Media Portrayals Of Media Affecting Women

To begin with, the media industry has the power to decide what reaches the public’s eye; therefore, they present to the public their versions of what “beautiful’ women should appear like. The media has created their version of what the “ideal body” should be. They continuously show the audience photographic images of models that appear extremely thin. Media meticulously chooses women with bodies which media calls “sexy”. Spectators rarely get a glance of women who are overweight. For example, all of the actress that make an appearance on television shows are below what is considered a healthy weight. Yet, this concept is what media has defined as beautiful, influencing many women to obtain a thin figure. As a result, of these messages sent by

Every day, millions of Americans view the front covers of magazines like Vogue, Cosmopolitan, and more. They see them while at grocery stores, on the television, and even in the waiting room at a doctor's office. The media offer advertisements with models that are seemingly slim with perfect skin, hair, and teeth. American propaganda leaves most young, adolescent girls between the ages of 5-18 to consider that the complexity of beauty is strict to be thin and perfect, though it is targeted to young adolescents, it does aim towards older female and male age ranges as well. An article states, “While the media attempt to target every person, the level of exposure is dictated by gender, and the majority of harmful messages is focused more toward women. For instance, in media such as magazines where a person relies on an image to relate a feeling, girls are often made to look inferior” (Chapman). When it comes to the media, specifically in the American culture, the popularity has massively increased over the years, turning to new weekly issues, becoming common to the society and civilization. This causes issues associated with eating disorders, depression and suicide, and self-esteem/confidence young girls.

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.,

The media is our source of constant information, and is presented in many forms such as, daily newscasts, social media like Facebook, and the magazines strategically placed in our doctor’s office. There is no surprise that it is also the dominant influence when it comes to society’s beauty standard either. Unfortunately media isn’t a positive influence all the time, and is the main force behind negative body image epidemic that plagues women, especially the 18-25 age group. In order to fully understand the severity of what some call a “Vanity” issue we must look into the facts of how exactly the media damages women’s perception of their own bodies, and then observe the extent of the damage done to the physical and mental states of these women

Images in the media are extremely powerful and affect the way women think about themselves and about their body. Hilary Rowland, author of “Media Images Are Unrealistic” states how the images shown everyday cause women to “feel insecure about their own bodies” even if they don't have anything to be ashamed of. It is evident that the media displays unrealistic images of beauty causing girls to feel insecure about their bodies and creates a false perception of how they should look. Due to this, women obsess so much over looking just like the “idealized” woman in the media that they create an obsession of losing weight because of lack of confidence. In the article, “The Media Drives Young Girls to Diet” by Jessica Hendrick, we see how women “diet obsessively” trying to “emulate the popular notion of beauty” that is being shown in the media.

There has been a growing trend of hypersexualization of women over the span of all forms of media. The women within these images are made to look perfectly flawless. They are extremely thin without a trace of fat or cellulite to be found. The people who consume this media are exposed to the idea that the women they are observing are models for true physical beauty. These standards are accompanied by an alternate message from the media that pushes the idea that women’s value comes from their beauty. While some women may understand that the messages about the ideal woman are unrealistic and false, it is found that adolescent girls are vulnerable to the media’s strategies due to their lack of media literacy as well as the search for their own identity during this developmental stage in their lives. The exposure to these standards of beauty can have several negative effects on the girls such as lower self-esteem, higher body dissatisfaction, depression, and eating disorders. SPARK and 4 Every Girl are two of a growing number of campaigns that are working to fight against the sexualized images of women in the media and the negative effects it can have on the viewers.

Chronic dieting, low self-esteem, depression and, high levels of body dissatisfaction were among the major issues women face when addressing their body image (Gingras, Fitzpatrick, & McCargar, 2004). The severity of body image dissatisfaction have increased to such a dangerous state that it was added to the DSM-IV as a disorder now called body dysmorphic disorder (Suissa, 2008). One of the main reasons for the prevalence of these conditions in women was due to contemporary Western media, which serve as one of the major agent in enforcing an ultra-thin figure as the ideal for female beauty (Saraceni & Russell-Mayhew, 2007). These images and models presented by the media have become the epitome of beauty, pushing women who internalized these images to dangerous extent to attain these norms. According to evidence from previous studies, contemporary Western cultures have influenced women to an acquired normative state of discontent with their bodies, which have become the source of maladaptive eating practices, negative psychological outcomes, and, chronic health conditions associated with eating disorders (Snapp, Hensley-Choate, & Ryu, 2012). The seriousness of these body image conditions among youths and women have also led to congressional actions.

Throughout society many teens and young women have been scrutinized for their bodies and appearance. Media is one of the leading contributors. Media has led to the sexualization and body image issues in teens and women starting at young ages. As the media idealizes women as a miniature size 0 with long blonde hair and blue eyes, basically describing a classic Barbie doll. All of these ‘ideal’ body images lead to the loss in self esteem. Every girl wants to look like a runway model or now a days the Kardashians, with their great bodies and good facial structure, even though most of it could be due to plastic surgery. How does media affect body image today with women?

With technology and social media quickly advancing in today’s society and being everywhere around us, women on a daily basis are affected by the “ideals” they see. Media today makes self-esteem and body dissatisfaction a long-term problem for a majority of women which leads to many more problems with mental and physical well-being.

Thin models and actresses appear to be the standardin today’s media, ever-present on television, and in magazines, movies,and Internet sites. Advertisements targetingyoung women feature thin and beautiful models in desirable circumstances in order to sell clothing, accessories, and other products. There is a mediated normfor body image in present-day culture, and it is characterized by bodies that are extremely thin (Hendriks&Burgoon, 2003). This mediated thin-ideal is present in mainstream media, and mainstream media are a source women turn to for information about how to look (Hendriks, 2002). Consequently, women who are heavy viewers of thin-ideal media may develop the attitude that thinness is socially desirable, experience greater body

The portrayal of women in the media has drastically changed through the years. Those changes can be viewed as positive or negative, but many times they impose an influence on female viewers. Those influences often lead to damaging outcomes such as eating disorders and depression. The range of influences and effects caused by the portrayal of women is wide and also includes low self-esteem, body image issues and the need to be a sex symbol. The Social Learning Theory is important in understanding how women are affected by their presence in the media. The modeling process included within the theory is essential to identifying how women are overwhelmed with images of the “perfect” or “ideal” body. Those images are generally largely unrealistic. Many statistics show an increase of eating disorders and other mental health issues as women are subjected to images of societal and media perfection. This is an example of the modeling process. This paper will explain the effects and concerns that result from exposure to the media’s portrayal of women, what Social Learning is and how it applies to that exposure.

As media promotes beauty standards that are unrealistic for most women to achieve, it creates the repercussion of lowered self-esteem among young girls. As they compare themselves to these images, build self-loathing of the way their body looks, and can fall into a depression. Kathy Wilcox and James D. Laird conducted a study on the impacts of media images and self-perception, and found that some women’s self-esteem shifted by 20% (negatively) just through flipping through photographs of slender models (Wilcox & Laird, 2000). Another experiment showed that young girls who are exposed to magazines with skinny models develop lowered self-esteem and body satisfaction (Clay, Vignoles & Dittmar, 2005). What these two studies show are the effect that media does have on the way girls self-perceive themselves. It also proves the idea that some girls may develop depression, or an eating disorder when exposed to high-amounts of unrealistic beauty

Every individual has their own ideas on what is considered beautiful. Beauty can be on the inside or on the outside because it varies to each individual’s preference. However, pressure from society causes people to believe that they must adapt and conform to society’s apocryphal image of beauty. Today, society’s image of beauty has been manufactured on a distorted perception of unrealistic perfection that has been asserted by the media and implemented through its advertisements to proclaim that women need to appease this standard in order to be considered beautiful in society. Media’s pessimistic views of beauty influence the way women portray themselves in daily life. Media has a negative impact on women and the way they

Media represents males and females by gendering them in different categories. According to a presentation, the author states, “Media perceives women in a very sexual manner whereas men are symbolized as powerful (Khan). Over and over again, the one thing that the media reveals is that women are very sexual beings. They show that they are only good for taking care of the home and the man is very powerful. For example, the author on the presentation shows a ad that a man is in a life guard outfit with him having muscles which portrays him to look like a hero. On the other side there is a picture of a woman who looks stressed with babies all around her crying with both her hands full. One side she is holding a math test with a F on it and the other side is holding a pot full of baby bottles (Khan). This shows that women are “supposed to be the only one taking care of the house” and because of that the women looks stressed. In the article, “Face it”, the author states,

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.