Fat Woman Research Paper

The media does indeed present great pressures upon people concerning bodily image. It seems as though all types of media in some form or another, especially toward women in particular. As seen in television, cinema, magazines, the internet and the advertisements thereof, women are covered in makeup and Photoshopped into a form that is unattainable and certainly entirely unhealthy to achieve. The benchmark of beauty is now completely categorized by slim waists, perfect white skin and thigh gaps, a standard that is taught from a young age to be upheld no matter the cost. The Barbie dolls and the Disney princesses teach young girls that men will only want someone with a perfect complexion and an hourglass figure. Men are also somewhat victimized

by this; strong jawlines and big arms and muscles are associated with what is considered “manly” in today’s society. However, men, as a whole, are not nearly as affected by and pressured by media on the entire body image issue.
The new idea of beauty in today’s culture is that of the “Western” woman, a woman with white skin, blonde hair, blue eyes, and the perfect breast size.

This woman is the ideal woman in the eyes of those in America. Many other cultures in the East and in Africa and various other places see beauty differently though. To them a beautiful woman is a fat woman. In their culture obesity is a sign of wealthiness, as she is obviously well-fed. In Mauritania in western Africa, marriageable girls are taken and force-fed to fatten them up and make them more desirable to potential husbands. This practice has been outlawed by their government and is seen as taboo by any of the more “modern” citizens. The force-feeding of Mauritania is in stark contrast to the self-starvation of

America.
The pressures of the media are causing women to be uncomfortable in their own bodies. Due to this, many women and girls have attempted to change their appearances by engaging in such bulimic practices as starvation or self-induced vomiting to attempt to lose weight. Others might undergo surgery to change their physical appearance. The effects of the aforementioned bulimic activities can be nigh disastrous on the body. Surgery isn’t much better, it can also cause a variety of negative effects on the body. Sadly, all of this unrest about appearance has led many into depression and has, undoubtedly, been the cause of suicide many times. So, the issue of body image is quite pressing and need not be ignored.
The industries that are causing all of this are making an absolute fortune off of making young girls feel like starving themselves.

These corporations are businesses such as makeup companies or food industries. They make their profits off marketing their products to women and girls who think the product will make them look better somehow. Due to the unbreakable hand of the businesses, the process of ending body hatred will be a nearly impossible task.

Another less spoken-of reason behind this issue is pornography. Porn completely warps the brain of the people viewing it into thinking that the perfect woman is one with long blonde hair, white skin, big breasts, a slim waist and a large rear end. Porn hyper-sexualizes women to a point that men can barely look at a woman without viewing her in a sexual light, causing women to view themselves as only a body. Women are forced to notice first their appearance and adjust it to what they have been told is desirable.

A possible solution to the problem presented by all this is to force companies to use plus-sized models and people of color in their advertisements; people who don’t look like the standard of perfect. However, this solution is somewhat improbable, because these companies are just plain stubborn. They know that selling “perfect” bodies is profitable, so they continue to do

so.
Another possible solution to the issue might be to restrict plastic surgery in such a way as to possibly prevent people from having access to it. Although such a thing would surely not be particularly effective as it only deals with a certain sect of the body image issue.
No real method has proven effective in the battle against self-hatred. The only way to fix the problem is to end the perpetuation of the ideal Western body by the media, and that seems a nigh impossible, but entirely necessary task.