Advertisments surround us on a daily basis. Constantly bombarding our conscious and subconscious minds with consumer items and suggestive material. But how much of that impacts the mind of young adults? More specifically how does the constant incursion of beauty advertisements impact young women? Media, any form of mass communication- is one of the biggest factors in this widespread problem. Through the use of media, ideas, images, expectations of perfection is broadcasted throughout the country and on most occasions throughout the world. The portrayal of beauty in the media has contributed to a variety of psychological problems such as: misinterpretation of beauty, early exploration of sexuality and lowered sense of self worth which later leads to eating disorders. Technology is growing at an alarming exponential rate. With new technology comes new ways to manipulate a photo to make the ideal woman. The use of photoshop and other photo manipulation software creates an impossible body type that girls aspire for. A body type that mirrors a skeletal mannequin in a department store draped with the new seasons trending clothes designs. A body type that women die for. But what we really see in magazines, plastered all over giant billboards and strewn across our television sets is nothing more than a well produced lie. We now live in a world in which we don’t even have to take a step outside in order to be judged we can do that with a little device that the majority of us carry in our pockets; our smartphones. Apps designed to rate a person's beauty such as “hot or not”, social media sites that constantly berate a person’s appearance, and a giant advertisement industry that wants the latest beauty product in your home in ... ... middle of paper ... ...Kesselman, A., McNair, L. D., & Schniedewind, N. (2008). Walker. Women Images and Realities A Multicultural Anthology (). New York: The McGraw-Hill Companies Inc.. Kilbourne, J. (Director). (1995). Slim hopes United States: Media Education Foundation. Papadopoulos, F., Ekbom, A., Brandt, L., & Ekselius, L. Excess mortality, causes of death and prognostic factors in anorexia nervosa. BJPsych, 194, 10-17. Retrieved May 10, 2014, from http://bjp.rcpsych.org/content/194/1/10.full.pdf+html Saprio, V. (2003). Women in American Society an introduction to women's studies. New York: The McGraw-Hill Companies Inc.. `South Shore Eating Disorders Collaborative. “Get Real Barbie” Fact sheet. [Review of the book Body Wars, by Margo Maine] Retrieved from http://www.chapman.edu/students/health-and-safety/psychological-counseling/_files/eating-disorder-files/13-barbie-facts.pdf
Beauty is a cruel mistress. Every day, Americans are bombarded by images of flawless women with perfect hair and smooth skin, tiny waists and generous busts. They are presented to us draped in designer clothing, looking sultry or perky or anywhere in between. And although the picture itself is alluring, the reality behind the visage is much more sinister. They are representations of beauty ideals, sirens that silently screech “this is what a woman is supposed to look like!” Through means of media distribution and physical alteration, technology has created unrealistic beauty ideals, resulting in distorted female body images.
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.
From the moment we wake up in the morning media is at our finger tips. As our day goes on we cannot escape all the visual media. One image after another a person’s self-confidence is either boosted or destroyed. Through the use of Photoshop a picture can be altered to get the perfect figure, skin, and hair, but when is the line drawn, when has it gone too far. Hailey Magee takes a stand when it comes to the ethics behind Photoshop in the world of beauty, “In this “Ethical Inquiry” we explore the ethics of digitally altering photos of individuals so as to make the subjects appear “more beautiful” in alignment with cultural standards of beauty”. Shiela Reaves, Jacqueline Bush Hitchon, Sung–Yeon parks, and Gi Woong Yun agree with Hailey Magee in the discussion of photo manipulation in beauty and fashion. “This study is concerned with the moral dilemma that stems from the digital manipulation of magazine ads to render models thinner. Exposure to the “thin ideal” has been linked to such damaging psychological responses as body dissatisfaction, loss of self-esteem, and to eating disorders”. Women and men are constantly affected by exposure to models that achieve the unrealistic beauty outcome of the media. Using the theories of social comparison and cultivation/ media literacy we are able to explain why photo manipulation makes women take on the thin-ideal. In the media driven world photo manipulation has become an accepted practice since it increases sales and fulfils the “thin ideal”, but the emotional and physical damage it has on women is catastrophic.
The documentary Killing Us Softly 4 discusses and examines the role of women in advertisements and the effects of the ads throughout history. The film begins by inspecting a variety of old ads. The speaker, Jean Kilbourne, then discusses and dissects each ad describing the messages of the advertisements and the subliminal meanings they evoke. The commercials from the past and now differ in some respects but they still suggest the same messages. These messages include but are not limited to the following: women are sexual objects, physical appearance is everything, and women are naturally inferior then men. Kilbourne discusses that because individuals are surrounded by media and advertisements everywhere they go, that these messages become real attitudes and mindsets in men and women. Women believe they must achieve a level of beauty similar to models they see in magazines and television commercials. On the other hand, men expect real women to have the same characteristics and look as beautiful as the women pictured in ads. However, even though women may diet and exercise, the reality...
Imagine being a 5 year old girl playing with baby dolls and brushing your Barbie doll’s hair and feeling fat. A 5 year old feeling fat sounds crazy, right? Well with the influence Barbie has had for years is causing girls younger and younger to feel that their body is not “perfect”. Eating disorders, unrealistic expectations, and self-confidence are all at jeopardy once a young girl is rewarded with her first Barbie doll.
In a brilliant update of the Killing Us Softly series, Jean Kilbourne explains the dangers of advertisements and how they objectify women. Advertisements intelligently portray women in a sexual and distorted way in order to attract the consumers’ attention. Media sets a standard on how young women view themselves and puts them at risk for developing an eating disorder. Kilbourne’s research has led her to educate those who have fallen victim to achieving the “ideal beauty” that has evolved in today’s society.
The most fashionable, sought after magazines in any local store are saturated with beautiful, thin women acting as a sexy ornament on the cover. Commercials on TV feature lean, tall women promoting unlimited things from new clothes to as simple as a toothbrush. The media presents an unrealistic body type for girls to look up to, not images we can relate to in everyday life. When walking around in the city, very few people look like the women in commercials, some thin, but nothing similar to the cat walk model. As often as we see these flawless images float across the TV screen or in magazines, it ...
There are numerous ways people are manipulated by the media, but the concern of outward appearances has always been one of the main portals the media uses when advertising. Everyday, people come across some type of advertisement, wither it be watching television, seeing billboards, reading magazines, or listening to the radio. These advertisements all instill into people’s heads, what they are is not good enough. Most advertisements show photos of women and men with no wrinkles and flawless skin, no fat and built bodies, or stylish clothes and trendy accessories. These types of advertisements give men and women an unrealistic perspective of what they “could” look like, not suggesting the people being shown are naturally beautiful to begin with, but implying the allusion; one could look like this if this product is used. These types of strategies are used by companies continuously, manipulating the world into believing they can change themselves just by buying their product. Advertisements with reference to outward appearances commonly focus on three different aspects of societies concerns; stopping signs of aging or reversing it, losing weight or getting into shape, and wearing certain clothes, in turn, allowing a person to fit into societies superficial view of how one should appear on the surface.
In modern society there is more and more digital editing without the knowledge of consumers. Currently there are various reasons for why women develop negative body image, low-self-esteem and eating disorders. According to Naomi Wolf in her novel “Beauty Myth”, one of the many reasons women obtain concerns with their bodies is due to the universal images of young female bodies presented through advertisements in fashion magazines. Advertisements in magazines are altering and shaping the desires of men and women. Magazines sell viewers images of beautiful, skinny, flawless confident young women. When people are constantly antagonized with the magazine industry’s ideal of “perfect beauty” the viewer’s then, subconsciously believe these images to be true and begin to form biases about what they themselves should look like and what other people must also look like. People who view magazines get mislead by advertisers because they are unaware that all the images displayed are digitally altered through Photoshop and airbrushing. Today’s magazines are formed completely on false ideals of flawless beauty and unattainable body images, to prevent women and men from falling victim to the magazine’s deceitful images we as a society need to become aware and educate ourselves.
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...
Low self esteem and an unhealthy body image will only grow stronger for a teenage girl if she views underweight and unhealthy advertisements of models looking happy with themselves. At these young ages, they do not understand how unrealistic the standards media have created, as most adult women do not fully grasp it. It is not only media that is forming these problems, but society is to blame as well. In the article The Beauty Myth and Female Consumers: The Controversial Role of Advertising, the authors state “advertising has been vilified for upholding-perhaps even creating-the emaciated standard of beauty by which girls are taught from childhood to judge the worth of their own bodies”(Stephens & Hill, 1994). Children have more access to media now than ever before, which is furthering their exposure to these ideals of looking slim and beautiful for girls, and strong and muscular for boys. From a young age, girls are being told “ you're not pretty enough” or “ you’re too fat”. These phrases only heighten their already low self esteem. It is essential that girls at a young age learn to love their bodies, that no matter how tall or how thin, they are perfect the way they
In a study conducted by Dove cosmetics, it was found that only a shocking four percent of women consider themselves beautiful. The study saw FBI-trained sketch artist, Gil Zamora, sketch women according to their own description and that of a stranger. Zamora had his back to the woman and they were separated by a curtain. He placed the completed drawings side-by-side for the woman to see. In every instance, the description, as told by the stranger, was more flattering than the woman’s description of herself. Women’s magazines are filled with suggestions and tutorials about how to “look better” all the while showing these unattainable physiques and standards. These magazines and ads plant the idea in women’s minds that they are not good enough, that they need this improvement and that they will be happier once they get it. Women turn to these magazines as a source of help and guidance in trying to alter their appearance to more closely resemble these images, yet in doing so, see more and more of these “perfect” images and feel less and less secure about
Alexandra Scaturchio, in her article “Women in Media” (2008) describes the media’s idea of beauty as superficial. She supports her argument by placing two pictures side-by-side; a picture of a real, normal-looking woman and her picture after it has been severely digitally enhanced. Her purpose is to show young teenage girls that the models they envy for their looks are not real people, but computer designs. She also states, “the media truly distorts the truth and instills in women this false hope because…they will live their lives never truly attaining this ideal appearance”. Scaturchio wants her readers to realize the media’s distorting capabilities and feel beautiful about themselves, even with flaws.
The average American is exposed to hundreds of advertisements per day. Advertisements targeted toward females have an enormous effect on women's thoughts, attitudes, perceptions, and actions. Most of the time, women don't even realize these advertisements are formulating self-image issues. These ideals surround them daily and they become naturalized to the ads. Advertising creates an entire worldview persuading women to emulate the images they see all around them. In order to create a market for their products, companies constantly prey upon women's self esteem, to feel like they aren't good enough just the way they are. This makes women constantly feel stressed out about their appearance (Moore). Advertising has a negative effect on women's body image, health, and self-esteem.
In today’s world, advertising reaches and influences teens in both negative and positive ways. Teens are bombarded with ads through television, teen magazines, radio, and the internet. Advertisers know teen’s buying power and their willingness to spend their money. Many companies even hire teens to be “consultants” and trendspotters. They want to know what teens are thinking and their likes and dislikes. Some feel this is a good thing and that teens are letting companies know what they want. On the other hand, many believe all this advertising to teens has a negative impact on them. Ads show models with “perfect” bodies. “Every year, the average adolescent sees over 5,000 advertisements mentioning attractiveness” (Haugen). Some feel this leads to teens having low self-esteem, while others argue that it does not have an effect. These people believe teens have the power and control in the advertising world.