The Distortion of Image in America's Top Model Essay

In Cassie Heidecker’s paper, The Real, the Bad, and the Ugly, she exposes that reality television’s charm is the characters have real, normal lives like the audience’s lives. While the producers’ editing causes regular episodes of reality TV shows to differ from a viewer's normal life, it also generates larger audiences with every episode and the ratings continue to rise. Moreover, the shows follow a predictable formula so that even Heidecker, who regularly watches reality TV, realizes the shows are predictable; yet Heidecker continues to laugh, cry, and enjoy the predictable moves the shows make. Since the ratings of reality TV continue to rise, more people than just Heidecker still enjoy the shows, even though they are predictable. Though the shows are

A central theme within Ruth Ozeki’s My Year of Meats is the idea of authenticity. It appears in the very core of the show My American Wife!, where the goal is to find “authentic,” “attractive” wives with attractive families and lifestyles so that BEEF-EX can make meat look appealing to Japanese viewers. However, many characters in the book have different views on what authenticity means, and the definitive definition is never revealed by Ozeki. In fact, My American Wife!, the authentic reality show, is one of the least realistic parts of the entire book and a reflection on the lack of authenticity in today’s reality TV shows. Although authenticity is projected as subjective, as My Year of Meats shows us, one will find nothing “real” or “genuine” about reality TV, which is negatively impacting our society.

"Reality TV is set up to make people entertaining. A good person with values and principles is not good television" a quote by Ronda Rousey a mixed martial arts artist. Many people believe or want to believe that reality tv is true, but many other people avoid it for the fact that it is obviously fake. I personally don't watch reality tv but for the sake of this essay, I watched a few episodes of many television series to see and determine what I think about them. The point of this essay is to prove how fake reality tv is and I have succeeded in accomplishing that. Most of the reality shows have the camera crew all up in people's business or "secret" cameras placed in which people don’t know about them yet keep

Cunningham and Elavias articles have similar perspectives when it comes to an unfavorable view in the public eye. Also “In London a British parliment member had two billboards removed, she took them down because she said they provided such a false, and unrealistic expectations of what women should and could look like, that it was damaging” (Cunningham 216). Media is holding this new generation to an “unrealistic standard” that is leading to emotional, mental and physical issues. Elavia on the other hand gives us her interpretation these reality stars face. Elavia writes, “Networks have no boundaries, they only care about their ratings regardless if it creates a bad image of reality stars” (222). Viewers go on to say “Producers manipulate the show in order to get high ratings”(Elavia

Some of the most popular television shows in today’s society are The Biggest Looser, Jersey Shore, and Big Brother. These programs and many others are classified as reality television. Reality television’s main purpose is to attempt to portray ordinary people in unscripted situations. Recently, however, many of these shows have achieved in creating the complete opposite, and have earned an immense amount of criticism as a result. Reality television programs are detrimental to society because they influence bad behavior among teenagers, do not produce authentic real life situations, and they humiliate many of the characters.

Among the risky messages that reality television conveys is the importance of body image over ability and the complete obsolescence of education. The hit show ‘Beauty and the Geek’, is promoting the fact that it is ok if you are a ‘dumb’ blonde, because you can go onto their show and become rich and famous overnight. In fact to enter the show you need to be a high school drop out with an intellectual level lower than eighty. This promotes the uselessness of education, which would create for a really unknowledgeable group of teenagers. Reality television sends out the message to its viewers that the key to success relies solely on your image, and very little on your ability. On many shows like ‘American Idol’ and ‘Masterchef’, the contestant who proves to be the most competent loses out to another contender who has a trendier image. No one ever has the true full package that the reality shows claim to have, it is all just an illusion of reality. How can we let the media get away with

This essay is for women who believe their thighs are too big, their breasts are too small, their hair is boring, their skin is flawed, their body is shaped funny, or their clothes are outdated. This month's column is for women who believe their life would improve if they could lose 15 pounds; if they could afford contact lenses, that new perfume or anti-cellulite concoction; if they got a nose job, a face lift, a tummy tuck, etc. This month's column is for women who feel shame or unhappiness when they ponder some part (or all) of their body. In other words, this month's column is for 99.9% of the women reading it!

When Victoria’s Secret is allowed to have models prance around on screen but Lane Bryant Ads (lingerie for plus size women) is banned then there’s a problem. The media is portraying these models who are thin to the point where it is unhealthy. And the media is feeding society lies. A perfect example is of Gerran Tyler. Tyler was a 12 year old supermodel. She walks the run way for clients like Marc Jacobs, Calvin Klein, and Betsey Johnson. She’s tall, thin, the perfect model because she hasn’t hit puberty yet. She walked during New York Fashion Week and posed for these designer brands advertisements. This body type is unachievable for almost all adult women (Roberts). Somebody in their twenties or thirties doesn’t have the ability to look like a twelve year old girl, but this is how these designers are telling us to look. Tyler had an amazing career and high expectations but the fame didn’t last long. As she got older and hit puberty she began to develop boobs, hips, and curves. She began getting less and less bookings. Her supermodel career was virtually over. “Eighty percent of 10-year-old American girls say they have been on a diet” and the, “Number one magic wish for young girls 11-17 is to be thinner” (Missrepresentation). This self-esteem problem with young girls is a result of these unobtainable ideas of beauty. Jennifer Siebel, creator of the documentary Missrepresentation, says

Reality TV is known as exciting entertainment because the audience never knew what will happen next as it is with no strings attached and even have the freedom of speech. Despite the entertainment it can bring, the content of reality shows are actually degrading the society. Our pop culture and civilization have been affected by the reality programs in a bad way. Indeed, reality TV is promoting bad social value to the

American culture encompasses many things—football, TV shows like The Walking Dead, food festivals (like our more local Wine and Cheese Festival), and Marvel movies, to name a few. But one of the more enduring, less intelligent and far more scandalous components of our culture is—reality television. Namely shows like Jerry Springer, Maury, and even some of the court TV shows like Judge Judy and The People’s Court. Shows like these take on the same role in our culture that wrestling did in French culture, as Barthes described in World of Wrestling. The public is somewhat aware of the fact that the accounts in these shows are embellished, but they in fact count on this extra acting out. We, as a people, love drama. The shows also have a clearly defined “victim” (which replaces the role of the “hero”) and “bastard.” But, these things have one key difference. While the wrestling matches that Barthes described were expected to have a certain outcome, with the “hero” emerging victorious and the “bastard” being given his just desserts, the outcome of these shows are not as predictable—but the designations of “victim” and “bastard” remain unchanged, despite the outcome.

Producer manipulation distorts any sense of reality that is present in reality TV shows. Many reality TV stars are celebrities who often create false impressions of their lifestyles in order to appeal to their intended audience and build their brand. Shows like Keeping Up With the Kardashians are a prime example of the effects that reality TV shows have on building a brand for celebrities. As a result of the show the Kardashians have been able to build their fan base and expand their products into things like apps, fashion, sponsorships, and social media. In addition, studies have shown that celebrities with dwindling statuses tend to join a season or two of reality TV in order to be able build up their declining fan base. Dancing with the Stars is an example of a show that is notorious for reintroducing into the limelight celebrities with dwindling statuses.

One study has shown good responses to a reality program relating to cosmetic surgery. Results indicated that the participants viewed the program positively and endorsed the importance of physical attractiveness. They also believed the psychological benefits and entertainment value it can bring to the reality TV show (Charlotte N, 2012). This proves that physical appearance does

The portrayal of women is very negative, particularly with their use of sexual appeal to achieve success, thereby teaching very corruptive lessons to their viewers. These include the belief that a woman’s life should revolve around a man, not working hard will make you more appealing to others, and looking and feeling your best can only be achieved with help from cosmetics. Too much priority is placed on things of little to no substantial value, such as achieving the perfect body or reaching the highest Instagram followers. Robin Roberts of Good Morning America declared, “you cannot escape the Kardashian phenomenon” (qtd. in McClain 1). Yet, she forgets a world full of empowered women has the ability to break through the barriers that hold them back. Celebrities such as Emma Watson who constantly use their fame to promote women’s rights are helping to inspire women through powerful messages on equality: “I think it is right I am paid the same as my male counterparts … that I should make decisions about my own body … that women be involved on my behalf in the policies and decisions that will affect my life … that socially, I am afforded the same respect as men” (qtd. in Lemon). It is time for society to stop viewing women based off what is promoted through reality television shows, namely Keeping Up with the Kardashians,

For close to a decade, the ethics behind the existence of reality TV have been questioned. While there are ardent viewers of reality TV, researchers and other scholars disapprove them, and claim that the world would have been in a better place. Reality TV shows, especially in America, are extremely profitable to media owners, and this has increased their popularity in the recent years. The main target audience for these shows are teenagers and women, who spend a lot of time discussing about them, even hours after the shows. Most of the reality shows in America and other parts of the world have common ideas. The most fundamental aspect of most reality TV shows is that they display people who go through embarrassing, painful and humiliating ordeals. This is what the reality shows expect their audiences to be entertained, and presumably laugh at the situations the people go through. For this reason and many more, it has been found that they are more detrimental than entertaining to the society, and therefore, the world would be in a better place without them (Pozner 89-91).

A. Media has a huge impact on how people truly see themselves, particularly in women and young female teens. Reality television has made the standards of beauty quite high these days and there is a definite change in society’s view on what is truly beautiful. Turning off the TV has simply become too hard when it comes to reality TV shows