“By producing ideals that are absurdly out of line with what real bodies look like, the media perpetuates a market for frustration and disappointment. Its customers will never disappear”, announced Paul Hamburg, Harvard Medical School. The media projects an ideal of perfection unattainable by the viewing public, therefore causing a negative effect on how adolescents view their bodies. Advertisements can be seen anywhere: televisions, movies, magazines, billboards, and even on the internet.
The media portrays physical perfection as the main goal that viewers should strive to achieve. According to the American Association of University Women, “the way I look” is the most important indicator of self-worth. The media has influenced all people to believe that our self values are measured by our attractiveness and appeal. It has been proven that only about 5% of women have the genetic makeup to ever be able to achieve the ultra-long and lean model body type. This proves that women all over the country are fighting a battle that can’t be won; a battle against themselves. Also, twenty-five years ago the average female body was 8% less than the average American woman’s body. Now, the average model weighs 23% below her average weight.
Media advertisement agencies don’t disclose the actual photo retouch process, therefore convincing viewers that the model’s body is natural. The media tricks viewers in multiple ways. Before a photo has even been shot, special lighting techniques are used by the photographer to manipulate the appearance of the photo. Next, the photo retouch process begins. This process can tweak certain parts of the model’s body to make it more appealing, or perfect. Body parts can even be replaced with another’s if the a...
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In recent years, sociologists, psychologists, and medical experts have gone to great lengths about the growing problem of body image. This literature review examines the sociological impact of media-induced body image on women, specifically women under the age of 18. Although most individuals make light of the ideal body image most will agree that today’s pop-culture is inherently hurting the youth by representing false images and unhealthy habits. The paper compares the media-induced ideal body image with significant role models of today’s youth and the surrounding historical icons of pop-culture while exploring various sociological perspectives surrounding this issue.
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...
Kasey Serdar (2005) argues that only a small number of women can actually fulfill the characteristics of what media defines beautiful. Yet, women are constantly being exposed to the ideal women image. Serdar (2005) illustrates that “models shown on television, advertisement, and in other forms of popular media are approximately 20% below ideal body weight, thus meeting the dia...
O’Dea, J. (1995). Body image and nutritional status among adolescents and adults. Journal of Nutrition & Dietetics, 25, 56-67.
The media’s depiction of female bodies has a detrimental influence on women’s perception of themselves and has come under fire in recent years. Girls growing up in our media soaked culture internalize society’s ever-thinning standard of beauty, believing that they can never be slender enough. The negative effect of the media has been linked to the spread of eating disorders (“Never Just Pictures”, Thompson). This has led to a public outcry against impossibly thin, airbrushed models and a demand for more honest advertising.
Recent studies have shown that approximately 75 percent of adolescent females wish to be thinner and over 35 percent of them resort to drastic extremes to achieve the new “thin ideal.” (Body Dissatisfaction in Early Adolescent Girls) Today in our culture, this ideal of body image is portrayed in every aspect of our lives. We see a representation of attractive, extremely thin women in magazines, television shows, movies, commercials, etc. The new body image, which today is described as being perfect, is a new, unrealistic standard of skinny. This type of representation presented by the media compels female adolescents to view themselves in negative ways which results in eating disorders, body dissatisfaction, or even depression. The new standard of the “thin ideal,” according to society, is simply unattainable and irrational. So the question still remains: How has the media altered female adolescence’s perspectives on the “perfect” body image, and how has this changed our female society?
Media has a negative impact on females’ body image by promoting artificial beauty. Women often become dissatisfied with their bodies, which cause them to develop eating disorders. Body image affects a woman’s perceptions and feelings about their physical appearance when looking in the mirror. The media portrays unrealistic beauty of women who are thin with perfect hair and make-up. Many women who expose themselves to the unrealistic standards of the media often idealize, covet, and become very insecure. The many women who do not expose themselves would influence others to perceive their physical appearances as beautiful. “Many popular magazines for females tell women to focus on their physical, outer attributes (i.e. body shape, muscle tone, bone structure, hair, makeup, clothing, etc.) and rarely mention the importance of being smart, sophisticated, funny and/or possessing many other positive attributes that have nothing to do with physical attributes” (Sparhawk 1). Obviously, the media’s representation of the thin ideal connects to the majority of body dissatisfaction and eating disorders. In other words, the media’s use of unrealistic women sends a hidden message that in order for women to be beautiful they must be unhealthy. The importance of physical appearance is encouraged at an early development for most girls. For these reasons, the connection between media and body image is very important because low body image will lead to eating disorders and potentially death.
Different Thin Ideal Media On Body Image." Sex Roles 65.7/8 (2011): 478-490. Academic Search Complete. Web. 3 Nov. 2013.
Everyday all over the world young women is skipping a meal, maybe two or even starving themselves the whole day, because of the unattainable ideal body image the beauty industry have created.This is an issue to the world because the because is sending a negative message to women all over the world. This message makes women feel guilty about themselves. “Woman are deemed below the beauty standard and then made to feel guilty so that they purchase beauty products.” (Nicolosi and Sarvani) If this issue is not solved it will increase, and the ideal body image will keep on getting less attainable for the average woman. “It is commonly known that the average model during the 1950s wore a size 8 and the average woman a size 10: today the average model wears a size 2 and in contrast the average woman now wears a size 12” (Childress) These facts show that the beauty industry is sending a wrong message to women about what being healthy...
"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.
Whether it’s your phone, your television, or your magazines, it’s a constant thing in one’s life. The media is designed to reach large markets through the use of technology. The media uses stereotypes to market and portray what a "perfect" body should look like. Often times when women are shown in the media they are unrealistically thin, and have airbrushed skin. The same could be said for men, but with big muscles and washboard abs. The media gives off the idea that these bodies are normal when in reality it can be somewhat unrealistic. This can be damaging to a teen’s self image because they have a certain expectation of themselves without being able to attain it. In 2003, Teen Magazine reported that 35 percent of girls 6 to 12 years old have been on at least one diet, and that 50 to 70 percent of normal weight girls believe they are overweight. Boys may also feel pressured to do things such as weight training and steroids to achieve that “perfect”
Kilbourne, Jeane. “Killing Us Softly 4.” Tru Tube. Tru Tube. 2010. Web. 13 May 2014.
“Adolescent girl and Body image.” National Association of Social Worker. National Association of Social Worker Web. 18 Nov 2013
The mass media plays a large role in shaping a teenage and adolescent girl’s body image. By pushing an ideal body type that is uncommon and untrue to life, girls strive, and struggle to obtain this image. When the mass media only shows one type of body as desirable, they are alienating every girl who does not fit into that category. Pushing these ideal bodies onto teenage girls at an important developmental time in their lives can be detrimental to their bodies and their self worth. By showing what a girl should look like, the mass media is damaging the body images of young girls, and unless awareness is raised, could become more and more adverse on young women today and tomorrow.