Media's Negative Effects On Body Image

In our society, we tell little girls to love and to be true to oneself. As they grow up, this message begins to disappear because our culture contradicts this idea. As girls enter the world, they are already confined with how the media set unrealistic standards for the female population. This leads girls to harm their own body, including eating disorders such as bulimia, and anorexia. The most prominent cause of these acts is advertisements. Advertisements are everywhere and they have the power to promote, sell, encourage, and give unrealistic ideals of the common people. Advertisements and media images have a negative effect on the way women view their body image which leads to self-harm.

“People often say that beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and I say that the most liberating thing about beauty is realizing that you are the beholder,” according to Salma Hayek. Society should have a positive outlook on body image, rather than face a disorder that can change one’s whole life. Negative body image can result from the media, with photoshop and editing, celebrity fad diets, and society’s look at the perfect image. Negative body image can lead to dangerous eating disorders, such as bulimia and anorexia. It can also take a risk to unhealthy habits, such as smoking, alcohol, and drugs. It is important to stress the effects of body image, because the world still struggles with this today. Society should not be affected by

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.

Body image has changed throughout the years. The feeling that you have to have this perfect body has grown. Body image is an issue in today’s society especially through the media outlets.

When looking into the mirror at oneself, what imperfections come to mind? Often times answers are given that a person believes they are overweight, not beautiful enough, or that their clothing is unappealing. Most people have at least one thing they wish they could improve about themselves and some work very hard to change it. It is understandable to work at improving one’s self image and it can help a person learn a lot about themselves. By leaving room for improvement open for oneself, a person becomes more willing to do so in more aspects of their life. The problem arises when an individual allows the media’s perceptions of perfection affect how their life is lived. These media portrayals can be easily found through the internet, newspapers,

Advertisements play such a power role in the media area. Advertisements don’t just sell products, they are now showing a way of life, they sell values, they sell body image- the ideal body. We are said to be exposed to an esitamted ‘range from around 250 per day on the conservative side, to 3000 and above’ [1] of adverts. They are now showings us what to strive for within our looks and what we wear. Our hair colour and style and it seems apparent that all

Emotionally it can make some dissatisfied with their own body figure and turn into a negative effect instead of a positive one. For example, anorexia or bulimia could occur, which lefted untreated could be risky to one’s life. According to Lipkin, most girls who develop anorexia or bulimia have a “sense that one’s own body is distorted, bloated, and unacceptable” (602). The ideal body type that the media shows off convincedly tells women or girls that not having the perfect body is bad, “media-idealized images have the most harmful and substantial impact on vulnerable individuals” (Dakanalis,

Many teens center a large part of their self-image on the way their body looks, a negative self-image may be linked to depression, anxiety, and eating disorders, and mental health problems. People with eating disorders generally have a negative body image and social media doesn't help because they are constantly comparing themselves to other people. In American society, messages about what the perfect body looks like are constantly delivered by the mass media. Television, movies, magazines, the Internet, and advertisements show us what society views as a perfect body—the ideal we should strive for. In the 1920’s two major changes happened in women’s lives the first thing was they got the right to vote and there was a mass production of clothes. With these changes no one was alike anymore and that’s when self-image came about. As the years went on self-image became more important and fashion models set standards of how people were supposed to look. For example Twiggy was 5’7 and weighed 91 pounds, many teenage girls tried to achieve the “Twiggy look” by dieting and that made many people have a negative body-image. Today’s models haven’t changed much they still are trying to achieve the “Twiggy look” but now their body-image is more positive and models take positive and negative criticisms

Many negativities have resulted from what the media is portraying as the idealized body image; the body size of women portrayed in the media is noticeably getting smaller. The media will do everything to sell a product, especially when it tugs on someones insecurities. The term “thin-ideal media” refers to media images, shows, and films that contain very thin female leads (“Body, Of”). The media has made a thin body appear as if that is what the ideal body image should be, even if it is harmful to a person’s health. The average fashion model is typically 4-7 inches taller and 50 pounds lighter than the average American (Insel 292). Many consider that having good looks means you have good health; furthermore, it then makes it difficult for some women to go without thinking

Self-esteem plays a big part of body image. People have to feel good about themselves and be comfortable in their own skin to be happy. In today's world, it feels almost impossible to be happy, this generation is all about the media which makes having self-esteem 10x harder. Millions of pictures are posted of expectations of how women should look. In an article written by Pavica Sheldon, she states that ”The average American woman is 5’4 and 140 pounds, whereas the average female model portrayed in the media is 5’11 and 120 pounds”. Women are placed into a box telling them they have to look a certain way and if they don't they're simply not good enough. Besides being put into a category women numerously get called nasty names like slut or whore if they show too much. Piggy and fatty if they're overweight. Or “stick” if she's too skinny. Nothing is ever good enough is what it feels like. For example, Kylie Jenner, if you grew up watching “Keeping up with the Kardashians” you know how she looked before all the plastic surgery she got done, she now looks completely different. An account wrote, “What are they giving Kylie?” and someone quoted the tweet and said plastic. So even if women try to fix their imperfections they still get shamed down for it by calling them fake.

Negative body image has become a pandemic which has spread to nearly every country. This affliction knows no boundaries, limitations, or prejudices. Cases of this issue can be found in all age groups, socioeconomic levels, races, ethnicities, and genders. The causes of this affliction can be pinpointed to the mass media, familial pressures, and the ever changing standards of beauty.

“70% of 6-12 year olds already have the mindset that they need to be thinner.” (Just Say Yes.org)Many factors influence individual’s perception of his or her own appearance. Media has greatly increased the “ideal image of beauty.” Barbie, models, and actors give people false hope that they will look just like them, and if they look different then they aren’t beautiful. Social media and peer pressures influence the way teens see themselves. To fix this problem people need to learn to self-love, respect themselves, and understand that people on TV were given the job because of the way they look to appeal to the audience.

I often find myself criticizing my physical appearance, especially after looking at some online pictures, which I see through Instagram or Facebook. I find myself adoring the pictures of perfectly thin women that are depicted in the media and asking myself the reason of media’s depictions and presentations of those women as “better” compared to women who are regarded as average-weighted. This “perfect body image” has been created by the media and has been affected many women in regards of their perspectives about their physical appearances and relatedly their worth to themselves and to the society. It is extremely crucial to understand the importance of the manipulation of the media instruments on women and realize the relationship between those perfect body images and women’s self-esteem and self-worth to themselves.

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.

According to Borzekowski, D.L., & Bayer, A.M, Body image is the internal representation of one’s outer appearance which reflects physical and perpetual dimensions. For the purpose of this paper, body image can be defined as a person 's perception, thoughts and feeling about her body, this can be altered by significantly altered by social experiences. This paper explores my personal experience and findings of empirical studies that examine the effects of media on body image in young women. Internalization of body ideals that are perpetuated by the media can be a strong influence on body dissatisfaction, especially among females.The