The Entertainment Industry's Standards of Beauty and Impact on Youth

Your discussion resonated with me. When I was in high school, magazines like Sports Illustrated and Muscle Fitness was all the rage. Almost every boy in school enjoyed and idolized the people in those magazines because of the machismo projected in the articles. I was no exception; much like you I have always been active and frequent the gym on a regular. However after high school I joined the navy and now had a source of income. With this perception of how the male body should look, I turned to supplement to aid in the process. At one point I even turned to illegal means but backed out due to the navy’s drug testing policy. Even though at the time I far exceed any of the navy’s physical fitness standards. I still saw myself, as being below

The physical appearance of today's masculine men are big, and muscular guys. The fact that most television and movie actors are all thought to be tall intimidating men should prove this. In fact the average Hollywood actor is about five feet ten inches which is taller than the average man, this goes to say something about what height the media thinks guys should be. This leaves many males with body image issues just because they do not fit into the tall body images. Now the media also wants men to be muscular, this is shown in the body image that are given to the public by the media. Almost as a direct result to all these super muscular guys on magazines and in movies is the increased need of young men to workout by lift weights. While lifting weight is a health and positive activity for most young men, however, many young men go workout take supplements and pre-workout additives. The sheer number of men that use these products in order to aid them in their quest for a better more tone body is outlandish. While these product may work to help shape and sculpt muscles however, by adding all of these extra chemicals to your body it could be doing more harm than

In “Feeding Hard Bodies: Food and Masculinities in Men’s Fitness Magazines” Fabio Parasecoli addresses the increasing popularity of men’s health and body image. Many magazines, including Men’s Health, Men’s Fitness, and Muscle and Fitness, are targeted toward men of all ages who wish to improve their physical appearance. The particular body ideal they reinforce is one of high muscle and low fat, a body that can be hard to achieve for the average man. Therefore, specific nutrition is the key in obtaining the ideal body. Men are now becoming more aware of their appearance, body image and body health. With the standards, dedications and effort put into obtaining the ideal body type, food industry is giving men easier ways to get and maintain

The rhetorical imagery that is used to portray a man's body is spread throughout the fitness industry and health advertisements. These images are on the cover of well-known magazines such as “FITNESSRX”, distribute worldwide targeting men, ages 18-30. These magazines give a visual rhetoric as a method of persuading beauty, body image, and the pursuit of “perfection”. These companies target young adults because they believe they have the money to buy their products to obtain the body they want or the body portrayed on the cover of the magazine.

As exposure to the male body expands, the demand for “chiseled” bodies greatens. In recent years, the number of memberships and frequency of visits to health clubs has increased (Luciano 3). In one year alone, four billion dollars was spent on exercise equipment and health club memberships. “An estimated eighty-five million Americans, mostly male, are doing some sort of weight

Growing up with the idea that men are all bodybuilders they attempt to obtain these same results. Unfortunately theses results are not obtainable, as stated by Harrison G. Pope Jr, Roberto Olivardia, Amanda Gruber, and John Borowiecki in Evolving Ideals of Male Body Image as seen through Action Toys, “Many modern Figures display the physiques of advanced bodybuilders and some display levels of muscularity far exceeding the outer limits of actual human attainment. Essentially young boys who play with these action figures are influenced to believe that they should look like the action figures as well, but will never be able to obtain the same body image as the action figures; they are setting themselves up for failure due to the misleading images of the action

Have you ever thought of what true beauty means? In the article “Pop Culture Is Destroying True Beauty” by Rachel Drevno, she explains how pop culture and the media are influencing people to believe that they aren’t good enough because they don’t look a certain way. The beauty Drevno discusses are the actors and celebrities in commercials, movies, and magazines. She believes that people are trying and changing themselves to look like those in commercials or movies because that’s how standard beauty has been portrayed. I strongly agree with her argument because the media only presents images of attractive, beautiful, and sexy figures.

Millions of dollars are made and lost in the pursuit of the largest muscles, fastest gate, hair replacements, plastic surgeries, implants and liposuction removals to at least give the physical appearance of our basic standards of prowess. Many times life changes and new habits can help a person become stronger, healthier, more control of their anger, and be able to exhibit traits of an alpha male without using techniques such as plastic surgeries.

Media presents men who appear to have great physical strength with a combination of other masculine ideals. By showing characters with huge gleaming muscles as almost flawless. People who are easily influenced could adopt the thought of men who have absurdly big muscles are the ideal man. Young girls in particular could get the concept of a muscular man as a perfect man. Some young girls who are now young women are already influenced by this when trying to find a good man. While on the other side of the coin, you have men who appear to have a brilliant mind in a movie having a sum of flaws that makes them appear as unideal. The way muscular men and brilliant men are represented in media, such as Hercules (2014) and the Old Spice advertisement has an effect on future generations.

Teens often feel flawed if their bodies do not match up to those of models and actors. Media’s portrayal of women is a mirror image of what society wants teenagers to look like. Advertisements often stress sexuality and the importance of being physically attractive in an attempt to sell products, however people are concerned that this is pressure on women to focus on their appearance.Photoshop and airbrush are currently at their extreme such programs have existed for removing minor imperfection such as stray hairs, the advancement in technology has made it possible to manipulate an image creating unrealistic perfection. Celebrities are airbrushed to perfection on their album or movie covers but it is not actually them. Aside from enlarging eyes,trimming thighs, and airbrushing away wrinkles, more dramatic measures are now taken Images were not inclined to the manipulation with Photoshop and airbrushing which create images as it is seen today. Magazines did not start airbrush and Photoshop their models until the 1980s. In the fifties, models like Marilyn Monroe would grace the weekly covers but they would have been seen as overweight by today’s

Body image issues are actually old news with a lot of people struggling about their personal appearance while growing up. With the power of media, it is very impossible for anyone not to feel any insecurities at all – including young men.

Today 's society is constantly presented with misrepresentations of the ideal body image through the advertising of diet plans and supplements. Companies in the fitness industry scam people into buying useless products or services by advertising with individuals that have, what the mass media sees as, the 'perfect ' body composition. In addition to getting consumers to buy into a product or service, these companies also aid society with the spreading of this fake idea of what classifies as the perfect body. They portray a body image that is unattainable for most individuals in society, despite how many of those supplements being advertised they buy. The models used in these advertisements, are in most cases, starving themselves, enhanced via illegal substances, or are photo-shopped to the point where even they do not look like the model displayed in the ad. All this has led to many people wanting to strive for that perfect body, that in reality, is impossible to achieve. In order to show the affect these advertisements play in our society, I will be deconstructing multiple ads in the fitness industry, as well as multiple peer-reviewed scholarly journal articles centered around the impact media has on an individual 's self-image.

Over the years a debate over who is to blame over the decline in how girls perceive themselves has arisen. With Photoshop being the societal norm concerning the media, it has become difficult for many to understand where the line between real and near impossible standards lies. Youths see an image edited to “perfection” and strive to reach the standards that they imagine due to the images displayed on magazines, television and social media. From Disney to magazines like Vogue the mass media bombards audiences with fake beauty that they, as normal people, will never be able to achieve. The mass media is responsible for causing the rise in the number of people with a poor body image, eating disorders, and cosmetic surgeries.

The men in these advertisements look nothing like me, despite me being tall, it is still not enough. The media has put into my perception that slender, though muscular, bodies are more successful in romance, career and are self-confidence. These assumptions that the media has portrayed in my mind has left me questioning myself about my own physical body. I quite remember looking at the mirror and seeing that I had belly fat and my arms looked like a shrimp’s compared to the ideal men. I felt incompetent and worthless because the ideology that was put into my mind and my assumption that without the ideal body my career and romance life would come to an end. So I decided I needed to change, so I signed up for the gym to bulk up. This was no accident that I retreated to the gym, supposedly the media idea of achieving the ideal body is realized by working out, dieting, and cosmetic surgery. Pressure was also put on me by women, friends, other men and my parents, especially my father. Through advice like “Be a Man”, something that is easily said, but carried the weight of its message. I was expected to take charge. So I did by taking control of my body with exercise and drinking protein shakes and cutting down my food intake to meet the standards of society. This provided me with a sense of direction, control and achievement; however, it risked my health with symptoms of having eating disorders. Similarly, I have seen many men and women, mostly women,

For some teens, striving for perfection has led to harming their own health and wellbeing such as living with depression and suicide. Teenagers today are relying on what they see in ads, T.V., magazines and on the internet for their input on appearances, the way they think not only comes from media sources, but from family and friends.