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The adverse effect of advertising on women
How has womens body image been affected by media
How has womens body image been affected by media
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Beauty is often described as being in the eye of the beholder. However in modern western culture, the old adage really should be beauty is in the eye of the white makeup artist, hair stylist, photographer, photo shop editor, and advertiser. Beauty and body ideals are packaged and sold to the average American so that we can achieve vocational, financial, social, and recreational successes. Mass media and advertising has affected the way that women perceive and treat their own bodies as well as their self-concept. Women are constantly bombarded with unrealistic images and hold themselves to the impossible beauty standards. First, we will explore the role of media in the lives of women and then the biggest body image issue from a diversity stand point, media whitewashing. Media is a wide term that covers many information sources including, television, movies, advertisement, books, magazines, and the internet. It is from this wide variety of information that women receive cues about how they should look. The accepted body shape and has been an issue affecting the population probably since the invention of mirrors but the invention of mass media spread it even further. Advertisements have been a particularly potent media influence on women’s body image, which is the subjective idea of one's own physical appearance established by observation and by noting the reactions of others. In the case of media, it acts as a super peer that reflects the ideals of a whole society. Think of all the corsets, girdles, cosmetics, hair straighteners, hair curlers, weight gain pills, and diet pills that have been marketed over the years. The attack on the female form is a marketing technique for certain industries. According to Sharlene Nag... ... middle of paper ... ...member that negative body image can affect anyone and it should not be overlooked. Works Cited Altabe, M. (1996). Ethnicity and Body Image: Quantitative and Qualitative Analysis. Tampa, Florida: University of South Florida. Beauty Redefined. (2011, February 1). Beauty Whitewashed: How White Ideals Exclude Women of Color. Retrieved from Beauty Redefined: http://www.beautyredefined.net/beauty-whitewashed-how-white-ideals-exclude-women-of-color/ Elias, M. (2006, July 24). Race Doesn't Reflect On Women's Poor Body Image. USA Today. Hesse-Biber, S. N., Howling, S. A., Leavy, P., & Lovejoy, M. (March 2004). Racial Identity and the Development of Body Image Issues among African American Adolescent Girls. The Qualitative Report, 9(1), 49-79. U.S. Census Bureau. (2012). USA Quick Facts. Retrieved from U.S. Census Bureau: http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/00000.html
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.
Participants responded on a 5 point Likert-type scale asking what language they usually think in, read and speak, used as a child, and what language they typically speak with friends. To measure the participants’ body satisfaction, the Body Image subscale of the Self-Image Questionnaire for Young Adolescents was included and they responded to those questions on a 4 point Likert type scale. The results were Latinas are increasingly turning to black girls and women as possible sources of comparison. These comparisons may be more favorable as Black-oriented television is more commonly being associated with greater body satisfaction, specifically in the midst of those girls who were more
The ideal female beauty in American culture is predominately white (Bankhead & Johnson, 2014). Throughout U.S history, women’s mainstream beauty ideal has been historically based on white standards such as having blonde hair, blue eyes, fair skin, a thin ideal body, straight hair, and thin lips (West, 1995; Yamamiya, Cash, Melynk, Posavac, & Posavac, 2005; Leslie, 1995). Therefore, the features of African American women tend to be viewed as undesirable and unattractive compared to the European standards of beauty (Awad, Norwood, Taylor, Martinez, McClain, Jones, Holman, & Hilliard, 2014). According to Ashe (1995), “African beauty, body and hair have been racialized, with slim/”keen” European features being the accepted standard of beauty since enslaved Africans was forcefully brought to the Americas.” The physical characteristics of Black women such as having broad noses, brown skin, full lips, large buttocks and course hair has been looked down upon throughout United States history (Byrd & Tharps, 2001). In effect, the standard of beauty of European features that were forced on slaves are internalized and currently seen in the standard of beauty of African Americans (A.A) (Chapman, 2007). These standards include African Americans perceiving light-skinned as being more favorable than dark-skinned (Maddox & Gray, 2002; Perdue, Young, Balam,
At first glance, it appears that body image researchers have not just focused on the individual. Nearly every researcher in this field acknowledges the essential role that cultural norms for appearance play in the development of one’s body image. They have even gone as far as recognizing the gender differences in appearance norms in our culture. Men are held to a standard of a moderate, muscular built that generally matches the size and shape of the average man, but women are compared to a cultural ideal that has thinned beyond belief (Wolszon 545). The Miss America contestants have become so thin that most are fifteen percent below their recommended weight for their height, a sympt...
McCabeLina, M.A., & Ridge, A.R. (2006). "Who thinks I need a perfect body?" Perceptions and internal dialogue among adolescents about their bodies. Sex Roles, 55(5-6), 409-419.
Gordon, Maya. "Media contributions to african american girls' focus on beauty and appearance: exploring the consequences of sexual objectification." Psychology of Women Quarterly 32.3 (2008): 245-256. ERIC. Web. 18 Sept. 2011.
Mackler, Carolyn. Body Outlaws: Rewriting the Rules of Beauty and Body Image. Ed. Ophira Edut. Emeryville, CA: Seal, 2004. Print.
The media is a fascinating tool; it can deliver entertainment, self-help, intellectual knowledge, information, and a variety of other positive influences; however, despite its advances for the good of our society is has a particular blemish in its physique that targets young women. This blemish is seen in the unrealistic body images that it presents, and the inconsiderate method of delivery that forces its audience into interest and attendance. Women are bombarded with messages from every media source to change their bodies, buy specific products and redefine their opinion of beauty to the point where it becomes not only a psychological disease, but a physical one as well.
The "Body Image" - "The Body Image" Readings for Writers. 14th ed. of the year. Boston: Monica Eckman, 2013. 310.
Wolf, Naomi, Ed. The beauty myth: How images of beauty are used against women. Random House, 1991.Web. 28 March. 2014.
"Introduction to Body Image: Teen Decisions." Body Image. Ed. Auriana Ojeda. San Diego: Greenhaven Press, 2003. Teen Decisions. Opposing Viewpoints in Context. Web. 20 May 2014.
Graydon, Shari. "How the Media Keeps Us Hung Up on Body Image." Herizons 22.1 (2008): n. pag. Web. 5 Mar 2010.
Weight has clearly played a profound role in the conceptualization of the black race, not only from without it, but also from within it. With race and fatness so tightly intertwined within black representations and stereotypes, fatness has been of particular significance within scholarly research and study. Most studies claim to have found a correlation between race and acceptance of excessive weight. Studies claim that, despite their exclusion from hegemonic beauty standards and femininity black women, and fat black women, in particular, are perceived to be more satisfied with their bodies than white women and less likely to let weight influence their perception of attractiveness. Beyond black female perception, some studies claim that black
Rosenblum, G. and Lewis, M. "The relations among body image, physical attractiveness, and body mass in adolescence." Child Development 70.1 (1999): 50-64. doi: 10.1111/1467-8624.00005
It seems that the media’s portrayal of women has negatively affected the body image of The Wykeham Collegiate senior school girls. The media has a negative effect on the youth of today, primarily amongst the female population when it comes to how young girls and women regard their bodies.