Self Destructing Medi The Impressionable Teenage Female Body Image

As a wise man once said, “To love yourself is to understand you don't need to be perfect to be good.” However young girls have so much pressure put on them to look in a way that is not only unrealistic but also unhealthy. As a result of this, young girls have a very negative body image and self-confidence.The problem is the unrealistic body standards that media and society have set for girls. According to SSCC, the average American woman is 5’4 and 140 pounds. There is a clear problem when the media is only advertising women that are 5’11 and 117 pounds, which is the average American model. Even though the body of a model is very rare and uncommon,girls are expected to look like they do. However, by promoting a positive body campaign, stopping the portrayal of fake and photoshopped models in the media, and expanding the diversity of models, we could lift unrealistic body standards and start accepting everybody as beautiful.

Teenage girls are at an impressionable time in their lives. Mass Media is a key idea in one of the factors of socialization that become important to teenagers. Teenagers look to the media for a sense of entertainment. Whether it is movies, magazines, or even some aspects of social media, teenagers get a lot of influence from the media’s message. The problem with this is the media has a specific way of doing things and can be negative to a susceptible teenage girl. Media’s way of portraying a woman can be skewed and unrealistic way from what reality is. Teenage girls then have a desire for this look or way. In this essay the three ways I will describe as to why the media can negatively affect a teenage girls body image is by showing

Teens who are in college have just as many problems with their body as people in high school. The media affecting people of all ages can consist of anything from people on social media, to celebrities on T.V., to the models who walk on runways. People who struggle with their body image are all over the world and are often closed off to other people. When girls look at magazines they see all of the models posing and then they compare themselves to them because the models are what society says is pretty, and they aren’t. Media is a great way for companies to get their products out there, but when adolescents compare themselves to models, they will start to have body image issues.

Approximately 14 million U.S. teenage girls don’t like how they look. The number of women who feel confident in their bodies is dwindling quickly and is being fueled by edited pictures they are comparing themselves to on social media. The Time magazine article “How Social Media Is a Toxic Mirror” by Rachel Simmons tells of the risk for everyone to feel self-conscious about their bodies. However, those most at risk are teenage girls who spend a significant amount of time on any form of social media. In response to the article, I agree with the negative effects social media has on the body image of teenage girls because I have seen girls trying to change their bodies. I also see the effects logos and pathos have on the strength of the article and what would make it a stronger and more credible source for information on teen body image.

Over a period of time the media has portrayed body image in young women and the effects have been so damaging that majority of young women have developed eating disorders and self-oriented perfectionism. Magazines, social media, and television have been the linked sources of influence. You have to look like a Victoria Secret model or try to look like a “top” model (a television reality show). To look the “norm” is too be thin, and in the minds of some young girl’s, an eating disorder is the only way to become thin. Life satisfaction is when individuals evaluate the value of their life by their own standards. Young girls tend to struggle with social transitions which can affect their perception of their body image and their life satisfaction. Adolescence is a period in time of young lives where reflection on appearance and body image may take a toll on their life satisfaction.

They continuously portray a message to adolescent girls to look a certain way. It has become the culture in society to judge people by their outward appearance which makes teenage girls more obsessive about their own bodies (Kruger, 2007). Weight loss is usually linked to a happier and successful life and society’s obsession with diets and exercise contribute enormously to body image issues (Marsh, 2015). Teenage girls are being continuously exposed to media such as TV, internet and magazines where they are barraged with unrealistic and unobtainable body image standards from high profile celebrities and models. Most of the celebrities and models in media are clinically underweight and study shows that they generally weigh 23% less than the average woman (Just Say YES, 2015). The images used in media which teenage girls constantly aspire to be like are usually air-brushed and photo shopped (Kids Helpline, 2015). Due to all this pressure teenage girls choose unhealthy ways to fit the unrealistic body image and as a result develop eating disorders and other health issues (Gross,

The society that we live in today glamorizes the idea of the ideal thin body. Diets and fads become a new way of life in order to achieve an unrealistic goal of perfection. In today’s culture children and teens are spoon-fed ideas through social media, advertisement, magazines that lead to the development of low self-esteem and a negative body image. The media shows a false reality, a reality where beauty is everything and happiness comes from the perfect body. The perception of beauty to young women can be skewed and impacted greatly.

Body image is extremely present in all platforms- television, magazines, and social media. It makes young adults, teens, girls self conscious of how they look. “Because the body changes dramatically in adolescence, teens are often self-conscious and embarrassed. Self-criticism has become a fluid part of online media, with your teen using their online friends for validation, acceptance, and judgement. Factor into this scenario celebrity advertisements, models, TV and movies, in which bodies are airbrushed and preteens are used in adult advertisements without the “burden” of body fat or wrinkles... and you can see how difficult it is for your teen to maintain a balanced and healthy body image. In fact, this impossible and improbable media-driven body image realistically fits only a small percentage of the population of boys and girls... and yet, it is the criteria by which your teen measures herself”(Gross). “Statistics show that approximately 92 percent of women are unhappy with their bodies and resort to dieting to achieve their ideal body shape. Unfortunately, only 5 percent of women naturally possess the body type often portrayed by Americans in the media. More alarming is that these numbers aren’t exactly shocking. In fact, it’s what we’ve come to expect”

The media is an important aspect of the current society and is ever present to the public. With the creation of new technology, there are more and more ways the media can be received and displayed for people to see everywhere they go. There are so many media sights nowadays such as Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook, as well as new magazines, commercials and other media publications made every day that allow people to connect to current events and new trends. Although today’s media has the potential to have a positive or negative impact on the lives of the people, there have been many controversial debates on the impact of the media on the body dissatisfaction of young girls and adolescents. Body dissatisfaction can be described as “the negative self-evaluation of one’s own appearance and to be more physically attractive, and is fairly common in young girls and adolescents. Approximately one hundred studies of media effects on body dissatisfaction have been conducted with the majority of these showing at least some evidence,” (Ferguson, Munoz, Contreras, Velasquez). Many psychological experts and specialists have explored the effect of the media on developing female girls and adolescent body image to conclude whether it has a significant or insignificant impact on the body image of female adolescents and young girls.

To love yourself for who you truly are, is a goal many adolescents strive to achieve. However, this goal is being pushed further aside, consequently due to social media's influence. The teenage society could not be hidden from the time era where many underestimate who we are. Unfortunately, social media has taken an immense part of harming teen’s body image. The “perfect body” image that has spread all over social media has shattered teenager’s point of view on self beauty. Social media portrays its images as the “must have” body, without the assertion of being realistic.

Body image issues arise in adolescents and can sometimes continue well into adulthood. The culprit behind these various issues are from media sources such as magazines, websites, television, and ads. These variety of sources are simply marketing schemes that attempt to sell products by showing physical attributes that are deemed attractive and desirable. However, children and teenagers do not realize this and often assume that they are not attractive. Eventually, they develop a negative image about their body which have unpleasant consequences.

The media puts a copious amount of pressure on young girls (ages 14-18) today to have the ‘ideal’ body, like a model or a celebrity. The media has some damaging impact when it comes to body image and self-esteem as it glorifies unattainable ideals. Young girls can suffer from eating disorders, mental depression, and physical depression (Von. 2012).

Negative thoughts about one’s body can be found in girls as early as six years old. Even girls at this young of an age have reportedly wanted to look “sexy.” For many adolescent girls, they have always been exposed to the media. It is a part of their lifestyle. Ultimately, what they see through the media, is what they believe to be true. When they see the media promoting the perfect body, they truly believe that is how their body is supposed to look. Since young people spend more time on social media, they are more inclined to seeing images of the ideal body every single day. Through social media, teen girls get attention, or praised on their appearances through likes and comments. “27 percent feel stressed out about how they look when they post pictures. 22 percent feel badly about themselves when nobody comments on or “likes” the photos they post” (Naylor). The worst possible outcome due to body image dissatisfaction in adolescent girls is for one to develop an eating disorder. Anorexia is an eating disorder in which one will starve themselves in order to lose weight, or not gain any. Bulimia, is an eating disorder where one will binge eat, and then purge everything they have ate. One more eating disorder that many people don’t recognize as one, because honestly it doesn’t make sense is binge eating in which one will eat large amounts of food and won’t be able to stop themselves. All of which can be very life threatening. “In the United States, the discrepancy between the extraordinarily thin body type promoted in the media and the reality of average women's bodies has been implicated in the steady rise of eating disorders, especially among adolescents. Experts believe that today, more than ten million women and girls suffer from anorexia, bulimia, or related illnesses, with the onset of such problems occurring in patients of younger and younger ages” (Balarro and Wagner). Since the body mass

With today's social media, the young generation sees an array of images that portray the ideal body. Most of the pictures seen belong to young female models advertising beauty products. They are presumed to have perfect and idyllic appearances (Cash, 2004). Young girls often feel the pressure to attain this illusion which is mostly unachievable. Failure to achieve this height of beauty leads to low self-esteem and low self-evaluation issues. The subject of body image among adolescents has become a problem as they are always in pursuit of the high social standards of attractiveness that are practically impossible. The teenagers in high schools are the ones who face this problem a lot. (Pope, Corona & Belgrave, 2014).

A girl stares at herself in the mirror, skin and bones. She obsesses about her appearance and monitors how much she eats to be accepted by society, but still feels unworthy. As teenagers develop, their bodies change. Media strongly affects these physical and emotional changes. Girls become uneasy as they learn that they cannot actually achieve the look that society views as perfect. Since media outlets consist of impractical body standards, adolescent girls are at a higher risk of undergoing detrimental changes to their body shape and developing a hostile self-image.