Essay On The Ideal Body Image

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. ...

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...factors to attain the ‘perfect’ body.

Risk factors are common among those who view social media, especially young woman attempting to maintain the ‘ideal’ body image through social comparison. Young woman go from extreme to extreme stepping towards starvation, anorexia. Maybe, even the dieting scene. Yet, young woman see ‘more’ results through self-starvation. (Blackwell 2000, Dittmar 2009, Sohn 2009). According to Sohn (2009), “only the thinnest 5% of women in a normal weight distribution approximate this ideal” (23). When a young lady sees another young lady that pertains to the 5% of woman that fit the ‘body perfect’ image naturally, they believe it is a natural image to pertain themselves. “Women don’t set out to be anorexic, they begin by thinking they’re too fat because everywhere they go the media is telling them that they are right” (Blackwell 2000, 367).