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Media and its influence on body image
Effects of gender stereotypes in society
The effect of media on body image and self - esteem
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Gender has affected my life in many ways, but most of all I would say that from a young age I was given the impression that part of a woman’s value came from her ability to attract the opposite sex, and due to this mindset for a long time I felt as though I was ugly and difficult to love. There are so many expectations placed upon women based solely on the fact that they are female. Women are meant to be gentle, quiet, and respectful at all times but most of all they are expected to be pretty. Being physically appealing means different things depending on where you live, however, In western society it appears to mean being a tall, skinny, preferably blonde, Caucasian female and if you happen to match this criteria you’ve essentially hit the …show more content…
I was criticized for minor things like getting my clothes dirty or refusing to stay still to get my hair done. These comments grew more and more frustrating as I got older and eventually became far more critical with references to how I played, the clothes I chose to wear, and even being told I was too loud and that my interests weren’t normal. When me and my grandmother went to visit other family member’s I would always be asked questions that seemed entirely inappropriate to me as a small child like whether or not I had a crush or a boyfriend but I noticed no one ever asked my male cousins these questions as though their value wasn’t based solely on their ability to attract the opposite sex. My disinterest in things like hair and make-up led to me falling behind my peers when it came to matters of appearance. While other girls were discussing their extensive morning routines I was showering and shoving my unruly hair up into a ponytail. This also meant that I was falling behind when it came to personal relationships as my female friends were discovering boys, boys were treating me like an anomaly. I was consistently asked if I was a lesbian …show more content…
My extended family made jokes about me dating from a very young age even though it made me uncomfortable, and the characters I was meant to relate to in media were consistently focused on their looks and romantic relationships. As I grew older and entered puberty I felt awkward and being made fun of by my peers about the way I looked and who I felt comfortable associating with led to me having low self-esteem. By the time I entered high school I was under the impression that part of a woman’s value came from her appearance and ability to attract a mate which led to me developing unhealthy habits in order to control my weight and developing friendships and relationships that were not mutually beneficial. A person’s value and success is not based on their appearance but rather who they are as a person and how hard they work although this is not a view I grew up with it is one I have come to develop through personal experience that has led to me becoming a healthier and happier
Women are told that in order to get anywhere in life they must constantly worry about their outer appearance. In Jennifer Weiner’s article, “When Can Women Stop Trying to Look Perfect?” she delves deeply into how today’s society women’s worth is based on how they look. Weiner believes that women who do not meet the standards of beauty do not have as many opportunities.
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.
Visualize a teenage girl watching television, surfing the internet, and reading magazines. She sees beautiful women everywhere she turns. She is looking in her bedroom mirror wondering why she does not have similar beauty. She begins to feel self-aware because she reads and hears criticizing comments about the females who are just like her. She says to herself, “Am I not considered beautiful because my skin is not as clear as Angelina Jolie? Do I not fit in the category “pretty” because I do not dress like Beyoncé? Or am I not referred to as “cute” because my hair is not as straight and silky as Taraji P. Henson?” Now imagine yourself being that teenage girl. How would you feel if you were consistently exposed to a judgmental society that does not accept you? You would want to be considered beautiful because you are unique, you are an individual, and you are a person made with both inner and outer beauty.
To begin, social media has created unrealistic standards for young people, especially females. Being bombarded by pictures of females wearing bikinis or minimal clothing that exemplifies their “perfect” bodies, squatting an unimaginable amount of weight at a gym while being gawked at by the opposite sex or of supermodels posing with some of life’s most desirable things has created a standard that many young people feel they need to live up to. If this standard isn’t reached, then it is assumed that they themselves are not living up to the norms or the “standards” and then therefore, they are not beautiful. The article Culture, Beauty and Therapeutic Alliance discusses the way in which females are bombarded with media messages star...
An anonymous poem writer once stated, “It’s not what you are thats holding you back. It’s what you think you are not.” Throughout the years we, the people, have become more aware of society’s standards for both men and women. Eating disorders have been around for a while, but it has become more common throughout the years especially in the 20th and 21st century. As of today body image has become a huge part of our lives, but what many don 't understand is that by paying so much attention to that it causes both men and women to look at themselves differently. Both men and women suffer from body image issues and the main cause of that is having a low self esteem. Self confidence is something that not a lot of people have and many times those
Men and women were not seen as equal human beings; instead it has been obvious that men were more likely to be on the upper hand. In 1987, it has been recorded that 2/3 of the people who were presented in the media were male. 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 a desired body shape only forces women to meet unattainable, perfect physical standards (Gill 2015).
In elementary school one of the most common phrase used was, “You can’t do that you're a girl.” Society puts gender stereotypes and expectations on children at a very young age. I never really understood these stereotypes and expectations until later in my life. I couldn’t figure out why it was that boys were not allowed to like the color pink, and if the girls wanted to play “boy” sports it was seen as unusual. My family consists of my parents, my sister and I; so I never had sibling of the opposite gender in my life. I didn’t have someone to compare gender differences with. I was given toys no matter what gender they were geared towards. I remember receiving hot wheels cars and baby dolls the same year for Christmas and never thought anything thing of it. I think that these experiences has really shaped who I am today.
The concept of “beauty” is something that everyone feels, thinks, or wants, in order to fit society’s standards. In today’s society, we are often faced with the unrealistic ideals of what beauty is. Due to society’s constant portraying of unrealistic beauty ideals, this reinforces a negative influence upon women’s idea of beauty, resulting in a negative impact in their confidence, and self-esteem, which leads to others, specifically women to be manipulated by society’s corrupted outlook of what beauty is. To add onto this issue, we are constantly surrounded by sources of this negative influence in our everyday lives, including magazines, television, advertisements, and so on. However, women specifically, are more prone to be victims of this negative effect, thus will have more pressure upon themselves to match society’s idea of “beauty,” which includes unrealistic and sometimes unattainable beauty standards. Women especially, can sometimes be so deeply manipulated by society’s unrealistic ideals of what is beautiful, such that it’s possible that they don’t even realize it Furthermore, in order to do so, women often will receive negative impacts rather than positive impacts, such as in their confidence and self-esteem. The negative effects of society’s beauty ideals also lead women to have an overall corrupted idea of what is “beautiful.” Society creates unrealistic ideals of beauty towards women through the media by creating an unrealistic image of what women should look like to be considered beautiful. Men negatively affect women’s idea of beauty by using the unrealistic beauty standards exposed by society which further pressures women to try to fit society’s idea of what is beautiful. Beauty pageants negatively affect women’s ov...
People may think that men should be cool and handsome and should look and be a certain why like having a lot of muscles. McClure Stewart is the managing of editor of Women’s Quarterly Journal and Kate Kennedy is the campus project more important, our inner Women’s Forum, stated, “Again, this one features a corpulent guy’s guy lounging on his sofa in his dirty undershirt, which barely covers his beer gut” (1).Why is it that males are always stereotyped as the ones that cannot take care of themselves. Females are not the only ones that care about body image. So do males because like women they too try to attract the opposite sex. Many males find this offensive because it’s like we are not all slobs and they all would not want to be categorized like that too. At the same time, females worry about body image more because of the many advertisements that make women just look like sex objects. Katherine Toland Frith an associate professor at the School of Communication and Information at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore and Barbara Muller coordinator of the Media Studies Program at San Diego State University stated that Gentry found that female college students who were repeatedly exposed to thin models in ads feel increased guilt, shame, insecurity, and body dissatisfaction (5). Women tend to be more sensitive than a male which is already a good reason that females have it worse than males. Not to
Socially constructed gender roles have a large impact on the society that we are bred in. Boys and girls are told from a young age what is considered normal for each of them based on what sex they were assigned. Girls are immediately told to be shy but not rude, love the color pink, and clean and cook in preparation of the man they are inevitably going to marry. Boys are told to ‘be men’ and never cry in the presence of anyone, emotions are for girls and anything less would be seen as merely weak. Parents usually prescribe their own upbringings to how their children should be brought up; girls are constantly reminded to watch how they come off to people. Girls must clean and cook, but never show frustration, smile even if she’s scared of unfamiliar
I would like to begin with the fact that women have always been known to dedicate their time to beauty. Those who are devoted to their appearance most often believe that beauty brings power, popularity, and success. Women believe this, because they grow up reading magazines that picture beautiful women in successful environments; not to mention they are popular models and world famous individuals. Beautiful women are no longer just a priority for most advertising, but we have become a walking target for the working class employers. It is documented that better-looking attorneys earn more than others after five years of practice, which was an effect that grew with experience (Biddle, 172). We cannot overlook the fact that it is always the most popular and most beautiful girl who becomes homecoming-queen or prom-queen. While these are possible positive effects of the "beauty myth," the negative results of female devotion to beauty undercut this value. These effects are that it costs a lot of money, it costs a lot of time, and in the long run, it costs a lot of pain.
The first step would be to take the snide comments and insults hurled at you with a grain of salt and a smile. Take pride in being different. There are better things to worry about than conforming to society’s expectations. Being different does not necessarily mean you are worth less than other people around you.You could show society that conformity is not always the best policy.
Compliments on personality may come later, but they’re never first. That reinforces things such as make up and cute clothes on girls. Another thing that I have been working on is judging other girls for the sex life. If I heard a girl had slept with a few dudes, I would consider her a slut. However, if a guy had slept with the same amount or more, I wouldn’t call him a name or judge him. That is something I have gotten a lot better of not doing and encouraging others to not do it. Society as a whole have taught me those gender stereotypes and made me more judgmental. Influence come from family, friends, and media. Because that influence is coming from so many places, it is hard to not judge someone if they are not following what is “normal” for their gender. Personally, I think the media has taught me most of this. My parents obviously showed some stereotyping, but they would till buy me Barbies and racecars to play with. Therefore, I don’t think they influenced me to have those gender stereotypes as much as the media
Through various cultures, there can be great consistency in the standards of desirable gender-role behavior. At a very early age, children go through the process of gender socialization and learn what it means to be a boy or girl in society. These behaviors and attitudes are generally instilled at home and then reinforced by the child’s friends, school life and exposure to media (Witt para. 1). The ultimate actors, however, are the parents. From their influence as role models, a child may be pushed towards activities and commitments that are meant for their specific gender. Some may wonder why they lean them toward such standards. In fact, with the conformity of gender roles come a wide variety of variables to consider such as possible discrimination,
When we are born our sex determines how we will be treated and what we will achieve in our lifetime. Men and women in society are very different, women are seen as the minority and submissive to men in some cultures while men are viewed as the dominant force and the superior sex (Henslin, 2015, p.292). The way we view peoples sex can determine how they will be treated, how much they will prosper in life and even how society