 years, cell phone use in the age ranges of 7-18 years old has increased over 75% (Beres, D. (n.d.). Adolescence are exposed to things on the internet that encourages heavy makeup usage and provocative clothing to enhance their physical appearance. The standard in day to day appearances seems to be getting higher and higher as social media usage increases.

On the other hand, the images of flawless skin, athletic thin bodies , and with the possibility of Photoshop, teenagers are finding it impossible to achieve this standard of beauty. With these images portrayed everywhere, it has led to more than just low-esteem, it has led to distorted body image, jealousy, eating disorders such as anorexia nervosa and bulimia. The images of being thin portrayed by media can result in teenagers feeling depressed, anxious and incline in self-worth. These feelings can then lead to depression, low self-esteem and anxiety, causing teenagers to lose

Beauty standards in the media are one of many reasons feeding and eating disorders are a rising problem. The unrealistic body types of being extremely thin, in pop culture, are influential factors for many teens, especially teen girls. According to the Diagnostic Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, fifth edition (DSM-5), anorexia nervosa is a “restriction of energy intake, intense fear of gaining weight, and a disturbance in the perception of one’s body size” (American Psychiatric Association, 2013). Individuals diagnosed with anorexia tend to place a high value on their shape and weight, which can interfere with their daily lives. Individuals diagnosed tend to view of their body shape in a distorted representation. The motivation to become

Nowadays we are surrounded with billions of images and we are influenced by the people we see in magazines and advertisements. Celebrities and their lifestyles is one of the main reasons why society emphasises on physical appearance and perfection. The need to feel accepted by others has become another main reason why our society emphasises so much on physical appearance. The media has a strong effect on people, especially young girls. Around 69% of girls say that models influence their idea of the perfect body. The level of skinniness that is shown by models is unachievable and biologically inappropriate, it gives a wrong picture of what an ideal body looks like. Many people believe that they must look like the models in magazine ads and that their life would improve if they got a nose job, a face lift, a tummy tuck etc. Instead of looking at people’s character and personality, society decides to judge people based on the way they look. Society’s emphasis on physical appearance makes many people feel pressured to change their appearance so they can be

The influence of the media on all aspect of society has spread like wildfire especially in the United States. One specific influence by the media is body image, large number of young women and girls look up to people in the media and are influenced by the way they look. Now days you’re appraised on your attractiveness, the way you look, the way you dress, and especially how thin you are. The media’s representation of body image has contributed to the social trend of an unhealthy lifestyle. Women and young girls today are fixated on trying modify the way they look to achieve the perfect body image set by the standards of society. Female’s worry about the way they look starting at young ages from the unhealthy image of the Barbie doll to the

Society has not always provided the youth of the world with the best perceptions of what it means to be the ideal human being. In fact, many of these perceptions provide plenty of problems for the younger generations. One of these issues is the importance of looks, specifically in clothing ads magazines. The clothing ads in teen’s magazines present society with fictitious depictions, which in turn make many people have unrealistic expectations of what teenagers should look like.

The modern beauty standard has become an increasingly important issue because people have the freedom to decide, but the media largely influenced these choices on about beauty standard. Our advance of technology helps communicate with each other, but people are not fully aware of the influence of media. That is a major problem. The media broadcast images of beauty to control people consciously. Technological advance helps people to reach the information quickly and cumulatively, but media not always making people feel good about themselves. Most of the people experience powerless when a society values youth and beauty because it is impossible to meet beauty standard. People bombarded by images of men and women who are thin, beautiful, and youthful. This norm is slowly taking away an individual’s freedom of self-expression and consequently lose sense of self-worth. Camille Paglia, an academic and social critic who earned her PhD at Yale University, uses her artistic sensibility to argue that the current trend of plastic surgery leads to ethical issues, such as narcissism, sexism, and racism in “The Pitfall of Plastic Surgery”. Meanwhile, Daniel Akst, New York born journalist, claims that the attitudes of the typical American’s carelessness about their outfit and physical beauty in “What Meets the Eye”. Both authors define the beauty standard that created by the media and claim the issue of how the media set up the wrong beauty standard for audience; it is unattainable for

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.

Having social media in today's generation has become one of the most popular sources of communication. Social media platforms such as Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter have a huge impact on young teens. Since social media is a way to network with people and friends, provide entertainment, sharing opinion or comments, etc., most often times it is the first and last thing the younger generation would see right before bed or when they wake up. For example, Instagram is a way to share photos about oneself or about anything. Most people would post "trendy" picture of what a perfect body might be or what is perceived as beautiful. But what teenagers might not know is not everything you see on social media is true. Pictures may be deceptive. These pictures have provided unrealistic standards as to what is considered beautiful in today’s society. By establishing unattainable standards of beauty and bodily perfection, the media drive ordinary people to dissatisfaction with their body images like what movie I will be talking about in this essay, “The DUFF.” The dissatisfaction can results in resorts to drastic measures, and even disorders of behavior, as people try to achieve these unreachable goals.

When the word “beauty” comes to one’s mind, society immediately comes to mind also. Society plays a big role on what the definition of beauty really is. Society has it drilled into people’s minds that someone has to look a certain way to be beautiful. If a person doesn’t look like Kim Kardashian, Carrie Underwood, Miley Cyrus, or any other celebrity then they are deemed “not beautiful”. Society seemed to have forgotten that beautiful people come in all shapes, sizes, colors, and looks ("How Media Affects the Way Beauty Is Perceived"). What society is doing to all different kinds of people is what leads to self-esteem problems, depression, anxiety, etc. Many teenage girls are targeted and attacked for not being pretty enough or small enough.

In the study by Spurr, Berry and Walker (2013) the girls that participated in the study reported that females were not being truthful if they didn’t admit to not being happy with all aspects of their appearance. This would go to say that everyone has something that they are unhappy with in regards to their bodies, and also that reporting that adolescents could never be fully satisfied with their bodies as long as they don’t have the model body. Young adolescent females in this study also admitted that they knew media was in part responsible for them feeling bad about their bodies, and knowing that many images are retouched a computer, but even knowing this

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%

The typical teenage girl wakes up each day and immediately opens her phone or electronic device to get online and check her various social media apps. During that time, she will start her day being bombarded with hundreds, maybe thousands of images of females throughout her day. In addition to social media, TV and magazine ads are using impossible standards of beauty to try to convince young girls that if they buy their products, they can achieve these levels of beauty and perfections. Because of these “flawless images” of perfect women, this can cause some girls to develop very negative feelings about their own appearance and it can sometimes lead to major health issues. Research and studies have suggested that when girls see all these ads

The unrealistic standards of beauty is hurting this generation of what the media and society thinks a girl has to look like, for many years the media has been trying to construct the ideal image of what a “perfect woman” should look like. They believe there only beautiful if they have long legs, great hair, and curves in the right places (HuffingtonPost2017). Which is not the influence that we want to carry down to future generations of girls who feel like they must live up to the expectations of girls who have the “perfect body”. With media apps being popular in the 21st century, there was a survey done on some of the top media apps, their study #statusofmind surveyed almost 1,500 young people aged 14 to 24 on how certain media apps impact health ( CableNewsNetwork 2017). Body images statistics say 80% of woman say images,

For some teens, striving for perfection has led to harming their own health and wellbeing such as living with depression and suicide. Teenagers today are relying on what they see in ads, T.V., magazines and on the internet for their input on appearances, the way they think not only comes from media sources, but from family and friends.