Many people in modern culture have developed what has been termed a normative discontent with their bodies. Women are particularly vulnerable to this development of body dissatisfaction, which has been shown to create numerous negative heath issues. These health issues are a direct result from trying to achieve the unrealistic ideal image media has created. This idea on how the body should look floods modern media and women are discriminated upon if they are unable to meet these strict physical requirements. However, unknown to the masses, the majority of the physical characteristics portrayed are achieved from digital enhancement and not only the product of weight loss. It is my goal within this paper to discuss the populations affected by negative media images, discuss the reason why its effects are so great, and to explore the way to reduce the rising trend of body dissatisfaction. Historically, the ideal female body was a strong and full-figured woman that had full curves such as the movie icon, Marilyn Monroe. However, around the 1900s our society’s view on beauty quickly changed as we are now obsessed with the thin physiques we see today. As time progressed, models have gone from thin to emaciated, which has controversy increased the development of problems such as eating disorders. At the same time we have also started to view full-figured women to be unhealthy and lack the self-control you must possess in order to maintain a thin physique. This thin at all costs movement now defines western culture and tells young girls how to look. In 1975, most models weighed 8 percent less than the average woman; today they weigh 23 percent less (Cite why do women hate their body). As models in popular media shed extreme levels of body ... ... middle of paper ... ...land. Young girls soon desired to resemble the slender stars of popular reality television shows such as Beverly Hills 90210 rather than taking after their healthy weighted mothers. In a landmark study of Fijian girls, Harvard researchers concluded the introduction of television greatly contributed to dramatic increases in eating disorders observed within a three year span. After three years of this exposure, 74 percent of teenage girls in Fiji described themselves as fat. Another significant finding in this study was the percent of girl that develop body image issues is directly related to the amount of exposure to western media. Girls who watched television three or more nights a week were 30 percent more likely to go on a diet and 50 percent more likely to describe themselves as ''too big or fat'' when compared to their peers who watched less western television.
The media has promoted a dominant view of how people should perceive beauty, and what consists of perfection in beauty. According to Dr. Karin Jasper, the media have women encouraging them to be concerned with their outward appearance and how others perceive them by surrounding everyone with the ideal female beauty. (Jasper, 2000) Body image has become a particular concern for young girls and women, often females work diligently to attain the perfect body image advertised in mass media. (Gibbs, 2010) When women are not able to obtain their ideal body goal, many develop negative feelings and become self-conscious about their bodies. Conversely, it is not possible for someone to look like a model in ads, someone without blemishes, scars, or pours. Another study conducted in 2012 showed contemporary media and culture has defined a women’s social desirability in terms of their bodies. For females, this has often resulted in comparing themselves to bodies shown in advertisements, commercials, magazines, etc. however not all body
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.
Over the past century, women aesthetic appearance has dramatically changed in western civilization. In the beginning of the 19th century the ideal woman was 5’4 tall and weighed approximately 140 pounds. The Roaring Twenties brought along a more boyish looking woman referred to as a flapper. During the 1930’s, women having larger breasts and fuller waists was the image to achieve. The 1940’s and 50’s presented contraptions such as corsets and push- up bra’s for woman to accentuate thier bust lines. A transformation was brought about in the 1960’s that has swept across the nations of the world with thinner models and a brand new doll modeled after these women: Barbie. Twiggy, a British teen model, took the media by storm. She was the skinniest model ever weighting 89 pounds, standing (“The Perfect Woman”). In the 21st century this craze of being excessively thin has dominated the media and ...
The importance of physical appearance is emphasized and reinforced early in most girl’s development; studies have found that nearly half of females ages 6-8 have said they want to have a slimmer body image (Serdar). Body image is a complicated aspect of the self-concept that concerns an individual’s perceptions and feelings about their body and physical appearance (Serdar). Images in the media today project an unrealistic and even dangerous standard of feminine beauty that can have a powerful influence on the way women view themselves (Serdar). This ‘ideal’ body image is present in mainstream media, and mainstream media are a sources for women to turn to for women with how they should look. (Hendriks, 2002). Images in advertisements, television, and music usually portray the ideal woman as tall, white, thin, no curves, and have blonde hair. Women who are active viewers of media may develop the attitude that thinness is desirable, experience greater body dissatisfaction, and may even partake in weight loos behaviors in attempt to mirror the models and actresses they observe in the media. (Hesse-Biber, Leavy, Quinn, & Zoino, 2006). In recent years, women’s body sizes have grown larger, while societal standards of body shape have become much thinner (Serdar). Only a very small percentage of women in Western countries
Although thin people seem to dominate society, the average size for a woman today is a size twelve. That puts the number of models on a smaller scale, and boosts the number of ordinary girls that make up most of society today. It’s not just about ordinary girls outnumbering models; it’s about the way that the media portrays these models. Slowly, the image of the “thin and beautiful” being the best is going down the drain. Larger models and actresses are taking the places of the “thin.” Hopefully, this will decrease the increasing numbers of anorexics in the United States as well as all over the world.
Paragraph 1- Girls can become victims of eating disorders because of society's promotion of an ideal thin female body. Models and stars shown in the fashion industry, magazines, movies, and other forms of media often appear very thin. These models are not a true reflection of the average female. Many are unnaturally thin, unhealthy or airbrushed. One former Victoria Secret model was shocked by the waiflike models that were shown on the runway during designer shows. A study referenced in the the article “Do Thin Models Warp Girls Body Image” describes how studies of girls as young as first grade think the culture is telling them to model themselves after celebrities who are svelte and beautiful. The same studies showed girls exposed to fashion magazines were most likely to suffer from poor body images. Psychologist and eating disorder experts agree the fashion industry has gone too far in showing dangerously thin images that women and young girls may try to emulate. The use of super slim models and stars, is sending the wrong message to young impressionable girls. These harsh influences lead us to think that thin is ideal body size. Seeing super thin models in the media plays a role in anorexia. Society’s promotion of a thin female body contributes to eating disorders for females striving to achieve this ideal bod...
The media is such an influence on how women and girls view themselves and this is proven in a recent study in Fiji. Up until recently Fiji has been in the dark about media. In this study the eating behaviors or adolescent girls were measured before being exposed to television and after. The results of the study showed that television exposure caused the adolescent girls to have disordered eating habits and behaviors (Spettigue and Henderson).
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 ...
Throughout time, the most controversial subject among female’s health has been body image. Society and our culture molds females’s brains into believing that being thin is what will fulfill complete happiness. Being thin means you are more successful, loved, attractive, and overall truly beautiful. Thin women are seen as having an altogether perfect life. However, there is another female figure that is seen as undesirable, hopeless, mainly disliked by most. This type of woman is the curvy or larger female. If one were to go out on the street and gather a group of men and women and show them the thin vs. large female and which one is more attractive, most would say the thinner is. Thus, we deny the larger women because they do not fit societies norms. Thin women are timid to turn into this other that is not widely accepted. To this extent, society and our culture have constructed a monster.
A study in Fiji was conducted to see if TV had changed women’s views in Fiji (506). Before TV women in Fiji found bigger women to be more attractive and desirable. However, after TV was implemented Girls in Fiji strived to be more and more like the girls in TV, skinny (506-507). "Media images that associate thinness with material success and marketing that promotes the possibility of reshaping the body have supported a perceived nexus between diligence(Work on the body), appearance(thinness), and social and material success..."(509). This study shows what a powerful impact the media can have on young girls. Women are told to be thin through the media not directly but through cryptic messages. This causes many girls to lose body confidence and sometimes starve themselves in order to fit the gender stereotype of girls being
According to Maggie Shiffrar, Ph.D., body dissatisfaction is defined as “a negative subjective evaluation of the weight and shape of one's own body.” Body dissatisfaction develops in both men and women. In an article written by Christopher J Ferguson, women experience more dissatisfaction with their bodies than men. Men suffer from muscular dissatisfaction, whereas women suffer from weight dissatisfaction. This article deems the media as one of the explanations for why this occurs. Women who already suffer from body dissatisfaction are more likely to experience negative outcomes when exposed to the models in fashion
The media can impact people’s lives in many ways, whether it’s fashion, movies, literature, or hobbies. One of the impacts is how women view their bodies. Movie stars and models feel pressured to catch attention and to look good in order to have a good career in their respective field. People tend to judge how someone looks based on their body composition. The result of this “judgment” is that Hollywood is getting skinny. Since models and actresses serve as role models for people, people tend to want to look like them. The result of this seemingly harmless model of behavior is in an increase in eating disorders.
Recently, a lot of controversy has been in the news about the increase in negative body image among women. This negative body image can lead to a number of different problems in individuals including low self-esteem, eating disorders, and depression. Some factors that can influence this increase in negative body image include age, gender peer influence, and family influence. One of the main factors that has been an influence on the way people view themselves is the media. According to Aubrey (2006), “a primary way that an objectifying culture is propagated is through the media” (p. 159). Everything from magazines, television, and celebrities can have an affect on the way people view themselves. The population that is most affected by this problem in our society is young women. Social comparison, which is when someone compares their own body to other’s bodies, is a common factor for thin-ideal internalization and dissatisfaction of their body (Bessenoff, 2006, p. 239).
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...
In the 1950s and 1960s, Marilyn Monroe was iconic for the ideal ‘body perfect’ image. Ranging from a size 10 to 18, with the curvy body everyone fantasied of having. Gawking, awing, and oohing emphasized not only words affected the ‘body perfect’ image, but peoples’ actions did. When did this body image become ‘fat’? In today’s society Marilyn Monroe is consider ‘fat’, how she can go from the iconic ideal body, to an overweight ‘ugly’ woman (Blackwell, 2000). In today’s studies, the ideal ‘body perfect’ image, is ranging from a size 0 to 2, standing at 5’8 feet weighing 110-115 pounds, resembling the looks of a child’s toy called the Barbie (Dittmar 2009, 2). “In the mass media shape and weight define perfection. Women perceive themselves as being bigger than they actually are.” (Blackwell 2000, 367). Placing this as our ideal ‘body perfect’ image, is destroying young adults’ preference of what is beautiful. If you do not look this way, you are ugly, but why do we allow this. Today’s social media portray such an image, destroying a real body image of a real woman. In the past few decades, social media has overtaken what a young adult believes is the ideal ‘body perfect’ image, leaving them in despair to look that way. According to Dittmar (2009) and Sohn (2009) one’s image link negative consequences due to social media. Negative consequences range from eating disorders, low self-esteem, depression, and low self-worth. Attaining these negative consequences results in the idea of maintaining an unrealistic ‘ideal body’. Social media allows young woman to believe thin is ideal, no other way (Sohn 2009, 20). Social media effects young woman in believing the ‘ideal’ body image is socially acceptable allowing one to endanger themselves. ...