Are you a woman that has ever experienced body-dissatisfaction from just viewing social media and traditional media alone? Have you ever felt the need to change the way you look and also the way you feel and act just to believe you fit into society? In today’s world, many women of all different ages are constantly being pressured into having that impeccable body that a lot of present-day women desire. No matter what age a person is, everyone longs to feel wanted and everyone needs to feel as if they are accepted. The issue of women’s body image problems is greatly significant in today’s society. Many women around the world today are experiencing or have experienced body-dissatisfaction in their everyday lives. I believe that society does affect …show more content…
how women want to portray their bodies, because there is too much societal pressure on women and young girls to have a perfect body, social media continues to use skinny models to promote their products, and after girl’s view social media sites they feel the need to change themselves. While arguing my issue of women portraying their bodies, one aspect that is important to discuss is the societal pressure on women. Many people around the world expect women to be perfect, and they expect to look like the models on social media sites and the television. The pressure on women makes many women feel insecure about their own bodies, and this also make women want to change themselves to be socially acceptable. I also believe that all types of media have the influence to change how women see themselves and also pressure them into wanting to change. No matter what age a person is, everyone longs to feel wanted and everyone needs to feel as if they are accepted. According to Stronge, et al, professors of Psychology at Universities in New Zealand and Australia, “We expect that middle-aged women in particular are a vulnerable population, due to increasing pressure to conform to youthful beauty standards” (200). What Stronge, et al. is discussing is that pressure continues to increase and middle-aged women are being affected. Stronge, et al. also stated, “In general, men reported higher body satisfaction than women, as has been consistently found in previous research” (209). In other words, Stronge, et al. believes that research continues to find that men have a higher body satisfaction rate than women. Overall men tend to have more body satisfaction over women. Why are there so many expectations for women over men in today’s society? Today women feel like they all need to look perfect to be perfect, but in reality all the women in the world are still going to look absolutely different no matter how hard they try to change to look like another person. Girls experience more pressure from society than boys do, and boys relatively have more body satisfaction. Although I believe that there is too much pressure on women, on the other hand, some professors who study body image argue otherwise.
Many people may think that there isn’t too much pressure on women, and women can change themselves if they want, not because of society and the social media sites. Many women not be experiencing too much pressure, and they might like the way they are without feeling the need to change themselves. Prieler and Choi, professors of communication in South Korea disagree with me when saying, “Some of these body concerns are highly prominent in certain parts of the world but not found in others, which again emphasizes the importance of considering culture in body image research” (382). In the article, Prieler and Choi are saying that culture is a main factor when discussing the issue of body image disturbances. While the issue of body image disturbances is highly prominent where I live, it may not be such a big deal in other places around the world. While Prieler and Choi have a point, I disagree because although there might be not as much body-shaming on women in other countries, that doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist at all. The pressure on women is still there and prominent. McCabe, et al, professors of Psychology and Health Sciences in Australia and the United Kingdom agree with me when stating, “Ricciardelli, McCabe, and Banfield found that adolescent boys indicated that the messages they received from their peers and the media made them feel …show more content…
satisfied with their bodies” (410). McCabe, et al. is saying that many adolescent boys received messages from their peers, but overall the messages were positive and they increased the boys’ satisfaction level. Also, Richard Perloff, professor of Communication at Cleveland State University in Cleveland, Ohio states, “Yet given the heavy online presence of young adults, particularly women, and their reliance on social media, it is important to appreciate ways that social media can influence perceptions of body image and body image disturbance” (363). I agree with Perloff, because he is saying that social media is very influential to women because women rely on the social media sites heavily. The studies of societal pressure on women continue to show that in fact women are experiencing more pressure than men and young boys do. Girls experience more pressure from society than boys do, and boys relatively have more body satisfaction. Young boys and men don’t experience the same pressure women and young girls in today’s society do. This information shows that there is a lot of women who use social media, and as a consequence those women may experience body dissatisfaction, and body image disturbances. Another reason I believe today’s society does affect how women want to portray their bodies is because companies continue to use tall and skinny models to promote their products. Women are constantly looking at social media sites. I believe that women may view social media a lot more than men do these days. No matter what the reason is that women view social media sites, all social media has an overwhelmingly amount of ads with models that are promoting products. These companies use models that continuously promote the thin ideal. According to Perloff, “Scores of experiments have demonstrated that exposure to thin-ideal media images increases women’s dissatisfaction with their bodies, as well as negative affect” (363). In Perloff’s view women’s exposure to the thin ideal increases women’s body-dissatisfaction. In Stronge, et al’s view, “Nonetheless, media consumption has certainly increased and changed over the past few decades, so it is unlikely that there is no impact from this change on body image” (210). Stronge, et al. is saying that the consumption of media is increasing and this is also making body image issues increase. When women go online and see the ideal bodies for women from the skinny and tall models, the women want to change themselves to look like the models do, this then leads to body dissatisfaction and eating disorders. Although the media may be beginning to use more normal structured models, there are still many companies that continue to promote the thin ideal and that being skinny is just overall better. Many women these days continue to look at social media and continue to see the tall and skinny models that companies use to promote their products. After seeing models women start to desire to look like them, and they desire to become thinner. This continues to happen so much to women around the world that it is considered “normal”. While I believe the thin ideal among models is very prominent, professors of Psychology may disagree.
Some people may believe that although social media sites and the television mostly use tall and skinny models to promote their products, some companies are starting to use more real life looking models which don’t promote the thin ideal. Dohnt and Tiggemann, professors of Psychology at Flinders University in South Australia agree with the fact that social media doesn’t promote the thin ideal when stating, “There was, however no relationship between media exposure and the cognitive measure of body image” (149). Dohnt and Tiggemannn are mistaken because studies have shown that companies do in fact continue to use tall and skinny models to promote their products, which then make women want to change themselves because they feel they need to look like everyone on the internet. McCabe, et al. agree with me when saying, “For adolescent girls, the media transmits these messages almost exclusively by depicting role models with slender bodies who are rewarded for having attained the thin ideal” (410). In making this comment McCabe, et al. believe that the media continues to reward models who are thin. Prieler and Choi also agree with me when saying, “For example, internet reports about celebrities receiving free cosmetic surgery in return for promoting a clinic via social media, including online communities and blogs, are actively discussing and promoting cosmetic surgery, which may
influence social media users” (383). Prieler and Choi’s point is that many famous people like models receive free cosmetic surgeries if they promote the surgeries on social media, which then influences women to want to change. Many young girls and women go on social media websites and watch TV and see the skinny models. This then promotes the thin ideal and then many women strive to look like the models on the TV or social media websites. Social media is not changing and companies continue to promote that women need to change. Social media sites continue to promote services that they thing will make women look better, and this makes women become insecure about their bodies and it makes women want to change themselves. Besides the pressure on women and the thin ideal in the media, a final reason social media affects the way women want to portray their bodies is because social media is making young girls and women feel the need to change. Our world today is constantly revolving around the use of the internet and the social media sites. When women are constantly viewing social media they are continuously seeing models and famous people promoting the thin ideal, and this make women and even young girls feel the need to change. Many women feel like they are expected to look like the famous people and models everyone sees on social media. In today’s society, I also believe that all types of media have the influence to change how women see themselves and also pressure them into wanting to change. Professors Stronge, et al. agree with me when saying, “There is also evidence of a gender divide in body dissatisfaction among New Zealand youth, with approximately two-thirds of female students indicating that they had tried to lose weight within the past year” (201). Basically, Stronge, et al. are saying that when they conducted a study in New Zealand the results showed that two-thirds of the female students admitted that they had tried to lose weight. Dohnt and Tiggemann agree with the fact that many girls want to change as a result of social media when they state, “As a response to body dissatisfaction, dieting behavior in women and adolescent girls has been well-documented” (141-142). In other words, females are experiencing body-dissatisfaction and as a consequence there has been dieting among women and adolescent girls. I feel that a major factor within body dissatisfaction is that the girls experiencing the body image disturbances feel the need to change, and the women continue to strive to change and look different to feel better. When girls go on social media websites they see what they are not, and then they feel the need to change themselves to look like the models so they start dieting and eating less to become skinnier. While I believe many women want to change themselves as a consequence to social media, a professor of Communication challenge this view because he may argue that women and young girls go on diets, workout, have eating disorders, and body image concerns on choice. Perloff agrees that social media does not lead to body image issues when saying, “Simple exposure to social media or to Facebook-instigated social comparisons with thin attractive friends will not lead to body dissatisfaction in many adolescent girls or adult women” (367). Most of us know that Perloff forgot that researchers found that women and young girls who view social media sites are more likely to have body image disturbances and/or experience body-dissatisfaction than women and young girls who don’t view social media sites. I believe using social media causes women of all ages to see and learn new things every day, but this also can lead into seeing things such as models, cosmetic surgery ads, and weight loss ads, and many other ads trying to convince the women into changing themselves for the better. McCabe, et al agree with me when saying, “Adolescent girls experience high levels of body-dissatisfaction; studies suggest that as many as 90% want to reduce the size of their bodies” (409). In making this comment McCabe, et al. is basically saying that 90% of adolescent girls want to reduce their weight. Prieler and Choi also agree with me when stating, “Dieting and the desire to lose weight are prevalent across all ages of women, even those with normal weight status, and many older women are dissatisfied with their body size, which may be based on a cross-generational influence of the think ideal” (383). Prieler and Choi’s point is that dieting among women is very common. When women look at social media they see other women that look better than them, or so they think. The women then feel the need to change themselves to look like the skinny women that are on the TV and social media websites. Many women in today’s society feel the need to lose weight and be skinny. Within the media many companies promote their products with women who are influenced by the thin ideal. In conclusion, throughout my research the most prominent things I found were that there is too much pressure on women, and as a result of companies using skinny models to promote their products, this makes women feel insecure about their own bodies making them want to change themselves. There are many serious consequences of body-dissatisfaction like eating disorders and bullying among peers. I am a junior girl in high school and I feel pressure every day to look like everyone else, but the truth is that everyone is different and that makes everyone special in their own way. Body shaming against women is a huge problem we have every day. Society makes women feel as if they don’t belong. Many girls are facing the pressure that society these days create. Body-dissatisfaction and the want to change themselves within women is serious, and we as a country that revolves around the internet and social media, need to stop putting women’s bodies to shame.
Advertisers use women that are abnormally thin, and even airbrush them to make them appear thinner. These advertisers promote a body image that is completely unrealistic and impossible to achieve (Dohnt & Tiggemann, 2006b). It has been instilled in these advertisers’ minds that a thinner model will sell more (Hargreaves & Tiggemann, 2003). Media has a direc...
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 various and changing body images presented by media perplexes women. As the changes happen, women should keep up or risk missing out. This obsession gives a negative effect to both ends of the spectrum. Women who could not cope get depressed while those who could cope fear of not being able to cope enough. The race to social norms’ acceptance follows a feedback loop that reinforces its inputs and thus gives an even worse output. This is the dilemma faced by women since the beginning of time. As long as people submit to media’s demands and trust social norms’ stipulations, this cycle of cultural dominion will never end.
I chose to read the book titled “Understanding the Causes of Negative Body Image” by Barbara Moe because I plan on focusing my research paper on how the media has strong control over women’s development of self-esteem and body image. The message that the media is sending creates the context within which people learn to value size and shape of their body.
This painting was created in 1509 and a section from the plaque below the painting reads “This mysterious painting is meant to be an allegory of Poetry, whose symbols – the flute and the pouring water – are shared between two nude women of ideal beauty. These unreal figures exist only in the imaginations of the two men they inspire.” This painting shows that just over 500 years ago the ideal body was one of robust and physically larger women.
Body image is a hot topic in the media. Unrealistic and unattainable are words that can be used to describe images in the media. Skinny, waif-like women and muscular, Rambo-like men are the idolized body images portrayed. In the media female models keep getting thinner and thinner while men keep getting more muscular. Many say the media and its depictions of the ideal body weight created the problems of low self-esteem, eating disorders, poor body concepts, and sexism through spotlighting unattainable body image icons.
Many teens today are faced with unrealistic body standards. Social media has an huge influence on how teens see their body. They may see a model or their favorite celebrity and ask themselves why don't they look like that, or how can they look like that. These body standards can cause some to body shame others. As social media continues to deem what is attractive and what is not, the number of women dissatisfied with their body will increase.
Some may say that the media does not have much of a substantial influence on young adults, but some at risk teens have cited that their reasoning behind their development of eating disorders are in response to the many adverts and images that are represented in social media culture. The media in today’s society continuously advocates images of falsely induced perfection women all around the world. The industry that controls what people see on television and in advertisements knows that only a small percentage of average individuals possess these attributes or fit their set high standard of beauty. The idea that one can never be “too rich”, or “too thin” is prevalent in the media as well as in most media oriented images. Social media’s use of unrealistic models send an implicit message, that in order for a woman to be considered up to an acceptable standard, they must be in some sense of the word unhealthy, most people who are being portrayed in advertisements are well below the range of being considered healthy. To understand the reasoning behind why women and even men take this idea of body image to extremes, the term body image needs to be examined. Body image is how an individual feels when they look in the mirror or when they picture themselves in their own mind. It encompasses it what some one believes about their own appearance (including memories, assumptions, and generalizations). Never showing goals or putting emphasize on education or academic achievements. Objectifying the body and making it seem as though appearance is the only achievement to be set in one’s life place little room is placed on young men and women to have more focus on more educational goals.
Ever since the development of the media such as television, the internet, various fashion magazines and commercial advertisements, society focused more and more on personal appearances. Not only were runway models becoming slimmer but the viewers that watched and read about them were becoming more concerned with their weight. In the past fifty years the number of adolescent girls developing eating disorders increased just as television, advertisements, and magazines were becoming a social norm that was easily and often available. Today, more than ever, adolescents are worrying about weight, shape, size and body image and. It does not help that these children are growing up in a world filled with media material emphasizing dangerously skinny bodies as beautiful and perfect. Anne Morris and Debra Katzman, authors of “The Impact of the Media on Eating Disorders in Children and Adolescents” argue that the media is corrupting individuals to develop eating disorders and body dissatisfaction. “Exploring the Role Society and the Media Play in the Development of an Eating Disorder and the Media Influence on Eating Disorders” claims that there are other factors leading to eating disorders other than media, such as genetics, or public and cultural pressure. "Body Image Within the Vandy Bubble" defends the argument by saying that although media is causing harm in society by portraying extremely thin women and that beauty and thinness go hand in hand, but there are media corporations that are positively informing individuals about healthy body image.
In a society similar to the one of the United States, individual’s body images are placed on a pedestal. Society is extremely powerful in the sense that it has the capability of creating or breaking a person’s own views of his or her self worth. The pressure can take over and make people conduct in unhealthy behavior till reaching the unrealistic views of “perfection.” In an article by Caroline Heldman, titled Out-of-Body Image, the author explains the significance of self-objectification and woman’s body image. Jennifer L. Derenne made a similar argument in her article titled, Body Image, Media, and Eating Disorders. Multiple articles and books have been published on the issue in regards to getting people to have more positive views on themselves. Typically female have had a more difficult time when relating to body image and self worth. Society tends to put more pressure on women to live to achieve this high ideal. Body image will always be a concern as long as society puts the pressure on people; there are multiple pressures placed and theses pressures tend to leave an impact on people’s images of themselves.
Researchers have used various abstract foundations for examining the relationship between media and body image ( Holmstrom, 2004). Here I review the theory that has been used by researcher in the area. Bandura’s Social cognitive theory (1994) assumed that “people learn and model the behaviors of attractive others”. The supporters of this theory suggest that young women find slim models in the media attractive and try to imitate them through dieting which leads them to eating disorders.
In this age, media is more pervasive than ever, with people constantly processing some form of entertainment, advertisement or information. In each of these outlets there exists an idealized standard of beauty, statistically shown to effect the consumer’s reflection of themselves. The common portrayal of women’s bodies in the media has shown to have a negative impact on women and girls. As the audience sees these images, an expectation is made of what is normal. This norm does not correspond to the realistic average of the audience. Failing to achieve this isolates the individual, and is particularly psychologically harmful to women. Though men are also shown to also be effected negatively by low self-esteem from the media, there remains a gap as the value of appearance is seen of greater significance to women, with a booming cosmetic industry, majority of the fashion world, and the marketing of diet products and programs specifically targeting women.
As prom season goes by, I realized there’s a problem with our society. If women have an hourglass shape or thin shaped body there being rated high on the scale of “the perfect body image." The media manipulates women by establishing an unachievable standard of beauty and body perfection. This manipulation has led women to dissatisfaction with their bodies.The media’s influence on body image has established an unachievable standard of beauty and body perfection.Images of women in magazines and on the television have impacted a woman's sense of body satisfaction.This has created an unhealthy obsession with images of beauty and the idea of perfection in our society.The media that controls the magazines and television has caused social pressures that mentally urge women to maintain the image that pertains to their ethnicity and culture. This has set a trend, indoctrinating female from childhood and adolescence which later on brainwashes them into maintaining a specific body image causing negative effects in adulthood.
It has been said time and time again that media heavily influences the desastisfied body image, may women and girls enconter. Previous studies have shown how over expouser to the hyper-sexualized ads and images in the media lead to a distortion of body image in women and girls. However, there is yet another factor that influences the decline of body image just as much. Peer competition has been shown to contribute to this decline as well. Peer competition is any rivarly for supermacy amongst those of the same age group or social group. A recent study shows that women’s body dissatisfaction is influenced by peer competition with other rather than depictions of women in the media. Muñoz and Ferguson, (2012) developed a study in order to further understand the influence of inter-peer pressure in body dissatisfaction.
Body image is the mental image of one 's own body. Body image is very important because the majority of people think about their appearance and how they look all day long. Many people today have a very poor body image. The causes of poor body image include: body size, bullying, media, low self-esteem, depression, and even gender. Body image also has some very unhealthy effects on men and women. Body image in our world today is at an all-time low, but there are many ways to help improve it. The most important ways are to focus on the good and positive talents he or she has and to not compare his or her body to another individual’s body.