Rebeca J. Donatelle's Enhancing Your Body Image

Most people in today’s society are not pleased with their image, whether it is physically or how they form their character. In “Enhance Your Body Image” (2015) Rebecca J. Donatelle opens her essay with “When you look in the mirror, do you like what you see? If you feel disappointed, frustrated, or even angry like Ali, you’re not alone.” She continues with a study depicting 80 percent of women are dissatisfied with their appearance (p.339). This does not only mean physical appearance; Santiago Quintana in “The Space In-Between” (2015) talks about how he did not belong in his social environment because resulting in him being bullied. A person’s values are molded by cultural influence, friends and family; furthermore, to be appreciative of

Body- image anxiety is an issue that many people struggle with nowadays. There are many factors that contribute to one’s anxiety of body image, for example it could stem from media, social and personal view. “An Insatiable Emptiness,” by Evelyn Lau, focuses on her own personal struggles with bulimia, and her strained relationships with her mother. “Distorted Image,” by Susan McCelland focuses on the social dynamics of body image and provide reports of different cultural aspects on body image. Both of these articles explore a different perspective of how one cope with body image issue and the impact upon it.

A body image is a subjective combination of all the thoughts, emotions, and judgments that an individual may perceive about his or her own body. Each individual has a unique perception of his or her own body. This image is strongly influenced and often times skewed due to the increasing pressure created from outside, societal factors. With a world that is continuously creating new forms of social media and entertainment, individuals are constantly exposed to images that supposedly define bodily perfection and are then expected to resemble these images in order to fit in and/or please society. The expectations that have been put in place by society has created unwanted pressure on individuals who feel as if they need to resemble these images to get society’s approval.

Body image has a huge impact on confidence in today’s society, especially when introduced at a young age. Today, there are various categories of beauty that many people compare themselves to. The list of unrealistic beauty standards could go on and on. For example, the idea that every woman should be “thin”, have “perfect” hair and “flawless” skin, while also dressing well. This idea affects one’s everyday thinking, especially through the products we purchase.

In a sense, body image is the self critical evaluation of one’s own body in terms of weight and physical features of the body. This has proven to be a constant battle dancer’s partake in and some fail to win. Those who do usually end up with eating

Kelly Clarkson, a famous singer, speaks out about her weight and how it affected her state of mind. Clarkson, constantly in the spotlight, pressured to maintain an artificial image, forced her to run so much her body hit a breaking point. Day after day, hour after hour, always exercising just to stay thin wasn’t worth the pain her body had to endure. Over time, Clarkson’s well-being physically and mentally was declining. Throughout these years she realized,in order to be the best singer possible, she needed to be happy with herself. So, no matter what the public eye was thinking, Clarkson’s, increased stress and anxiety resulted in weight loss. Believing, looks are only skin deep, while the real beauty is found within. Always remember appearance

“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

The thoughts and feelings can be influenced by one’s individual self or by environmental reasons; such as another person’s thoughts and feelings. “Challenges for researchers in this area is to account for differences in body image and adjustment due to factors such as race, culture, gender, social class and age. (Rumsey, N., & Harcourt, D. (2004)” A person’s body image will be different from the next person’s body image. Factors such as a person’s race, gender, culture and age, can all take in account for a person’s genetic heredity to produce one’s

"Body image is the perception that a person has of their physical self and the thoughts and feelings that result from that perception.” The American society has been broadcasting a certain type of body,

Often, people of all ages, race, and gender catch themselves gazing into mirrors for hours, blaming themselves for the way they look, not realizing that the media is actually the one to blame for many people’s body image. Body image is the way people see themselves, or how they assume other people see them. It is not likely to see a plus sized model in a magazine or a model on the runway with blemishes on her face. A person’s negative perception of their own body is not because they think it is wrong to look and be healthy; it is because the media is telling them that being a size 2 with flawless skin is healthy and beautiful.

Adele was able to strike the “emotional” nerve of American audiences through the use of her powerful voice and effective musical features. Soul and R&B has deep roots in American culture since the 1950s and the 1960s. Adele’s ability to draw from those influences, specifically the music of Etta James and Ella Fitzgerald, resulted in a powerful album that struck a chord with American listeners (“Adele Biography”). Through social media presence and the Internet, her music was even able to reach pop audiences and other various subcultures of American and British music. The result was an album that was able to break many sales records and reach an astonishingly large number of people not only in the United States, but also in the United Kingdom and the rest of the

Victoria’s Secret’s ad The Perfect ”Body” features ten young models each wearing a unique bra and panty set standing side by side. The target audience of the ad is Caucasian women ages 18 to 30 years old although the ad could be relevant to girls as young as 15 years old and as old as 40 years old. They are targeting them by featuring primarily young Caucasian women in their ad. While the ad appears to feature two non-Caucasian women, I believe this is a simple nod of inclusion as they are not representative of the diverse women in America. Both models have straightened hair and very European facial features.

Nowadays, researchers mean that body image is far more complicated and complex (Cash & Pruzinsky, 2008), and it’s hard to come up with one concrete definition. How we define body image depends on what accepts of it we

What is body image? If you been through adolescence you know how vital this concept is for a person passing through this stage. The vast majority of adolescents are so concern with their body image that it could lead to lifelong detrimental effects. Body image refers to the mental image of one’s own body. Conversely, it is distinct from the physical body because this refers to the actual composition and structure of one’s own physique. Although a person could be in optimal physical conditions, he/she could still have a negative body image of oneself leading to eating disorders such as bulimia and anorexia nervosa or even obesity. As stated by Feldman, a culture that values a body image of being slim and fit could have a large impact on the body image an adolescent pursues to achieve. When the body image deviates from the norms of society and what is presented in the media it could lead the adolescent at time of exploration to search for new ways in order to obtain the preferred body image of society.

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.