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Media influence on body image
The media's portrayal of body image
The media's portrayal of body image
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Pop culture’s portrayal of its perception of the ideal body has greatly affected numerous women’s perception and body image (Carolyn L. Martin and Eboni J. Baugh 1). Frequently, these women are exposed to images of extremely slender women with miniature waist in all forms of media especially in popular magazines; women that pop culture are labelling as the archetypes of beauty. Hence, these women personally construct themselves to these models of beauty and if they fail to resemble these ideals, they begin to have negative body images and form distorted perceptions (Carolyn L. Martin and Eboni J. Baugh 1). Consequently, they take extreme measures with the intention of resembling their ideals, however in doing so they eventually begin to experience serious consequences (Carolyn L. Martin and Eboni J. Baugh 1). …show more content…
Body image is defined as “a complicated aspect of the self-concept that concerns an individual's perceptions and feelings about their body and physical appearance” (Kasey L. Serdar 1). From pop culture’s perspective, women must be extremely slender to be deemed beautiful. According to Tiggemann and Slater, continuous exposure to media which portrays females with slender bodies, causes many women to experience “increased levels of negative body image” (Kasey L. Serdar). This is because they are aware that pop culture is conveying the message that only extremely slender women possess ideal bodies. Therefore, these women are influenced to believe that for them to be labelled attractive they must resemble pop culture’s archetype of
We hear sayings everyday such as “Looks don’t matter; beauty is only skin-deep”, yet we live in a decade that contradicts this very notion. If looks don’t matter, then why are so many women harming themselves because they are not satisfied with how they look? If looks don’t matter, then why is the media using airbrushing to hide any flaws that one has? This is because with the media establishing unattainable standards for body perfection, American Women have taken drastic measures to live up to these impractical societal expectations. “The ‘body image’ construct tends to comprise a mixture of self-perceptions, ideas and feelings about one’s physical attributes. It is linked to self-esteem and to the individual’s emotional stability” (Wykes 2). As portrayed throughout all aspects of our media, whether it is through the television, Internet, or social media, we are exploited to a look that we wish we could have; a toned body, long legs, and nicely delineated six-pack abs. Our society promotes a body image that is “beautiful” and a far cry from the average woman’s size 12, not 2. The effects are overwhelming and we need to make more suitable changes as a way to help women not feel the need to live up to these unrealistic standards that have been self-imposed throughout our society.
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.
Yamamiya, Y., Cash, T. F., Melnyk, S. E., Posavac, H. D., & Posavac, S. S. (2005). Women's exposure to thin-and-beautiful media images: Body image effects of media-ideal internalization and impact-reduction interventions. Body image, 2(1), 74-80.
According to Beverly Ballaro, the combination of two trends, the technology-enabled media saturation of the American public, and the promotion by this media of highly unattainable body types, is largely responsible for an epidemic of body image pathologies afflicting American girls and women, as well as an increasing number of boys and men. She also mentions that the media has given certain images for each gender. Generally, for females the body image is extremely thin, and there is an emphasis on large breasts and for males, tall, slender, muscular and toned. For both genders, the most valued and appreciated appearance i...
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.
The media has had an increasingly destructive effect on young people who are becoming worryingly obsessed with their body image. The media is saturated in sexual imagery in which young people have to face every day. The sheer volume of sexual imagery in the media today has resulted in the vast majority of young people to become hooked on looking as near to perfection everyday by using the latest products and buying the latest fashions. This used to be enough but lately the next step to achieving perfection is cosmetic surgery. Everyone wants to look attractive, especially teenagers who are not only put under massive strain to succeed but to look beautiful and climb the ranks of the social ladder, and it seems that the only way to achieve the much desired beauty is to turn to drastic measures.
The sociocultural approach to the issue of body image among women states that women receive harmful and negative cultural messages about their bodies. These messages can come from the media as well as from family and peer influences (Swami, 2015). By promoting the thin ideal for attractiveness, the media contributes to women rating their bodies more negatively and thus increases their likelihood of developing eating disorder symptoms (Spitzer, Henderson & Zivian, 1999). In a meta-analysis studying the effects of media images on female body image, Groesz and Levine (2002) found that women’s body image was significantly more negative after viewing thin media images than after viewing average or plus size models. Harmful body messages from family can be direct, such as verbal criticism or teasing, or in...
Dittmar, Helga. "How Do "body Perfect" Ideals in the Media Have a Negative Impact on Body Image and Behaviors? Factors and Processes Related to Self and Identity." : Sussex Research Online. N.p, 6 Feb. 2012. Web. 27 Mar. 2014.
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.
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.
Women are bombarded by images of a thin-ideal body form that is extremely hard, if not impossible, to emulate. Comparing themselves to these women can lead to feelings of inadequacy, depression, and an overall low self-esteem. (Expand on, need a good opening paragraph to grab the reader’s attention)
Should a female not feel insecure with her body when she is comfortable in her own skin whether she weighs 130 pounds or 150 pounds at 5’5”? The thin-ideal image of women is normally represented in the media typically fifteen percent below the average weight of a woman (Hawkins, et al. 36). Researchers have also found that fashion models are about ninety-eight percent thinner than the average American woman (Strahan, et al. 288). According to Rehab’s study of the evolution of the female figure over one hundred years, “The body shapes of the most admired models have remained consistently slimmer than that of the average American woman.” Due to the significant increase in mass media throughout the twentieth century of the United States, there has been a noteworthy impact on the popular image of wo...
Additionally, these upward comparisons usually create a negative self-perception of the woman regarding her attractiveness (Morrison et al. , 2004:573) and comparison to those such as media images create even more pressure to conform to idealised standards (Irving, 1990:103; Morrison et al., 2004:574). Women often believe that if only they had the perfect looks, consistently portrayed by the media, they would be perfectly happy (Featherstone, 2010:196). These findings concurred that it is of the utter-most importance to teach women not to compare themselves to the unrealistic standards of body image the media portray, but to realise that these standards are unrealistic. It is even more important that women should avoid pursuing these unrealistic
The media’s portrayal of the female body image has a negative effect on the female population, as shown in both literature reviews and this research. The dominant factors which affect body image are that of the frequent comparison to others, seeing models, celebrities, in the media as well as the general society around. The supposed ideal physical appearance and what is considered to be the ideal body plays a great role in the nega...
There have been many studies done in the area of women’s body dissatisfaction and exposure to a “perfect” body image (Tiggemann, Slater, Smyth 1). Several different studies in this specific topic have “confirmed that there is a reliable negative effect of viewing thin ideal media images on body dissatisfaction” (Tiggemann, Slater, Smyth 1). One experiment demonstrated that when women were presented with an altered image and visually compared it to an image of them, their body dissatisfaction increased as they could see their “imperfections” (Tiggemann, Slater, Smyth