Stereotypes And Beauty

In a recent survey done by the National institute on Media and the Family, fifth graders, ten year old boys and girls told researchers they were dissatisfied with their own bodies after watching a music video by Britney Spears or a clip from the TV show “Friends.”(4) If this isn’t shocking enough, the research group reported that at the age of thirteen, fifty-three percent of American girls are “unhappy with their bodies.” This grows to seventy-eight percent by the time the girls reach seventeen. Also, eating disorders are beginning to start at an alarming young age. Statistics show that girls are developing eating disorders at the age of six.(1) Young girls that are exposed to appearance focused television programs, and magazine shows feel that they need to look like the models that they see. Most of these girls are not even have fully developed bodies yet and are already trying to perfect themselves. One girl had even shared how one of her best friends discovered that her fifth grade cousin was bulimic. Girls at that age should not even be concerned with their bodies yet and eating disorders being developed is a harsh wake up call as to how young girls everywhere are being effected by the media each and everyday.

Beauty standards in the media are one of many reasons feeding and eating disorders are a rising problem. The unrealistic body types of being extremely thin, in pop culture, are influential factors for many teens, especially teen girls. According to the Diagnostic Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, fifth edition (DSM-5), anorexia nervosa is a “restriction of energy intake, intense fear of gaining weight, and a disturbance in the perception of one’s body size” (American Psychiatric Association, 2013). Individuals diagnosed with anorexia tend to place a high value on their shape and weight, which can interfere with their daily lives. Individuals diagnosed tend to view of their body shape in a distorted representation. The motivation to become

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.

In Jonathon Raders article, “Does the media cause eating disorders?”, he argues that eating disorders, such as anorexia or bulimia, include a high mortality rate, higher rate than any other illness. The author claims that 69% of girls say that that photo shopped magazine pictures influence the perfect body shape to them. Rader also points out that the mannequins and models are growing thinner, even the plus size models are shrinking in sizes. The runway models are beginning to meet the body mass for anorexia, which, he argues, is a very unhealthy BMI level. The author also

Promotion by the media of the extraordinarily thin body types has been linked to the steady rise of eating disorders, especially among adolescents (Ballaro & Wagner, 2017). Experts believe that there are more than ten million females suffering from some sort of eating disorder and that the problems are happening in patients of younger and younger ages. The gap between the average woman’s body and the ideal body is much larger than before (Spitzer, Henderson, & Zivian, 1999). Ninety four percent of characters in the United States media, are thinner than the average woman (Gonzalez-Lavin & Smolak, 1995). The average American woman is only 5’4” tall and weighs approximately 165 pounds (Martin 2010). The media depicts happiness, wealth and success associated to unrealistic body types (Tiggemann, 2002). Not only does the media display this image, it also exhaustively provides information to encourage achievement of it as well. Whether through dieting, exercise or mild to extreme cosmetic surgery for body sculpting, women are feeling the pressure that they need to be thin and often take even the most dangerous methods to obtain this. Considering that these delusional ideals are nearly impossible for most average women, without choosing unhealthy and harmful behaviors, eating disorder theorists have proclaimed that media is supporting these habits (Levine & Smolak, 1998). It is estimated that 10-15% of girls and women between the ages of 9 and 19 are affected by eating disorders. Though the death rates vary from different studies, one thing is for sure; eating disorders can have many health risks, including death. With the unrealistic ability to achieve the super thin body image many women are still turning to these harmful methods in order to try; thus resulting in death of someone every 62 minutes as a result (Eating Disorders Coalition,

The media is our source of constant information, and is presented in many forms such as, daily newscasts, social media like Facebook, and the magazines strategically placed in our doctor’s office. There is no surprise that it is also the dominant influence when it comes to society’s beauty standard either. Unfortunately media isn’t a positive influence all the time, and is the main force behind negative body image epidemic that plagues women, especially the 18-25 age group. In order to fully understand the severity of what some call a “Vanity” issue we must look into the facts of how exactly the media damages women’s perception of their own bodies, and then observe the extent of the damage done to the physical and mental states of these women

Today, people seem to be judged on outward appearance more than ever. The people who face this judgement the most are young women. With the constant bombardment of beauty standards that must be met, many young women turn towards the advice of magazines. However, most of us don’t recognize the perfect girl on the cover, she’s supposedly the product of listening to the magazine’s advice. However, to the dismay of many young women, she is pure fiction, edited beyond realistic expectation, and yet our young women are expected to emulate this image. The result of such pressures can prove to be too much to handle and young women often resort to pathogenic dieting and experience body image and eating disorders. The increase in mental health disorders associated with body image in teen girls attributed to the unrealistic standards set in magazines targeted toward young women, therefore magazines need to use images that reflect the realities of the target audience and should not be heavily edited.

In the US, half of a million teens suffer from eating disorders (EDs). Eating disorders are a type of mental illness; they are related to a patient’s discontent with themselves (most notably a discontent with their own body), and can prevent them from living a normal and healthy life. Many are concerned that the images portrayed in the media and in society may be responsible for these eating disorders. While the media are in no way the sole cause of these disorders, they undoubtedly play a role in the development of EDs, as they certainly focus on the ideal of being thin. Additionally, the portrayal of mental illness in the media and society challenges treatment for those already afflicted. As such, the media does contribute to eating disorders,

Eating disorders are no secret in this generation; it is a struggle women face all around the world. However the problem is becoming increasingly more prevalent in America as time continues. People do not die from suicide; they die from sadness. According to the South Carolina Department of Mental Health one in two hundred American women suffer from anorexia and twenty percent of people suffering from anorexia will prematurely die from complications caused by their eating disorder commonly between the ages of twelve to twenty-five. No girl at such a young age should have such “thin” expectations of herself. Images of women in magazines as well as the toys children play with are responsible for these expectations from adolescence to adulthood.

The pressure on girls to have ‘perfect’ bodies has grown increasingly over time. Media exposure such as social media, billboards, magazines, television, all represent images of tall, skinny models that resemble perfection. And what exactly is perfection? “A quality, trait, or feature of ­­­the highest degree of excellence.” This is what many young women and teenagers aspire to be. What most people still don’t realize is that the majority of the pictures that they see in magazines are altered in some way. It is a setup for self-hatred. They believe that the pictures are reflective of the real world. NCBI conducted a study of the relationship between media and eating disorders among undergraduate college students found that media exposure predicted

“From my view, popular media focuses much more heavily on a whole host of negative or limiting aspects of women, including an intense scrutiny of and emphasis on their looks (think about the obsession we have with Hillary Clinton’s hair),” (Caprino). Media puts a false image on women and results in people being caught up with other people’s flaws. Society is the one allowing the photos that have been digitally altered to be the norm for what beauty is and expected to be. By changing what the actual person looks like in an image to make it perfect without any flaws ensures that the viewer will immediately accept and expect of themselves similar results by comparing what is real to what really isn’t. Media changes women. They change them in their looks, aspects, and their demeanor.

Teens today are always surrounded by advertisements of images of thinness. When they turn on the TV, read magazines or go on the internet. These advertisements are usually promoting something to sell by using images of thin and beautiful people that seem unreal. Both boys and girls feel societies’ pressure to have “the perfect body” so they go through extreme measures like self starvation or over exercising to achieve their goals of the “perfect image”(Elizabeth Weiss Vollstadt,page 26). Eating disorders are mostly developed by women. Although men also develop eating disorders but they only make up 5-10 percent of those affected by eating disorders, leaving women with a huge majority of 90-95 percent affected(Elizabeth Weiss Vollstadt, page 8). Girls who develop the eating disorder anorexia are usually Caucasian and middle to upper class, and are also

For example, fashion shows like the Victoria's Secret Runway Show has influenced girls to try achieve bodies through unhealthy means of dieting, including eating disorders like anorexia and bulimia. The Victoria's Secret Fashion Show has created this dream goal for girls as young as twelve years old to have a bigger chest and slim body. It is a fashion show designed to model lingerie and swimsuits to a target audience of twelve to twenty five years old. According to a recent study conducted by Huffington Post “95% of eating disorders occur between the ages of twelve and twenty-five years old. Of those, 85-89% are women.” Not only does it impact unhealthy dieting of young girls and women it impacts their mental health as well. According to the American Psychological Association there

We've all seen photos of flawless models gracing covers, newspaper advertisements, and larger-than life billboards.

Nowadays the world without media is unimaginable; the media have controlled the population and it is more likely to get worse. Since children and adolescents are particularly more vulnerable to messages and images, they have been the easiest and the most affected targets. Girls are more likely to do so because of their natural instinct of vanity, Approximately 90-95% of anorexia nervosa sufferers are girls and women (“anorexia nervosa”). According to surveys, around 83% of adolescent girls read fashion magazines for an average of 4.3 hours per week, and this number is growing abruptly (Spettigue, Wendy, and Katherine A. Henderson). Magazine articles present in the society, mainly to young people, what they consider beauty and requirements to