Negative Body Image Issues

Millions of teens and adults are faced with eating disorders and negative body images everywhere they go. Celebrities promote unrealistic standards and display what the “acceptable” body is. Because of our stick thin role models we have in the media today much of our society holds their own body image to the unobtainable standards of celebrities. People are bombarded with images of what’s “sexy” instead of what’s healthy (Helmich). In a world based around celebrities and media, shouldn’t they be promoting a healthy body image instead of the negative ones we are being smothered with?

I chose to read the book titled “Understanding the Causes of Negative Body Image” by Barbara Moe because I plan on focusing my research paper on how the media has strong control over women’s development of self-esteem and body image. The message that the media is sending creates the context within which people learn to value size and shape of their body.

“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

Body image issues are a delicate topic within the male gender. The ideal man by American societal standards, is supposedly tall, slender, and tan, with somewhat defined muscles at the least. Body dissatisfaction is generally seen as feminine issue, something that is a likely factor in why so few men speak up about their body image problems. Homosexual males, however, generally do speak up more about the issues they face with how they look. A lot of these men are affected by the beauty myth in a similar manner as females; because they are not seen as masculine, they tend to turn to their looks as what they have to offer to potential partners and their peers. Unlike females, homosexual male’s body issues go beyond the too fat narrative, many

In Gullone and Kostanski (1998) study what is found is that body mass and psychological variables are significantly related with the perceived body image dissatisfaction. Their findings also support how the general public can perceive their body image to be negative due to gender, self-esteem, and body mass.

they are understandably angry at being badly treated because of their body type. Although school psychologists generally recognize that boys today are having severe body image problems, they are at a loss about what to do to solve those problems.

Are the feelings of having a negative body image, in the pubescent adolescent, caused only by their changing hormones? Do family values and belief systems have an impact on the way the adolescent view their body? Can parents override the negative body image ideas which permeate our digital and print media? While there are many factors which influence the pubescent adolescent, both positively and negatively, it is the images of what is “normal” which are portrayed in the media, which have the most profound negative effect on the development of a positive body image.

Body image is not only a corporate social responsibility but raises important ethical issues which require recognition and due attention. However, as evidenced in the media today, fashion designers and the entire fashion industry have proven themselves incapable of self regulation in the responsible portrayal of healthy body images as they continue to capitalise on the consumer’s feelings of lifestyle inadequacies and body image insecurity. To date, enforcement and regulation of responsible body image portrayal remains unattainable (Kristan Dooley, Rachael Wong 2010). Ultimately, it is the consumer, not the fashion designer who controls their own minds and bodies and the way they perceive themselves in the modern world. It is up to the consumer

This issue of negative body image and unrealistic beauty standards is not one of the issues that are just numbers on a graph, everyone has either dealt with it or knows someone else who has. As it affects so many people, I myself know multiple people who have dealt with it in varying degrees. From people who only have difficulties accepting and believing compliments about themselves to those who have hated how they look so much

Research Article - The Media’s Negative Influence on Body Image For People of Different Ages and Genders

proportions. With extremely long legs, a tiny clinched waist, and supposedly large breasts, she gives young women “an unrealistic idea about the way we should look or what we should weigh” (Mirror-Mirror). However, in a study released in 2010, 117 6-10 year old Dutch girls were given one of three toys: an Emme doll, a Barbie doll, or Legos. The girls played for 10 minutes, before the researchers asked the girls questions about their body image. They determined that toy did not affect their body image.

Body image is the way you feel about how you look and how you think others see you. There is a strong link between a negative body image and mainstream media. Most of the people that are seen on television or movies or even advertisements are skinny and muscular and are considered sexy or popular, while people with a more average or even a large body type is often shown as the outcast or stupid character in many shows. This causes many people to have a negative body image. The consequences of this are many people can develop a low self-esteem and not live up to their true potential.

Body image may be viewed as the way people see themselves and even imagine how they make look based off how they may feel about themselves. Yet it could also be viewed as the way other people see you. Body image, in medicine and psychology refers to a person 's emotional attitudes, beliefs and views of their own body (Positive and Negative Body Image). According to Positive and Negative Body Image, a negative body image develops when a person feels his or her body does not amount up to family, social, or media standards. Many people feel as if they don’t measure up to the belief of others. People who have accepted the way they look often feel good about their image and would be considered to have a positive body image. One’s appearance may not be measure up to how their family expects it to be or how it is perceived to be in the media, but once people learn accept and be proud of the way they look they’ll be better off in the long run. When a person is measured against the standards of the beauty seen frequently in the media and it doesn’t compare to how they feel about themselves it become discouraging. Having said that, long-lasting negative body image can affect both your mental and physical health which could lead to eating disorders down the road.

Rebeca has always been the tallest and weighed the most out of all her friends since elementary school, as they grew up the other girls grew as well but just not as fast. Rebeca was the first to go through puberty, as she started to gain weight all over her friends began to make fun of her and call her names. Rebeca’s mother told Rebeca that this is totally normal and soon that her friends would be going through the same thing and probably feel horrible for treating their friend so horrible. But hope for the future and hope that her friends would stop making fun of her did not stop anything that was going out then at that moment. For numerous years’ body imaging has been a huge controversy throughout the whole world. Everyone even myself has been through, it happens all throughout the day when you are getting ready or even just flipping the magazine. This is what leads me to say that the media, advertisements, and celebrities affect how we think and determine the attractiveness we desire.

“Booty, booty, booty!” The instructor of the Brazilian booty class continues to shout at us. Thirty girls trying to transform their bodies to match the models they see in magazines surround me. The girls look at the mirror in front of them and see imperfection. As I see myself in the mirror, I reflect on the negative feedback society has imprinted on the girls’ minds in the room about how their butt should look, making them want to squat and strain to reach an ideal body. Since the media is affecting these young college girls already so heavily, I will look back at childhood in order to source the roots of negative self body image in boys and girls.