Media Portrayal Of Beauty

Some people occasionally feel that their own appearance is unacceptable to society because of what others are expecting based on published media. Those include, social media, published articles, and even movies and TV shows. The media’s portrayal of beauty has had a generational effect on american society with young people falling victim to unrealistic standards. Failing to participate in these ideals can lead to non acceptance, ostracization, and even bullying due to the unfounded judgements of those who do participate in the beauty standards perpetuated by the media. As a matter of fact, research on the impact of those ideals have been done. Many of the studies have been made based on the outlook of people

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.

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.,

As Paff and Buckley Lakner (1997) stipulated that advertising has historically included stereotypical and unrealistic images of women. Furthermore, women’s body are presented as an object by the media, and therefore some women become to view their body as an objects to themselves, object that are subject to critique when they are in front of a mirror (p. 29). Additionally, the media implies that been beautiful has a social benefits and advantages, and some women try to get those advantages, while others may feel frustrated and unattractive. Having negative thoughts about ourselves may cause stress, depression, and decrease our view of oneself. The unrealistic portray of women by the media, have bought society and culture to believe that the ideal body image that a woman should have to achieve happiness is to be

The female body image is highly influenced by the mass media and the media’s portrayal of women, ‘70% of college women say they feel worse about their own looks after reading women’s magazines’ (University of Massachusetts & Stanford University, 2006), the portrayal of women in the media has an unrealistic approach and brings out body dissatisfactions and this results in eating problems and disorders.

The general research topic I have in mind is researching the correlation of the media and unrealistic portrayals of beauty. I would like to delve into this topic to expand on how the beauty myth is pressuring women to meet unrealistic expectations. The first research question I have in mind is: What is the correlation between women’s negative body image and the expectations formed from the beauty myth? This research question would focus on how women are affected mentally and physically while trying to uphold standards of beauty that are promoted in the media. This would include self-esteem, eating disorders, and anxiety formed from the pressures to conform. My second possible research question is: How do advertisements’ portrayal of feminine

When thinking of your “ role model” or your “body goals” who do you usually look at? The answer is usually models and famous people who are portrayed in the media as beautiful because of the media's advertisements and the adjustments that they make on the person. The images of these models and famous people can be described as “Unrealistic Beauty” because the beauty presented is a type of beauty that is hard to get and you have to go through a lot of procedures in order to achieve the look. These images affect many people's self esteem and prevent them from loving their body just the way that it is. Beauty is an important topic that affects many people and their opinions of themselves. Beauty standards are a topic that are not as acknowledged

All around the world there are different standards of beauty. American culture has made a standard for beauty in contemporary music, movies and fashion. Billboards and magazines feature celebrities and models that indirectly hurt young women's self-esteem. Women feel pressured to achieve a standard of beauty that is nearly impossible to obtain set forth by the media. The standard has reached to such an extreme that bullying other women because of their appearance has become a normal part of society and women will go to any measure to try to fulfill society’s expectations. Society has normalized the idea of a woman, being an object and is reflected through the media. These standards of beauty are influential and the exposure of the media to women is putting a lot of pressure for them to change their physical appearance. Society's emphasis on beauty damages women’s physical and emotional development which can ultimately lead girls to alter their appearance in extreme ways, therefore the media needs to be more responsible about how they portray women in the media.

The article from The Guardian; Models in France must provide doctor's note to work, alleges that models portray and unnatural and unhealthy image of beauty. This unhealthy image in turn correlates with the rising amount of eating disorders in young adolescents and models themselves. Exposure to this media then leads to unrealistic expectations of beauty for females and leads to unhealthy habits or even the manifestation of predisposed mental illnesses, such as anorexia nervosa or bulimia, as a means to achieving “beauty”. Because of this the government of France is stepping in and taking measures to inform the public about what is really happening behind the scenes in hopes to inform the general public that this is a standard not attainable for a normal person. This raises the question, is media truly the culprit behind the rising rates of eating disorders in the United Kingdom? Certainly not, otherwise everyone exposed to media would suffer from an eating disorder. It’s biology that fills the pot, but media is the reason it boils over. Media impacts the values and esthetic standards of society as a whole.

Although with that said, the media does not only affect a girl’s perception of her own body but it can also impact on the wellbeing of an individual. The factors which are impacted on through poor body image are self-esteem and their self-confidence. The media portrays the ‘perfect body’ with the associations of being thin, having flawless skin, and being an overall beautiful and strong female. But in reality, this does not depict the average woman or teenage girl and a lot of us know that, however to some this persuades their minds to think that this image is reachable and idealistic. Most people live believing that they need to change something in order to be beautiful, accepted, desirable and meaningful. The primary research collected and collated has shown that the media is one of many different influences, but most definitely one of the biggest. Other influences include family and friends, peer pressure, themselves, partners and how others see them. Overall, the media has promoted a limited idealization of beauty, but we all have created the media (NEEDA Feeding hope. PROUD2BME) . Our reality is a projection of our consciousness, of our beliefs, our attitudes, and our behaviors. Since most people accept a dualistic standard of beauty that is based on a limited and scarcity-based mindset, this is the

Jennifer Strickland, a motivational speaker who speaks about media’s influence on self-image, explains that “Studies prove that media can have a negative impact on self image. TV, movies, magazines, and the internet all bombard teens with images and pressures about what their bodies should look like. The problem is, their version isn’t realistic... Nevertheless, millions of teens believe the lies and resort to unhealthy measures to try to fit themselves into that impossible mold.” Media tries to persuade people, especially teens, that beauty is only skin deep and that the only standard a person cannot accomplish is their standard, secular perfection. While the pretty face covered images stake their claim on people’s insecurity, the inability to have a relaxed conversation with peoplehas reached an all time high. Honor Whiteman, a writer for Medical News Today and a student in a variety of different science aspects, explains how during many experiments, research

After many years of decrying the media’s unrealistic depiction of female beauty, over the last decade, women across the globe have raised their collective voices and insisted that the media portray more realistic and anatomically diverse idealized images of women (Bushak, 2015). As a result, Madison Avenue and Hollywood have begun to include models and actresses of varying shapes, sizes, and colors more frequently in ad campaigns, commercials, television shows, and movies (Bennett-Smith, 2015). Subsequently, the media’s depiction of female beauty has slowly started to become more inclusive and realistic (Lindsey, 2015). Nonetheless, more progress must be made in order to align the media’s presentation of ideal female beauty with reality.

As stated in lecture, the definition of an agent of socialization is a group or social context within which processes of socialization take place such as family, peer group, school, workplaces, religion, and most importantly the mass media. Media is thrown at us in today’s society more than any other time. Mass media comes through all different platforms such as newspapers, magazines, comic books, radio, video games, movies, television, etc. The convergence of media also makes target marketing even more prominent in today’s society. As Eric Klienberg talks about… The images we see on billboards, magazines, television, etc. influence the way we view the people portrayed in the advertisements. As stated in lecture, American children today spend approximately one hundred school days per year watching television. One can be heavily influenced by what they see with that much exposure. Today in the media, we see airbrushed images of both men and women that set unrealistic beauty standards for all ages and genders. The way that beauty and body images are portrayed in the media today greatly affects what we see as a standard of beauty. These images of beauty that we see are socially constructed and are closely tied to race, class and gender. We see that the two most obvious issues with beauty in the media is that the images we see are based off of white standards of beauty and show unachievable body standards for both men and women.

Mass Media such as films, advertisements and magazines are the huge influence on the definition of feminine beauty. From watching movie to passing through the subway station, it is quite often to see numerous images of female faces and bodies. Women are exposed in the world where most women display in films and on subway advertising boards are striking poses with little clothes on. Moreover, every image showed is airbrushed with Photoshop. Women are exposed with images produced by the media on what is considered to be the ideal face and body. The way media portray feminine beauty today changes the publics’ standard on feminine beauty and even how females view themselves. This essay will explain the impact of media in

As we evolve to become a more online base society, the standard of beauty being portrayed in the media today is influencing many aspects of our generation. Research has concluded that females concerned with weight and body image has reached epidemic proportions and this concern is now considered a normal part of female life. This affects the self-esteem of today’s youth and adults as models are setting unrealistic standards which no one can realistically achieve. This is a topic which is becoming more recognized and talked about but who is at blame? What are specific aspects that are being affected during critical teen development and how is this changing how teens think? How does the high standard of beauty currently found in the media harm today’s generation? Who is at blame? Women today are being socially constructed to look a certain way. The theories and concepts of the mass media approach to socialization, social comparison theory, stigma, race, and ethnicity can be used to analyze this ongoing phenomenon.