Negative Effects Of Body Image

Women’s Body Image (www.wellesley.edu/Health/BodyImage) helped demonstrates the young influence of magazines. Those days when girls strive to be something they weren’t, were probably the most crucial days in body imaging. They succumbed into the pressure of looking how everyone else wants them to look. Such teeny bopper magazines sell to many young girls the idea of beauty. Teen Magazine is the princess of that royal court. In every young woman, or man’s mind, there is this longing to be desired. To be desired, you must be attractive. To be attractive, you have to look like that girl on page seventy-one in the latest Teen Magazine (Women’s Body Image).

Furthermore, media surrounds teenage girls in today’s culture. It is impossible to escape the sight of media. The media’s constant idealistic beauty is ever present to a vast amount of self-conscious girls. This image of beauty causes girls to have low self-esteem (Clay, Vignoles, and Dittmar). Media defining this perfect body image causes many adolescent girls to feel dissatisfied with their bodies and become depressed. “Viewing ultra-thin or average-size models led to decreases in both body satisfaction and self-esteem in adolescent girls aged eleven to sixteen, with changes in self-esteem fully mediated by changes in body satisfaction” (Clay, Vignoles, and Dittmar).

You’re scrolling through your Instagram account and you see a post from a model that you follow. It's a group photo from an A-lister party. All the women have enormous busts, but narrow waists perched upon huge derrieres while all the men have a broad upper body, followed by a set of washboard abs. You think to yourself how beautiful and perfect they look. A twinge of jealousy flickers within you as you subconsciously start comparing yourself to that photo. Unfortunately, these are some expectations that society has built on how one should one. Moreover, when we don't reach it, there are often consequences of developing negative body image issues.

Under society’s norms for decades, young women have been put under the pressure and anticipation to have perfect bodies. That is, thin and curved, beautified by applying pounds of the makeup to their face but not appear ridiculously overdone. Who’s responsible for these standards imposed on young women? When a young girl picks up the model along the cover of Vogue being called flawless, it’s easy for her to then aspire to be a real-life imitation of the photocopy. These companies produce magazine covers shown with girls’ images daily. As if keeping the perfect body wasn’t hard enough our culture also forces girls into the forever expanding world of composition, however, body image is a pressing issue for young women. Advertisements and posters of skinny female models are all over. Young girls not only could be better but need to be more upright and feel driven to throw the perfect figure. Moreover, girls are evaluated and oppressed by their physical appearances. With supplements and apparel designed to enhance a facial expression; social media, magazines, and marketing campaigns and advertisements add to the burden of perfection. The fashion industry is a prime object of body image issues, as they believe clothes look better on tall and svelte women. Established on a survey participated by 13 to 17-year-old in the U.S., 90% “felt pressured by fashion and media industries to be skinny”, with more than 60% routinely compares themselves to models, while 46%

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

Body Image and the Media have an effect on women and young teens these days, the Internet is every girl’s go to place to find the new trends and how they should be looking these days. The media portrays women as having to be thin and to dress a certain way. In this essay it is going to mainly be directed to women and young teens of all ages, considering women of all ages tend to follow what others have to say about them, when in reality something’s that people have to say aren’t always nice. Most women are so self-concise about who they are, that they tend to put themselves down, and start causing self-harm. While people should just over come the media and stop worrying about what they have to portray about how women should look and dress, because the real issue is that as the media progresses women start to question their bodies more and more each day, they start to ask questions like should we

All women should have a slim body and a big butt. All men should have washboard abs and big biceps. These are just expectations that society has built up of how one should look. Often when we don’t reach it, there are consequences of developing negative body image issues. So what is negative body image exactly? According to NEDA (Australia’s national eating disorder association), body image issue is the dissatisfaction someone may have of their body not meeting unrealistic criterias. It is the negative thoughts and emotion that result from someone’s perception of their physical self. Unfortunately, in today’s day and age this is an existing issue because we live in a world that promotes unrealistic body ideals. It becomes a challenge to not compare yourself to these ideals when you see images of instagram models floating around in your everyday life.

Why? That is my question. Why do we care so much about what we look like? Although it sounds like I hate the body image topic, I, myself can and do, argue from both points. The topic is multi-faceted. It shows us how confident we are. But there’s also those two little things no one sees….Courage and confidence.

I had always struggled with body image issues, though they began to manifest in different ways. My body isn't perfect; it isn't airbrushed and free of scars and freckles and skin discolourations.

Body image is ideal to every teen particularly in such individualistic society. It is generally determined by an individual’s perception and judgment of size, shape, weight, and any other aspect of body which relates to the physical appearance. Young people in today’s society allow their physical appearance to be a dominant factor of their daily lives. Media, promoting slim and/or masculine figures in posters and commercials, plays a big role towards the influence, but it’s not the only source. Family and friends also play an important role. Commentary from family or friends about physical appearance can also influence ones self- esteem negatively. Some of the negative effects of theses sources can lead to health issues, depression, and social discomfort. Therefore it is very important that one makes an informed decision on what they want to be.

As a consequence of these temporal views, my heart anguishes immensely. In addition to experiencing these feelings of self-rejection personally, I have also witnessed people all around me; whether they are close friend or complete stranger, go through the aforementioned feelings of self-rejection. For over three years I endeavored to mold myself into being what I speculated society wanted me to be. The illustration I created in my mind was of a girl who was tall with an athletic physique, perfect skin, and long lustrous straight hair. Consequently because of the unrealistic views I was invariably despondent with the reflection gazing back at me in the mirror. Rejecting oneself leads to feelings of hopelessness and irritation. I determined that these feelings no longer needed to cloud my head or cause my heart to be heavy and furthermore determined that these feelings no longer need to cloud the heads or cause heavy hearts around me. Three years proceeded before I finally accepted myself, nevertheless when I did a burden as heavy as a boulder was lifted from my heart. As it turned out my natural build was opposite of what I had illustrated in my head. My body is curvy and not very lengthy, and my hair naturally wild and curly. Oh how I love everything about

In today’s society, media is all around us and we cannot escape it. Whether you are getting in your car to head to work or sitting at home on your computer media is everywhere. From billboards, to magazines, television, music, social media, and the internet. The media is thought to have a negative impact on the body image of both men and women of all ages. The Webster dictionary defines body image as “a subjective picture of one's own physical appearance established both by self-observation and by noting the reactions of others (body).”With so much negative exposure to media that depicts what the perfect body should look like it is easy for people to develop body image problems that are primarily influenced by the media. Studies have show

Perfectionism is defined as “the belief that if we live perfect, look perfect, and act perfect, we can minimize or avoid the pain of blame, judgment, and shame” (Brown, n.d.). Body image, on the other hand, “is a complicated aspect of the self-concept that concerns an individual’s perceptions and feelings about their body and physical appearance” (Serdar, n.d.). According to Nordqvist, it is divided into two perceptions: positive and negative body images. He states that positive body image is “based on reality – the individual sees himself/herself as they really are; they accept parts of their body that are not ideal, but are generally happy with the way they look and feel.” Negative perceptions on body image, on the other hand, are not based on reality since the individual sees parts of their body in a distorted view. He or she feels like their looks do not measure up to the standards of society, loved ones and the media (2012). Grogan (1999) acknowledges that the idealization of slimness in women only became a trend starting from the 1920s. It is the outcome of successful marketing by fashion industries and has long been the standard of beauty in the 20th century. He also comments that the exaggerated hourglass shape of 36-23-36 as bust, waist and hip measurements sparked a trend in the 1950s with Marilyn Monroe spearheading it in the Hollywood film and fashion industries. Nordqvist (2012) observes that in modern society, body image is greatly influenced by different types

Rebeca has always been the tallest and weighed more 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 one of the first to go through puberty, 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 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 image has been a controversy throughout the whole world for all the ages not just young girls. 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.

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.