Unrealistic Body Standards

Film, television, and the media are a huge part of our culture. Especially in the modern age of technology, it is impossible for us to avoid being exposed it. It is on our phones, computers, and TV. It is our entertainment, a part of our education, and it serves as a reflection of our society. The problem with media, however, is that has the power in manipulating us to feel certain ways. The most problem of which is the way we perceive our own bodies. Leading media industries such as Hollywood sets. An example of the ideal body that we are expected to have in order to look good and be perceived as handsome or beautiful by society, but, behind the scenes, actors and actresses of Hollywood go to extreme lengths in order to attain that ideal look.

Model’s work so hard to have the perfect body for magazines and other things but it is not enough for people they have to photoshop everything that is natural for a girl and it makes girls self conscious about themselves. The interest in this topic is that this is a serious problem,girls should be proud of there body but people think that if a girl is fat then that girl does not care and if a girl is too skinny that girl is trying too hard. In the 1840’s people were fat because it showed that that person was wealthy and could eat a lot, and if a person is skinny you could not afford to eat. But by the 1920’s dieting and calorie counting were apart of daily life. There is way too much pressure on girls to have the perfect body because girls think they are not as pretty as the girls in magazines, society is also the problem because society thinks if a girl is not skinny that girl is not pretty, they always try to change girls because nothing is

Constantly seeing women and young girls with “perfect” bodies in advertising makes other women feel as though they should go to unhealthy extremes to try and achieve those same looks.

The media needs to stop being the judge of what beauty is because everyone is pressured to look like the photoshopped version of the people the media portrays. Bad body imaging can lead to mental and eating disorders, and “fear of becoming fat” has become a common phenomenon.

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 video Dying To Be Thin and both articles by Serpell all implicated that what society values as a perfect image has a direct impact on how people view themselves. Most people are not happy with some part of their outside appearance. Pop culture and reality shows display obsessions with perfection, plastic surgery, most times exploiting insecure people who are unhappy with their appearance. The perfect body is advertised on every media outlet and constantly seen in public. There are number of people looking for that “new” and “perfect body” repeatedly going to the doctors and other professionals as well as developing eating disorders enhancing their obsession about their appearance and how unhappy they are. Unfortunately, for some people this obsession goes beyond entertainment, for some people this unhappiness and obsession is not something that just

People’s physical appearances has always been portrayed to fit in society’s “ideal” body image, but how can one’s body be perfect if it is made up of imperfections? Everyone desires this type of body image, however not many people are willing or able to put the time and effort into achieving this physique. But what is society’s image of the “perfect” body? Society has conformed our minds to portray what the body should be but not how it is meant to be. They are many different types of bodies that cannot physically achieve or choose to craft their body the way society claims they should.

In movies, one always sees the thin women living great lives and looking happy. In contrast, there are the not so thin women who seem to struggle and be unhappy. This has shaped the moral of women today. Women are beginning to feel ashamed and discouraged of their bodies if they do not look like the next Victoria Secret model. According to society, thinness is associated with being happy. So if one wants to be happy and accepted by society, they must be no larger than a size four, and that might be pushing it, this is the world we are beginning to live in. The pressure is not just on women, but men too. For men, their ideal body is a little different compared to women. To be viewed as having a perfect body for a male, they need to be extremely muscular with ripped abs and defined muscles. “… a man takes off his shirt and you see a low percentage of body fat, rippling biceps, and 6-pack abs. That’s the

A study was recently done to determine how body image was viewed in society several years ago and how it is viewed in today’s society. When comparing the average model and the American woman, it is stated by Dr. Jonathon Rader, PhD, chief executive and clinical officer of Rader Programs that “twenty years ago, the average fashion model weighed 8% less than the average woman. Today, she weighs 23% less” (Rader). Twenty to thirty years ago, full figured women were accepted and also admired. Being voluptuous was a sign of wealth and beauty. Women were not obsessed with diet fads, or trying to look a certain way, but were more concerned with eating healthy and were comfortable with the

This article talks about how photoshop allows advertisers to give models different body types that they did not had before. The false images affects the way that people see beauty in an unrealistic way, also false image cause low self-esteem and negative impact of people body image. With false advertisement women feels pressure to have the perfect body either by plastic surgery or unhealthy diet plans. This article is useful to use because it shows what the media uses to bring people self esteem down and how people would look at their body image differently

Have you ever been judged for the way you look? Have you ever been told that you are not pretty enough? This might be because we live in an appearance conscious world, and unless you have the ideal look you will be judged. This has affected many lives of all ages and genders to try to improve their appearance. We hear everywhere that we need to wear certain things, to act certain ways, and most commonly, that we need to lose weight to be happy and accepted in today’s society. This has caused many tragic injuries and mental illnesses to be introduced into the world today.

Looking good and being in shape is a top priority of today’s adults. According to the American Society of Plastic surgery (ASPA) 14.6 million cosmetic surgery procedures were performed in the United States in 2012. This is a 5 percent increase since 2011. The constant media advertisement of weight loss, sex appeal, and cosmetically enhanced beauty often leads to unrealistic standards of beauty and dissatisfaction in personal appearance. This overexposure to Hollywood beauty causes women to wonder how come they don’t look like that and often leaves them questioning what they can do to have a picture perfect body and face. According to the National Eating Disorder Association (NEDA), the promotion of unhealthy standards of beauty by the media often leads to depression and dissatisfaction in personal appearance (Chittom 3). Media have a negative impact on women’s body image and how women respond to the media’s portrayal of what is beautiful by advertisements emphasizing the importance of physical attractiveness, using Photoshop and airbrushing techniques to alter images people see in advertisements, and disregarding healthy living.

Before they sell you their product, advertisers sell you the idea of how you should want to look and conversely, how looking otherwise is inherently a bad thing. No one wants to be the before picture, so we rush to purchase the product or book the procedure that can bring about the desired after. Women’s insecurity about their looks has made it easy to convince them that small breasts are a ‘disease’ that require surgical intervention. Fifty-three percent of American girls are "unhappy with their bodies" at age thirteen and this number increases to 78% at age seventeen. (Brumberg, 1997). It is easy to look at the people on TV and in magazines and find yourself lacking. (Hargreaves and Tiggeman 2002) found that teen girls who looked at ads using unrealistically models felt less confident, more angry and more dissatisfied with their weight and

Millions of women every day are bombarded with the media’s idea of the “perfect” body. These unrealistic images are portrayed in women’s magazines all over the country. The message being sent to women is that they are not pretty or skinny enough. The average American woman is 5’4” and weighs 140 pounds, while the average American model is 5’11” and weighs 117 pounds. Annually, magazine companies spend billions of dollars on diet and exercise advertisements to put in their magazines. Magazines sell body dissatisfaction to their readers through unrealistic images of

In today’s society, the ultimate key to happiness is through the beauty a person portrays to the world around them. This underlying key is advertized to people in the marketing of companies, social media, and media on television. The perfect image of a woman who is attractive and delighted in her life is the ideal for how life should be. The beautiful people of society are the “elite” or the “popular” and this is portrayed to lead to wealth, success, and ultimately happiness throughout life. Many people tell themselves “If I can buy these products to perfect my face or hair and lose this weight then my life will be perfect so do it!” As a result of the just do it” attitude, the perfect image has effects that aren’t addressed in relation to the world’s “perfect body image.” The perfect body image leads to an increased rate at which people develop eating disorders, increased risk of depression and poor self esteem and bullying, and increased sales in the beauty industry.