Social Comparison Theory

It is no secret that today’s society defines beauty as thin, long-legged women with statuesque bodies. Examples are found everywhere just by glancing at the closest magazine ads or by scrolling down the latest fashion article online. Normal, everyday women are being forgotten and tossed aside to make room for the “Top-Model”-like women currently crowding up Hollywood. Media depicts women as an unattainable image. They pressure ladies to buy the products they’re advertising; luring them with false advertisements promising that with it, they too could be perfect. While the media portrays women in a certain way for advertising and marketing benefits, it has caused numerous negatives effects to women’s self-esteems nationwide, it contradicts

Over the years there have been several studies on the effects the media has on shaping an individual’s body image. A long with these studies came scientific social theories; some of these theories include the social comparison theory, self-schema theory, self-discrepancy theory. The social comparison was developed in the 1950’s by Leon Festinger. This theory states that that we determine our own social and personal worth based on how we stack up against others. Individuals will compare themselves to others as a way to measure success. In the Self-schema

Throughout their lives, women of all ages are constantly being bombarded with advertisements convincing them they must meet an ideal of the perfect body image. This is all thanks to companies that share a common goal to influence the mainstream population into believing they need to purchase certain products in order to compare to the impossible standards set by the beauty industry. In Dave Barry’s “Beauty and the Beast” he displays that it is planted in young girls minds that they need to look, dress, feel, and even act a certain way. However, men aren’t as affected by these capitalistic marketing schemes. In short, the media has affected the way women think of themselves.

It is 2017 and media users and viewers continue to see women being used to sell nearly any product. The women used in these advertisements are more often than not beautiful, picture perfect women. Media consumers are building angst as they wait for more realistic advertisements of women. The use of these women brings success to companies, but more notably they bring self-esteem issues, eating disorders, and other serious issues to the women who are consuming this media.

The Social Comparison theory can be applied to how beauty standards in television have an effect on how children view themselves and the world. The theory describes that individuals make judgments about themselves based on the comparison they view on television. In the theory there are two types of comparisons to be made: upward comparisons and downward comparisons. This analysis will focus on upward comparisons as it is best applied to how beauty standards in television affects the way children view the world. In upward comparisons an individual compares him/herself with others who they feel are better than them. This comparison can only lead to on of two things, the individuals will try to self-enhance themselves the better conform to the

Society’s deeply ingrained standards for women created by the media demonstrate the corruption of self image as seen through ads from the 1950s that feed off of insecurities. History demonstrates the obsession with perfection by showing how women were viewed before and after advertising influence, “Men wouldn 't look at me when I was skinny… Since I’ve gained 10 pounds, I have all the dates I want” (Lewis). Ads such as this swayed women from the 1950s to 1960s to physically appear in a

You have just bought a new pair of jeans. You think that you look absolutely great in them until you turn on the television or compare yourself to the person on side of you. Today, women all over the world are focused on the way society views them, which has an influence on the way they view themselves. The field known as sociology of the body investigates the ways in which our bodies are affected by our social experiences, as well as by the norms and values of the groups to which we belong (Giddens, Duneier, et al, 2007). Body image is an ideal image of what one’s body looks like or what she wants it to look like. It can also be defined as the value one may put on physical appearance. This

Thesis: The media puts pressure on women of all ages to conform to their standards of what looks best, and this pressure results in women having a negative body image.

The media group that retouches images skews the “normal” body image of people through many of its outlets, including models in advertising and magazines, and actors in TV and movie productions. “The average model portrayed in the media is approximately 5’11” and 120 pounds. By contrast, the average American woman is 5’4” and 140 pounds” (Holmstrom, 2004). This statistic shows how the media manipulates consumers into believing that because they are not what the average model looks like, they are not living up to a certain standard which implies that they need to look like that to be beautiful. Another research fact that shows a similar concept is that, “In the United States, 94% of female characters in television programs are thinner than the average American woman, with whom the media frequently associate happiness, desirability, and success in life” (Yamamiya et al., 2005). This association of female thinness and happiness, desirability and success makes consumers believe they must achieve this unrealistic thinness to achieve more ultimate goals and fulfillment in life. “The media also explicitly instruct how to attain thin bodies by dieting, exercising, and body-contouring surgery, encouraging female consumers to believe that they can and should be thin” (Yamamiya et al., 2005). This idealization of thinness in the media is seen so much, and is extremely harmful to women’s self confidence and is often associated with body image dissatisfaction, which can be a precursor to social anxiety, depression, eating disturbances, and poor self-esteem (Yamamiya et al.,

The origin of this misogynist identity crisis can be traced back to television programs such as “Miss America,” “Two and a Half Men,” and “The Bachelor” which portray women unfairly. Young girls who view these shows then grow up comparing themselves to supermodels on these programs and develop a sense of identity that is completely distorted; this method of constructing a false identity is known as the social comparison theory (Russello 2013 4). This theory is especially important in proving the cause and effect relationship between television and problems within American society because it proves that what we watch on television influences who we become. An example of social comparison is given in the quote, “Researchers have…discovered that those who used social comparison were more affected by exposure to the thin-ideal and therefore had more weight concerns, more body dissatisfaction, and lower self-esteem (Bessenoff, 2006; Botta, 2003; Posavac & Posavac, 2OO2)”

Writing for the Huffington Post, Temimah Zucker presents her opinion on society’s expectation for women in America through different forms of communication and advertisement. Zucker’s article is based off of what you as a woman, think of yourself, versus what society thinks of you. Zucker believes that society’s opinions and beliefs will constantly change through the generations, but your thoughts about your own beauty will not become gray to you; “Beauty is molded by society -- by the advertising, fashion, and cosmetic industries. We live in a society of billboards and ads, Photoshop, and Botox. We are trained to believe that size two is perfect, while most healthy women in America fit into a size 12.” (1)

Beauty standards are portrayed everywhere: on magazines, social media, ads, commercials, and even flaunted among peers. While the ideals are supposed to promote health awareness, fitness motivation, and self love, it unfortunately results in many unfavorable consequences. Women are constantly “penalized for not being beautiful and at the same time are stigmatized, even pathologized, for not feeling beautiful, for having low self-esteem, for engaging in behaviors like dieting and excessive exercising, or for having eating disorders” (Johnston and Taylor 954). Beauty standards are unrealistic and unhealthy to pursue, and misinforms the public on what true beauty is. While not all beauty image ideals promote negative feelings and dissatisfaction, many believe that the negative effects far outweighs any positive effects.

Social comparison theory allows researchers to understand the connections women make with the models that are used in the fashion industry and magazines. The models that are used in the fashions magazines are considered a main factor in what sets the bar on the traits women should obtain in order to be perceived as beautiful and attractive. Women use this concept, so they can evaluate themselves and see whether or not they are fitting into the mold that the media and marketing companies are constantly creating. Women continually strive to uphold the criteria that the media creates as most desirable.

Social comparison is a tremendously pervasive procedure which impacts how individuals think about themselves, how they feel, what they are inspired to do, and how they carry on. Social comparison consequences thereby span all center of human mental working. This striking omnipresence is coordinated by a comparably striking compexity and multi facetedness of the center comparison process itself. Not only to do social comparison impact perception, motivation and behavior. To date, these diverse impacts on social comparison procedures have been basically considered in relative isolation. Actually, the historical of social comparison research is a history of consecutively switching foci (Buunk & Mussweiler, 2001; Suls & Wheeler, 2000), beginning with a strong focus on motivational impacts and a relative neglect of cognitive underpinnings and closure with a strong focus on cognitive underpinnings and a relative disregard of motivational impacts.

Additionally, in “Body Image and the Media,” Walker affirms that “People compare themselves to images, internalize these idealized images as the norm, and absorb the message that they should judge themselves based on their appearance” (1+). The study published in “An Intervention…”, contemplated that the image of a woman with a slim figure would cause the viewer’s self-appreciation to decline, yet when presented with media fallacies, her self-appreciation would increase (Haas et. al. 405+). Haas postulates that “Interaction effects and post-hoc analyses revealed significant positive changes in the experimental group’s view of their overall boy esteem, sexual