Never Just Pictures By Susan Bordo

There are beauty standards all over the world, but America has one of the most highest and unreachable standard of the all. In the article “Whose Body is This,” the author Katherine Haines reflects the issue on how narrow-minded society, magazine and the rest of media is depicting the perfect body. The ideal body in America is established as skinny, tall, perfect skin, tight body are characteristics that destroyed majority of woman’s self esteem (172). As girls get older and into their teen years, they have been brainwashed to need to look like the unrealistic, and photoshopped models in magazines and advertisements. Girls don’t feel comfortable to be in their own skin, because they were not taught to love themselves for who they are right in the beginning.

Under society’s customs for decades, young women have found themselves immersed in the pressure and anticipation to have exemplary bodies. Nearly every young woman prefers to be slim, have a perfectly shaped body, that is beautified by applying pounds of makeup to their face but does not appear ridiculously overdone. Who’s responsible for these measures imposed on young women? When a young girl picks up the model on the cover of Vogue being called flawless, naturally it’s easy for her to then aspire to be a real-life imitation of the that model. 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 surging subject for young girls. Advertisements and pictures of lean female models are all over. Young women are measured and perplexed by their physical appearances with attire intended to raise their physical structures; social media, magazines, the society, marketing campaigns, advertisements, and the fashion gurus add to a strand of excellence.

The author of this article begins her analysis of the rise in eating disorders by acknowledging America’s obsession with being the ideal weight. From an extremely young age, American children are being taught that women in movies and on the covers of magazines possess the ideal figure. The author states “Children are being taught…being fat is the worst thing one can be” (Bordo 1). This is disturbing to say the least. There many attributes worse than being overweight: dishonest, cruel, and murderous to name a few. Bordo also uses an example in the first paragraph of her essay that is appalling. Alicia Silverstone, the lead role in Clueless, was completely bombarded with insults about her weight, though she had only gained a few pounds since her starring role. The advertisers did

The fashion industry plays a huge role in portraying bad images of ideal beauty, which in turn affects today’s society perception of their own body image. Not only are women affected by what is seen and heard about how the perfect body should appear, children of young ages are now feeling insecure and obsessed with their bodies before they reach teenage years. This ‘ideal image’ the fashion industry continues to enforce only focuses on very thin models who seem to be in shape and are very healthy. Furthermore, many people think of the influence from the fashion industry as being human representations (models). Because of the rising problem with the image of beauty within the fashion industry, it is shown that even mannequins and non-human representations (mannequins, dolls, photoshopping) of bodies play a significant role in women’s body image; which causes problems to the individual. (Anshutz & Engels, 2010). Body image and self-satisfaction, eating disorders and non-human representations all can cause harm to the individual, if prolonged.

Many people who are immersed in modern society are interested in or affected by the issue of body image and how media affects not only how we as individuals view ourselves and others, but how we as a society treat, tuck, and trim our bodies to fit the imagined requirements of how the human form should look. Body image is an important topic that has become more frequently, analytically, psychologically, and scientifically debated and represented in the past decade or so. After critical analysis of the article, per your request, I have come to the conclusion that, although Susan Bordo mentions some major issues pertaining to body image within her article, this article’s cultural context is too outdated and many of the celebrity references will

In “Never Just Pictures,” Susan Bordo discusses the obsession with body image in the media. She begins with an example of Alicia Silverstone; when she appeared at the Academy Awards with a little added weight, the tabloids viciously slammed her. Not only this, but the media regularly attacks women with constant diet pill and plan ads in magazines, in newspapers, on TV, and even in public areas. These advertisements usually have a woman clad in a bikini on the cover. Magazines always have a new miracle diet advertised on their cover. The media affects young minds beyond what one may believe.

It’s difficult to envision a world where idealized female imagery is not plastered everywhere, but our present circumstance is a relatively new occurrence. Before the mass media existed, our ideas of beauty were restricted to our own communities. Until the introduction of photography in 1839, people were not exposed to real-life images of faces and bodies. Most people did not even own mirrors. Today, however, we are more obsessed with our appearance than ever before. But the concern about appearance is quite normal and understandable given society’s standards. According to Jane Kilborne, “Every period of history has had its own standards of what is and is not beautiful, and every contemporary society has its own distinctive concept of the

Jo Spence’s photo “How Do l Begin to Take Responsibility for My Body?” opens discussions on views on the ideal body, by demonstrating different parts of a woman’s figure being marked by each word of the own question she raises to her audience. In addition to several photos, Jo Spence includes a black and white image of herself, sitting naked in front of a mirror with what looks like a gun pointed against her chin. Upon seeing that one discolored image, I immediately felt the impact that her photos had on me, along with the message she was trying to portray through her photography. Society has consistently maintained the candid norm that an idealistic body is nothing short of a young, thin, and firm figure, otherwise known as the “Barbie Complex.”

Actors, models, and celebrities who are seen in magazines, television, and/or social media demonstrate the physical characteristics of the widely desired ideal-image; which includes of being a female who is tall, slender, and blemish-free or a male who is tall, masculine, and smooth-skinned. Because the media constantly presents models and actresses with an unachievable body image it influences both feminine and masculine genders in believing what is considered to be the perfect ideal image in today’s society. Unfortunately, it is within the human nature to strive for perfection and because today’s generation is frequently surrounded by the idealized image a large

The indirect influence comes from the conversations that the young girls have with their friends about the thin celebrities (McCabeLina & Ridge, 2006). According to Dohnt and Tiggemann (2006a), young girls may engage in conversations with their friends about pop stars or models, thereby reinforcing media-presented societal messages of the thin ideal. Unfortunately, today’s society promotes that being thin will insure bliss in one’s everyday life. The National Eating Disorder Association stated that “The average woman wears a size 10; the average model a size 2.”

Every single day when I wake up in the morning, one of the first things I do is look at myself in the mirror. Am I skinny enough? Is my skin clear enough? Do I look like the girl from the magazine I was reading yesterday? No. I don’t. But I’ll keep asking these questions each and everyday because that is what the media tells me I need to look like. Because if my waist isn’t small enough I’m not pretty. Because if I have cellulite on my legs there’s something wrong with me. Because if I don’t slot into this unattainable standard. I'm not beautiful. Airbrushing and photoshopping models in pictures to display through media is something that frankly speaking is appalling. We are alienating beautiful human beings because of the media’s dictations on what we should look like. I am sick of being brainwashed to the point where all I can ever seem to do is single out the ‘flaws’ in myself. If we display, real, beautiful, raw pictures of people in media then so many problems caused by this would no longer exist.

While it’s fashion week in London, the size “zero” models start to prepare for the big show by purging to be as thin as possible. Most models starve themselves in order to achieve the “waif”, stick-thin figure; it becomes so addictive, almost like second nature that it further leads to serious eating disorders. From recent studies, today’s model weighs about 23% less than the normal woman. Clearly, most models do not depict the average woman. Men and women all over the world follow the influences that the fashion industry provides. They believe that the fashion industry depicts on what society should be acknowledged as, picture-perfect thin.

Mass media shapes the world and the ‘perfect’ female is depicted through magazines, TV, music, internet, billboards, toys, movies, commercials etc. on a daily basis, impacting women and girls on how to perceive their own bodies, how to look and how to behave. Beauty standards have changed throughout the decades, even centuries, and has always placed immense pressure on females. From 1400s-1700s, an overweight body was considered attractive and the ‘perfect’ shape. Through the 19th Century, the curvaceous body was the ‘ideal’ body shape – large hips, large breasts and slender waist. The thinner ideal was eventually fashionable in the 1920s but was replaced again to the curvaceous shape in both the 1940s and 1950s. By the mid 1960s, successful model icon Lesley Lawson ‘Twiggy’, influenced the new ‘perfect’ body image with a slender shape, short cropped hair, long eyelashes, overstated makeup and wore daring, skimpy clothing. The super thin ‘ideal’ was once more the beauty standard and still remains to be the fashionable body image today - the image is of an unrealistic appearance – a slender figure, tall, a large bust, caucasian and light coloured hair.

A recurring theme Americans see via today’s media is beauty. This isn’t necessarily the problem though, what needs to be looked at is how the ‘ideal’ look emphasized by the media is unachievable for most people. Whether it be through magazines, television, or social media, individuals are constantly exposed to some form of media in today’s society. According to an article from USA Today, “Heavenly Bodies in the Eye of the Beholder”, research has been done in the past that proves “women who watch TV and read more fashion magazines” are not as happy with their body as women who are not exposed to

Today, women are completely familiar with the pressure of having the perfect body. Although, media and magazines are plastered with images of skinny models promoting an extremely unhealthy obsession with being thin, women have been haunted with the pressure to look a certain way dating back as far as the 1800's. With every generation, come a new set of beauty standards that are engraved into the minds of women starting in their early childhood. The beauty standards of today are fed to little girls almost