Media and Body Image

Growing up, I played with Barbie. Barbie had her own house, car and airplane. She had clothes and shoes for every occasion. She was independent and successful. She was tall, blonde and beautiful. She was everything I hoped to be as an adult. Barbie continues to be a role model for many little girls today. Little boys have their own role model, G.I. Joe. He is strong, a warrior, the good guy. Unfortunately, these iconic role models represent the unobtainable physique. Their body shapes are unrealistic. Perceiving these toys as physical role models has become detrimental to the health of children because when they fail to size up, or down, to these figures, serious illnesses, disease and even death can occur.

Modern people live media-saturated lives, even children as young as 6 years old, have had some type of media exposure. Extensive exposure to media outlets can lead to body image issues. Body image is defined as, the subjective picture or mental image of one's own body (Smolak 2003). Body image is formed as people compare themselves to others. Because, people are exposed to countless media images; these images become the basis for such comparisons. These mental comparisons, have a strong influence on an individual’s personal perception of beauty. Media outlets create images and pressures about what our bodies should look like; however, sometimes these images have been manipulated, creating an unrealistic expectation of beauty. When an individual believes that their body is substandard, they can become depressed, suffer from low self-esteem, or develop eating disorders.

The Barbie doll has been a popular play toy for young girls since the late 1950s. Although the Barbie doll seem like an innocent toy, it has had an effect on little girls’ body images. Many studies have shown an association between young girls playing with Barbies and eating disorders. Even grown women want to resemble Barbie so badly that they start to do surgery on their bodies which can be very dangerous. This has led to the term, Barbie Syndrome, which refers to “the drive, often of adolescent girls, to attain impossible standards of beauty, projected by toys—e.g., Mattel’s Barbie Doll—and the media, resulting in failure and frustration, issues related to body

Body image by definition is an individual 's concept of his or her own body. It’s how they see themselves and think others see them as well. Everyone has a body image where it is good or bad but more and more we are seeing body image issues lead into disorders. Our body images are often influenced by the people we care about, people we aspire to be and people we want to impress. All too often the people we want to be are photoshopped, thin and “beautiful” and utterly unattainable. And the people we want to impress are the bullies that tell us we will never be good enough for them. I think stopping the problem of Body image issues needs to start at home when your children are young.

Researchers have discovered that “ongoing exposure to certain ideas can shape and distort our perceptions on reality.” (Mintz 2007) Because young girls are subjected to a constant display of beautiful people in the media, they have developed a negative body image of themselves. Those who have a negative body image perceive their body as being unattractive or even hideous compared to others, while those with a positive body image will see themselves as attractive, or will at least accept themselves and be comfortable in their own skin. During adolescence, negative body image is especially harmful because of the quick changes both physically and mentally occurring during puberty. Also, young girls are becoming more and more exposed to the media and the media keeps getting more and more provocative. Young girls are looking to women with unrealistic body shapes as role models. It’s hard to find, in today’s media, a “normal” looking

The Barbie Doll, created in 1959 and first appeared at the American Toy Fair in New York City, is a prime example of the idea of the perfect body image of a woman in society. The original Barbie portrays a thin, blonde woman with clear skin and a “perfect” outfit. Standing 11 inches tall,

Body image, by definition, is a person’s personal opinions and or descriptions on his or her physical appearance. A person’s opinion of his or her own appearance “may or may not parallel how others judge that person’s body image” (Atkins, “Body Image”). Bullies, for example, often degrade victims to a lower status than

In 1959 Mattel Toy releases a womanized figure called Barbie, a doll with unrealistic body proportions. Little girls all over the world idolized this toy, wanting to grow up just like Barbie. The blond hair, skinny waist and blue eyes toy. Parents were thrilled by this toy but little did they know it created a big self-esteem drop and brought their child’s insecurities up.

What is body image? A two-dimensional model of body image incorporates both perceptual and emotional components. It focuses on both how we feel about the size and shape of our bodies and how accurately we perceive our body size as well. A more recent cognitive approach suggests that body image is a complex set of cognitive schema. A schema is a grouped body of knowledge. Groups of schema are readily available for important tasks such as guiding behavior, circumstantial scripts (or dialogue), and evoking the appropriate emotional, somatic, visual, and auditory responses in certain situations. The cognitive schema for body image is an organized domain of knowledge about oneself and others.

Many forms of media portray women in different ways. Between advertising and produced media women appear all over the place. Many companies try and make these women come in many different shapes, sizes, colors, and age. However, a lot of these women are portrayed in a very objectified manner. In some adds you continuously see women dress in next to no clothes and although they try to make the women diverse in different ways, it seems that they always hover around attempting to show the perceived “perfect women”. How do these women affect the way female viewers look at themselves? Does it Have a harsh effect on their body image, or does it give them irrational ideas for their idea of beauty? All these questions tie together and can make one

Barbie may represent the average american woman, perhaps in spirit, but not body. Today, many women and young girls feel the pressure of maintaining the unrealistic beauty standards modern society presents. It comes as a routine for any body hair to be plucked, waxed, or shaved, even though bodies naturally regenerate hair. Diets, cleanses, and fastings must be followed strictly in order to lose the bulging belly fat and achieve those “killer abs” or “best bikini body ever”. Mattel has faulted at Barbie’s dimensions, which are impossible to achieve. Her waist is 16 inches, with hips at 29 inches and a neck at 9 inches, compared to the average American woman whose waist ranges from 32-34 inches, hips at 37- 38, and neck in between 12-13 inches. With a waist smaller than her head, Barbie’s tiny waistline would only be able to support “half a liver and only a few inches of intestine,” (google images barbie). While, some women disagree that they compare their physique to a doll, in a British 2006 study, “girls [aged five to eight] exposed to Barbie reported lower body esteem and greater desire for a thinner body shape than those who had been given dolls reflecting larger body types or no dolls at all” (Grinberg 1). However, Mattel has worked on normalizing Barbie’s features and portions in order to reduce

Despite this celebration of acceptance, women are constantly shamed for their body type. The original Barbie perpetuates this shaming by showing a “beautiful” doll with long legs, a thin waist, and large breasts. We may tell our girls that all body types are beautiful, but most women actually have an underlying desire to look like that Barbie doll. Women still receive judgment for being seen as overweight or unfit when their figure doesn’t fulfill into the image that most girls grow up thinking is the perfect body. The article also described how Barbie created a sort of negative “taboo” around the process of body image and confidence. Creating this doll with realistic body proportions and multiple skin tones seems to be a step in the right direction to close this gap between our ideal culture of acceptance and the very real judgment and shame women face in

Human society has become derogatory, sexist, and racist teaching young teens uncivilized behaviour towards the opposite gender and different races. The media constructs reality relating to body image, power, and race.

Body image is something that can appear in one’s everyday life, whether they are trying to lose weight, gain weight, or just happen to walk by a mirror and check themselves out. Young children, even as young as 3 years old, show signs of recognizing body image. Many people do not think about young children when they think of body image. Teens are constantly confronted with having a perfect body. Teens have pressure from friends, family, and many other outside variables. Middle-aged women even show signs of being concerned with how their bodies look. Although middle-aged women may not be as vocal, the way they see their body is becoming more of a talked about subject. Some may argue that teens are the only age group that is concerned with their body image but I will argue that negative body image affects all age groups.

Body Image is the way people look at themselves. It is an enormous problem in today’s society, affecting mostly teenagers. This happens to teenagers because they are going through puberty, resulting in different perspective on their bodies.There are many causes of body image issues; from social media to family and friends. For example, in this 21st century social media, images, famous celebrities, even parents, coaches, trainers etc are the causes of body image problems. Coaches and parents sometimes say if you lose a little weight you will be perfect. Also, the media plays a major problem in body image. Whenever teenagers read magazines and look at pictures of models in shops, they tend to want to look like those unrealistic pictures, resulting in low self image and body image dissatisfaction. Peer pressure and friendship groups also affect adolescents because they want to feel accepted.