The Media 's Ideal Body

Every time you flip a magazine, change channels, or go online, you are struck with images of models who are super skinny with flashy outfits and have excessive make-up on. Ads not only try to sell their products, but also promote how females should look like. These models are airbrushed and photo shopped which is false advertisement. The media progressively encourages a thinner body image as the ideal for women. We see advertisements every day. Some of these ads use manipulative strategies that influence our choices and spending habits. For example, “One in every three articles in leading teen girl magazines included a focus on appearance, and most advertisements used appeal to beauty to sell their products.”(Teen Health) To grab the viewers’ attention, especially females, they include

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.

The average number of teens watch almost three hours of television per day, which reveals them to thousands of images of violence, sexuality, from advertisements, according to the research done by scientists, by the time today's teens reach their old age, they would have watched between seven to 10 years worth of television during the trajectory of their lives. The content and the amount of television that teens watch substitutes other activities and could have a negative influence.Brands fascinating to teens take advantage of their particular vulnerabilities, the desire to fit in, to be apprehended as attractive. Teenagers have become the main target for advertisers. Teenagers are impulsive and invariably want the latest and greatest things. Advertisers see teenagers as great gateways to persuade themselves into buying their product. Teenagers come across over 40,000 advertisements per year whether on the Internet, TV or in their schools. Ads are constantly telling teenagers to buy this, look like that, or act a certain way. There are negative sides to advertisements harnessed towards teenagers. Teens are extremely accustomed to their place in the peer ranking, and advertising acts as a kind of "super peer" in leading them toward what's cool, what's satisfactory and what’s acceptable.Many teens are highly resistant to messages around body image, and marketers use this to their advantage with their

Under society’s norms for decades, young women have been put under the pressure and anticipation to have perfect bodies. That is, thin and curved, beautified by applying pounds of the makeup to their face but not appear ridiculously overdone. Who’s responsible for these standards imposed on young women? When a young girl picks up the model along the cover of Vogue being called flawless, it’s easy for her to then aspire to be a real-life imitation of the photocopy. These companies produce magazine covers shown with girls’ images daily. As if keeping the perfect body wasn’t hard enough our culture also forces girls into the forever expanding world of composition, however, body image is a pressing issue for young women. Advertisements and posters of skinny female models are all over. Young girls not only could be better but need to be more upright and feel driven to throw the perfect figure. Moreover, girls are evaluated and oppressed by their physical appearances. With supplements and apparel designed to enhance a facial expression; social media, magazines, and marketing campaigns and advertisements add to the burden of perfection. The fashion industry is a prime object of body image issues, as they believe clothes look better on tall and svelte women. Established on a survey participated by 13 to 17-year-old in the U.S., 90% “felt pressured by fashion and media industries to be skinny”, with more than 60% routinely compares themselves to models, while 46%

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 is one of the leading causes of self esteem and body image issues in not only women but men as well. This is due to the fact that thousands of advertisements contain messages about physical attractiveness and beauty. Examples include: commercials for clothes, cosmetics, weight loss, hair removal, laser surgery and physical fitness. The effects of advertising on body image have been studied by researchers, psychologists, marketing professionals and more. Researchers, Mary Martin and James Gentry found that teen directed advertising negatively impacts self-esteem. The advertising industry is setting unrealistic expectations for teens about their physical appearances by using models with "perfect bodies." The modeling industry today has put many pressures on models, causing them disorders of both mental and physical illness. These disorders then creating the look of the “perfect body” have now lead to unrealistic expectations of body image for society.

The culture of media has now taken a large affect on young girls and their body images. Young girls are feeling dissatisfied with their bodies because of the way society views women. The media tells us what to look like, what clothes to wear, make-up, what cars to drive, and sometimes what to eat. Media is changing people constantly through advertising and by showing us the looks and fashions of celebrities. Advertising has negative effects on the formation of oneself as seen through the nature of the promotion of its’ products. This effect is particularly prevalent among young adolescent girls. Young girls feel the need to join dietary plans or result to eating disorders Advertising in society results in negative effects on girls through self-image that leads to harmful consequences. The media is the biggest factor contributing to girls’ dissatisfaction with their bodies, causing eating disorders.

Researchers have discovered that “ongoing exposure to certain ideas can shape and distort our perceptions on reality.” (Mintz 2007) Because young girls are subjected to a constant display of beautiful people in the media, they have developed a negative body image of themselves. Those who have a negative body image perceive their body as being unattractive or even hideous compared to others, while those with a positive body image will see themselves as attractive, or will at least accept themselves and be comfortable in their own skin. During adolescence, negative body image is especially harmful because of the quick changes both physically and mentally occurring during puberty. Also, young girls are becoming more and more exposed to the media and the media keeps getting more and more provocative. Young girls are looking to women with unrealistic body shapes as role models. It’s hard to find, in today’s media, a “normal” looking

Therefore, the commendation of such look and shape commercializes unhealthy body image and procreates eating disorders. Unfortunately, at present the commercialism of a perfect body is encountered by almost everyone on everyday basis. The public is bombarded daily with images of glamorously thin women in commercials, on billboards, in movies in magazines and etc?According to Melanie Katzman, a consultant psychologist from New York, the media has actively defined the thin ideal as success and treats the body as a commodity. (Rhona MacDonald, 2001) It is evident that the persistent advocating of the media and the society produced a constant pursuit of thinness, which became a new religion. A study conducted by Harvard researchers has revealed the effect of media and magazines on adolescent girls in high schools. The children were exposed to fashion magazines and television commercials, and a while after were given self-rating surveys. The study found that sixty-nine percent of the girls said that magazine pictures

As young women go through puberty, they begin to mature both physically and emotionally. Particularly, women begin to gain weight when they undergo puberty. Throughout their adolescence, women are exposed to harsh opinions others have on their bodies and how they should carry themselves. Most importantly, women are exposed to society’s values through the use of media. Women begin to value their body image and force themselves to conform to society’s idea of the “perfect body”. Personally, I think of body image as a trouble of mine because I struggle to come to terms with not having a flawless figure. Each day, I see women on social media with unrealistically perfect bodies. After being so exposed to the media’s opinion of a good physique,

It is often said that another prevailing criticism of advertising is that it distorts perceptions of healthy body image. In many advertisements such as magazines or TV, there is an unrealistic standard of beauty weight and beauty that is regularly seeing as normal. So, when a young woman sees these kind of advertisement and she realizes that her image does not match up to the projected image the best way that she finds is to buy the product. The ability of the media to shape self-image can be damaging and harmful that can lead to depression, low self- esteem or dissatisfaction. (authors name, year)

This does not simply affect adolescents, but older generations as well. A Harvard study showed that “up to two thirds of underweight 12-year-old girls considered themselves to be too fat” (Fox). The media portrays this standard of beauty as adequate and attainable. When one passes by the Victoria’s Secret store and glances at the massive posters of a beautiful model, he or she probably admires the perfection. But is it a fair representation of the average American woman? No. Advertisements such as Victoria’s Secret have been criticized for projecting an unrealistic image of what women should look like to females of all ages. Ads like Victoria’s Secret seem to target college age women. I will analyze two advertisements, Victoria’s Secret and Dove, aimed at different types of women and age groups, paying special attention to audience, purpose and context to support my

We as people are easily influenced. From what to eat to how to dress and finally how to look. The media directly influences our daily decisions from the phones we buy i.e. (apple or Samsung), to the sodas we drink (-Cola or Pepsi) to how we should look. Television commercials often use thin beautiful Caucasian female models to advertise their products. The constant presence of models on television is beginning to affect how girls perceive themselves and their bodies. And this influence is having a negative impact on young girls and women. Girls are constantly trying to attain this model like figure in hopes of social acceptance and happiness in how they look, however some of the options some girls are going to are dangerous.

The unrealistic standards of beauty is hurting this generation of what the media and society thinks a girl has to look like, for many years the media has been trying to construct the ideal image of what a “perfect woman” should look like. They believe there only beautiful if they have long legs, great hair, and curves in the right places (HuffingtonPost2017). Which is not the influence that we want to carry down to future generations of girls who feel like they must live up to the expectations of girls who have the “perfect body”. With media apps being popular in the 21st century, there was a survey done on some of the top media apps, their study #statusofmind surveyed almost 1,500 young people aged 14 to 24 on how certain media apps impact health ( CableNewsNetwork 2017). Body images statistics say 80% of woman say images,

The problem I am addressing is how to help teenage girls resist pressure from advertisers to look thin. I will be proposing ways to change people’s specific attitudes and behaviors that will potentially close a gap between what is happening and what should be happening. The goal is not to educate or increase awareness about this issue because it is a very widely talked about topic. The ‘problem’ is that teenage girls (who) should not be peer pressured to look thin (what) in today’s (when) society (where). What is happening today is that teenage girls have this societal pressure to look thin. This is mostly due to companies and advertisers putting out campaigns with smaller, thinner models and celebrities. With the rise of technology, people are becoming more and more influenced by what they see on television, the Internet, and social media. Teenage girls see these beautiful, thin celebrities and aspire to look like that. Girls are more vulnerable than ever today and some will do just about anything to give in to the pressure and try to look like someone else. What should be happening is that companies and advertisers should use a more diverse group of woman when putting out campaigns. Beauty comes in all shapes, sizes and colors. They should be embracing the diversity throughout the world and show that off when advertising. This is impacting mostly teenage girls as their bodies are changing and as they are trying to figure out who they are. However, this pressure is not just