Body Image

1147 Words3 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: body image and its effects

When navigating to the official website of Self, one of today’s leading women’s magazines, I was not surprised to immediately stumble upon a photograph of two slender women, in skimpy shorts and sports bras, exercising on the beach. “Flat belly Secrets” was the headline under the image, along with the subtopics “Magic Moves that Work Your Whole Core,” “Superfoods for a Sexy Stomach,” and “4 Ab Mistakes Everyone Makes.” It is no secret that modern American culture gives great importance to body image, namely to having a “perfect” physique, although a vast majority of the population is far from attaining said physique. I struggled for years to “make peace” with my own body and obtain a positive body image, hence why I have chosen to research body image and the media, focusing more on the female aspect of it.

With so much attention being given to people’s perceptions of their own physical beauty, numerous studies have been conducted on men and women of all ages. Every single study I read about in gathering information for this report showed that body image dissatisfaction, “the feeling that people may have that their actual physical appearance is not how they would ideally like it to be” (Kovar), is experienced by an astonishing number of men and women. That being said, it was also evident from the research that women are significantly more affected by body image dissatisfaction. One particular study of male and female undergraduates concluded that compared to men’s perceptions, “women's [body image] perceptions place [greater] pressure on them to lose weight” (Fallon and Rozin). Body dissatisfaction is a risk factor for eating disorders and is said to be most common in Western cultures, predominantly with teenage girls (Boone and...

... middle of paper ...

...ave A Negative Impact On Body Image And Behaviors? Factors And Processes Related To Self And Identity." Journal Of Social & Clinical Psychology 28.1 (2009): 1-8. Academic Search Premier.

Fallon, A. E., & Rozin, P. (1985). Sex differences in perceptions of desirable body shape. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 94(1), 102-105. doi:10.1037/0021-843X.94.1.102

Kovar, Allie. "Effects of Media on Body Image." Health Psychology. Vanderbilt University, 30 Apr. 2009. Web. 02 Feb. 2012. .

SELF Magazine, Nutrition, Health and Advice: Self.com. Web. 03 Feb. 2012. .

Thompson, J. Kevin, and Eric Stice. "Thin-Ideal Internalization: Mounting Evidence for a New Risk Factor for Body-Image Disturbance and Eating Pathology." Current Directions in Psychological Science 10.5 (2001): 181-83. Print.

Show More
Related

  • Media and Body Image

    1147 Words  | 3 Pages

    We hear sayings everyday such as “Looks don’t matter; beauty is only skin-deep”, yet we live in a decade that contradicts this very notion. If looks don’t matter, then why are so many women harming themselves because they are not satisfied with how they look? If looks don’t matter, then why is the media using airbrushing to hide any flaws that one has? This is because with the media establishing unattainable standards for body perfection, American Women have taken drastic measures to live up to these impractical societal expectations. “The ‘body image’ construct tends to comprise a mixture of self-perceptions, ideas and feelings about one’s physical attributes. It is linked to self-esteem and to the individual’s emotional stability” (Wykes 2). As portrayed throughout all aspects of our media, whether it is through the television, Internet, or social media, we are exploited to a look that we wish we could have; a toned body, long legs, and nicely delineated six-pack abs. Our society promotes a body image that is “beautiful” and a far cry from the average woman’s size 12, not 2. The effects are overwhelming and we need to make more suitable changes as a way to help women not feel the need to live up to these unrealistic standards that have been self-imposed throughout our society.

    Read More

  • Society has Unrealistic Image of Woman in Article, Fat Is a Feminist Issue”, by Susie OrBach

    790 Words  | 2 Pages

    Society is obsessed with fitness and weight loss. Ever since I was in sixth grade I have had issues with my weight and self-image. The article “Fat Is a Feminist Issue”, by Susie OrBach focuses on how our society puts this unrealistic image of what women should look like into everyone’s heads. The media and magazines urge women to conform, at any cost, into a constantly changing expectation of what is beautiful. Women are taught to look at themselves from an outside view, to be a sex image for men and fuel the diet and fashion industries. Society thinks if women do not fit within the unrealistic image something is wrong with them. The highly glorified concept of beauty marketed by the media contributes to the concern over body image that causes many women, including myself, to eating disorders and poor self-image.

    Read More

  • Persuasive Essay On Body Image

    1071 Words  | 3 Pages

    According to Beverly Ballaro, the combination of two trends, the technology-enabled media saturation of the American public, and the promotion by this media of highly unattainable body types, is largely responsible for an epidemic of body image pathologies afflicting American girls and women, as well as an increasing number of boys and men. She also mentions that the media has given certain images for each gender. Generally, for females the body image is extremely thin, and there is an emphasis on large breasts and for males, tall, slender, muscular and toned. For both genders, the most valued and appreciated appearance i...

    Read More

  • Culture and its Role in the Construction of Womens Body Image

    1620 Words  | 4 Pages

    Within the past ten years, the rise of eating disorders has gotten more public attention. This spark increased scientific research geared toward explaining and responding to this disaster. It is now widely recognized that body image dissatisfaction, broadly defined as strong negative feelings about the body, are persistent among women, especially concerning weight and dieting. Merely being a women in our society means feeling too fat (Wolszon 542). Survey data indicate that three fourths of normal weight women in the United States feel fat, more than half of adult women in the United States are on a diet, and on study showed that nearly 80% of fourth grade girls are watching their weight (Shelly Levitt 64).

    Read More

  • Body Expectations Essay

    1094 Words  | 3 Pages

    In a society similar to the one of the United States, individual’s body images are placed on a pedestal. Society is extremely powerful in the sense that it has the capability of creating or breaking a person’s own views of his or her self worth. The pressure can take over and make people conduct in unhealthy behavior till reaching the unrealistic views of “perfection.” In an article by Caroline Heldman, titled Out-of-Body Image, the author explains the significance of self-objectification and woman’s body image. Jennifer L. Derenne made a similar argument in her article titled, Body Image, Media, and Eating Disorders. Multiple articles and books have been published on the issue in regards to getting people to have more positive views on themselves. Typically female have had a more difficult time when relating to body image and self worth. Society tends to put more pressure on women to live to achieve this high ideal. Body image will always be a concern as long as society puts the pressure on people; there are multiple pressures placed and theses pressures tend to leave an impact on people’s images of themselves.

    Read More

  • Cognitive Behavior Therapy

    2139 Words  | 5 Pages

    The 1997 Psychology Today Body Image Survey revealed that Americans have more discontentment with their bodies than ever before. Fifty-six percent of women surveyed said they are dissatisfied with their appearance in general. The main problem areas about which women complained were their abdomens (71 percent), body weight (66 percent), hips (60 percent) and muscle tone (58 percent). Many men were also dissatisfied with their overall appearance, almost 43 percent. However body dissatisfaction for men and women usually means two different things. More men as opposed to women wanted to gain weight in order to feel satisfied with their bodies (Ga...

    Read More

  • Body Image Definition Essay

    647 Words  | 2 Pages

    Social pressure to have a perfect body is experienced by many women and young girls. The perfect body has been constructed by society and by the media and women and girls is expected to conform to it. “The American Anorexia and Bulimia Association states that: 1000 American women die of anorexia each year and that people with eating disorders have the second highest fatality rate of the psychological disorders”. Women are dying each year because of body image disturbance disorders and discovering the link between media images and perfect body image could be helpful in finding a successful intervention.

    Read More

  • The Effects Of Feminist Theory On Body Image Among Women

    1427 Words  | 3 Pages

    The sociocultural approach to the issue of body image among women states that women receive harmful and negative cultural messages about their bodies. These messages can come from the media as well as from family and peer influences (Swami, 2015). By promoting the thin ideal for attractiveness, the media contributes to women rating their bodies more negatively and thus increases their likelihood of developing eating disorder symptoms (Spitzer, Henderson & Zivian, 1999). In a meta-analysis studying the effects of media images on female body image, Groesz and Levine (2002) found that women’s body image was significantly more negative after viewing thin media images than after viewing average or plus size models. Harmful body messages from family can be direct, such as verbal criticism or teasing, or in...

    Read More

  • What Is Eating Disorders?

    679 Words  | 2 Pages

    Women in our culture today have developed an obsession with body image and weight that has contributed to the development of eating disorders. The media portrays super-thin models and women take that as the ideal of what they “should” look like. This can have a tremendous impact on their self esteem, and on both the low and high end of the BMI scale, a measure of body fat calculated using your height and weight; whether it be a woman with anorexia, or a woman with obesity. Men also experience this pressure to be muscular and tall, yet it is small compared to what women face. Statistics of college men show that 25% binge eat, 24% diet and 3% purge (Cain, Epler, Steinley, and Sher, 2012). Studies show that people with higher BMI’s experience more body dissatisfaction and and negative body image than people with lower BMI’s (Duncan, al-Nakeeb, and Nevill, 2013). When people feel bad about their body they can experience low self esteem: when a person feels inadequate and lacks respect for the self (Mäkinen, Puukko-Viertomies, Lindberg, Siimes, & Aalberg, 2012). Someone with low self esteem is more at risk for experiencing body dissatisfaction, which can lead to abnormal eating habits (Mäkinen, Puukko-Viertomies, Lindberg, Siimes, & Aalberg, 2012). This can take two forms, dietary restraint and binge eating. High and low BMI has a negative impact on self esteem and body image of women due to the pressure to be perfect in today’s society. The presentation of the following studies of children and adults will seek to understand the differences in men and women and their relationship with BMI, self esteem, and body image through its effect on eating disorders, body dissatisfaction, and the thin-ideal portrayed by the media.

    Read More

  • Reasons Why Women Develop a Negative Body Image

    1161 Words  | 3 Pages

    Dittmar, Helga. "How Do "body Perfect" Ideals in the Media Have a Negative Impact on Body Image and Behaviors? Factors and Processes Related to Self and Identity." : Sussex Research Online. N.p, 6 Feb. 2012. Web. 27 Mar. 2014.

    Read More

  • Peer Competition and Women's Body Image

    1084 Words  | 3 Pages

    A recent study shows that women’s body dissatisfaction is influenced by peer competition with others rather than depictions of women in the media. Muoz and Ferguson (2012) developed a study in order to further understand the influence of inter-peer pressure on body dissatisfaction. Body dissatisfaction refers to any "negative self-evaluation of one’s own appearance and the desire to be more physically attractive. " The problem of body image has long been shown to be a concern for the American Psychiatric Association or APA, (Muoz & Ferguson, 2012, p. 383). It raises so much concern because an unsatisfying body image has been known to cause problems such as eating disorders, depression and self-esteem.

    Read More

  • What Is Body Image

    1188 Words  | 3 Pages

    In this day and age, hundreds or thousands of women and men are having an ongoing battling against themselves to meet up to society 's standards on body image. Every day people are sacrificing their bodies to strive for the "perfect" figure that would make them feel like they belong in our society. Because of society 's pressure, it has given men and women the immense amount of pressure to achieve these unrealistic goals. Needless to say, women and men are grappling with their inner demons to reach their goal of having the ideal body. In today 's society, men and women both struggle with body issues by the profound impact of social media and a lack of self acceptance; however, it appears that men are struggling more due to having to shield

    Read More

  • Effects of Media on Women’s Body Image

    689 Words  | 2 Pages

    The overwhelming idea of thinness is probably the most predominant and pressuring standard. Tiggeman, Marika writes, “This is not surprising when current societal standards for beauty inordinately emphasize the desirability of thinness, an ideal accepted by most women but impossible for many to achieve.” (1) In another study it is noted that unhealthy attitudes are the norm in term of female body image, “Widespread body dissatisfaction among women and girls, particularly with body shape and weight has been well documented in many studies, so much so that weight has been aptly described as ‘a normative discontent’”. (79) Particularly in adolescent and prepubescent girls are the effects of poor self-image jarring, as the increased level of dis...

    Read More

  • The Influence of Self-Assessed Body Image on Confidence and Self-Esteem

    2460 Words  | 5 Pages

    This study hopes to gain a more in depth view of a demographic that is believed to put a great amount of focus on body image in the way the...

    Read More

  • Gender Stereotyping: The Negative Impacts Of Gender Stereotypes

    1497 Words  | 3 Pages

    However, it is evident that the media usually presents and sexualizes women who are “young, fit and beautiful” hence probably creating self esteem issues more than confidence especially in younger women who are religious towards the media’s expectations. This stereotype of being a desired body shape only forces women to meet unattainable perfect physical standards (Gill 2015). The media bombards the youth with gender representations and the types of bodies that are deemed to be attractive. Many teenagers all around the world are desperate to lose weight to be “beautiful”.

    Read More

More about Body Image

Open Document