The Media’s Standards Our society has been brainwashed by the media into believing the standard of beauty it has created. Beauty is the word that describes the pleasure one gets when seeing someone or something appealing. Developing individuals are people who are getting affected by the media the most. Media can be anything from the news, movies, social media, and magazines. Children and teens are forced to grow up with almost no way to avoid the media therefore, they are always exposed to the standards the media has created. Both young grown up women and men are victims of the the media’s definition of beauty. Men and women are forced to dress, look, and even talk a certain way in order to look attractive. Everyone’s lives revolves around …show more content…
One of these negative effects is that it has caused people to have low self-esteem about themselves. Having low self-esteem is the denial of your body. Both men and women have to constantly worry about how they look. Men have to make sure they look masculine and toned, because the media has made this a standard of beauty. Women have to always worry about not gaining weight, and simply always looking perfect. When adults do not meet this unreal standard of beauty they are left unhappy and depressed with the way their bodies look; this is the same with children. Children are left growing up having to cope with the stress and emotions of having no self-esteem. In the story “Beauty Is the Beast” Elayne Saltzberg and Joan Chrisler state “women often believe that if only they had perfect looks, their lives would be perfectly happy; they blame their unhappiness on their bodies” (Saltzeberg and Chrisler ). This quotation shows that people specifically women look at their bodies as the reason to why they are or are not living the life that they want. Women are tricked into blaming every problem they have on the way they look. This way of thinking can cause many philological issues in someone’s …show more content…
Bad self-esteem, prejudice and living under dogma are essentially bad effects of the media. Having bad self-esteem is when an individual does not feel acceptance of their body. When people show prejudice to other people they judge and treat people a certain way based on their looks and characteristics. Living under dogma is living a controlled life whose principle’s are made by someone, a group or a thing. The media has made the principle’s we fallow by making the standards of beauty we live by. These three effects are not effects that we can see taking place in an individual’s life. The media’s unreal standard of the image of an individual’s body has caused many problems in people’s lives even if we can not see these affects happening. The standard of beauty is always changing. The media has changed the meaning of many words that we use all the time and we don’t even notice
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.
To begin, social media has created unrealistic standards for young people, especially females. Being bombarded by pictures of females wearing bikinis or minimal clothing that exemplifies their “perfect” bodies, squatting an unimaginable amount of weight at a gym while being gawked at by the opposite sex or of supermodels posing with some of life’s most desirable things has created a standard that many young people feel they need to live up to. If this standard isn’t reached, then it is assumed that they themselves are not living up to the norms or the “standards” and then therefore, they are not beautiful. The article Culture, Beauty and Therapeutic Alliance discusses the way in which females are bombarded with media messages star...
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.
When discussing the definition of beauty in today’s society, thin, fair-skinned, and long-haired are all words that are agreeably in the top five adjectives used. These standards of beauty tend to be engraved in brains of children, teens, adults, Americans, Asians, Europeans, men, women, and etc. all day every day. These ideals are portrayed through television commercials, billboards, newspaper ads and all other forms of media, such as Disney channel programs. Behavioral norms are also a major topic depicted in Disney channel programs; these programs depict that certain races, social classes and genders behave in certain ways, some which are sometimes stereotypical. These ideals are targeted to children who are “reaching an age where they are developing an awareness of self and comparing that self to the ideals presented in the media” (Northup and Liebler 268). At what point do we question by whose standard is this normal? Are we supposed to continuously live in this box of subjectivity and suffer while trying to reach this “standard?” Is this standard really a standard or cultural norm? It is said that these depictions shape the behaviors and actions of children and affect their self-esteem and self-image, but that is not always true. Most children in today’s society are mature enough to differentiate between television and reality.
The media and how it affects our society has changed tremendously over the past few decades. Our population of children who spend a lot of time in front of the television or on social media continues to increase, creating a superficial view of themselves and who they should be. This superficial outlook has been created by the media because it preaches to our society that looks matter. Not only are there millions of advertisements saying to lose weight and buy certain products to be beautiful, but there has been a specific standard of beauty set for models and actresses to obtain. These standards include big eyes, volumino...
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.
In conclusion, media produces certain stereotypes both in behaviour and in style; it isolates audience from the true reality, the problem needs attention.
Vargas, L E. (2013) The Negative Effects of The Media on Body Image. Personal.psu.edu. Retrieved 30 Nov. 17 from:
Throughout our lives we have been exposed to countless advertisements from magazines, television, and posters. In the past families, communities, and religion have shaped the views of society, and now the media plays a larger role. The media has become a structuring institution of contemporary consumer society and has had a major impact on our perception towards gender, race and sexuality. The media does not only provide people with information and entertainment; it also affects people’s lives by shaping their opinions, attitudes and beliefs. The media can produce a sense of reality through images by manipulating the audience.
These presumptions are then pushed onto us, as ordinary people. Consequently, they tend to have a huge impact on our everyday lives. The way beauty standards are portrayed on television can affect the self-esteem of teens in a negative way by promoting looks and nothing more.
For example young boys in urban areas in America are exposed to bad language and violent act from these media sources they tend to act out in the same manner. Also the same can be said about our young girls seeing these models portrayed in a current light. When they are exposed to these advertisement causes young woman and girls to believe that they also can look like celebrities. For these young adults these portrayals have and had caused a negative impact on their lives and self-esteem. Most older mothers and fathers who have raised their children to adulthood se young parents in a negative light because the older mothers and fathers feel that they have raised a perfect child.
Worldwide, stereotypes against women has emanated in our society, as well as, in the mainstream media. According to Sarnavka “misrepresentations, distorted reflections, sexism and silencing of women's voices are all examples of mistreatment against women in the media” (Sarnavka 91). In today’s U.S culture, women are expected to be beautiful, and part of being beautiful is being thin. Therefore, the media presents perception of beauty for women that is often unattainable. For instance, according to Sarnavka “the media plays a fundamental role in determining people's perception, their view of the world, and their role in it, regardless of whether they are based in first, second, or third-world countries, because almost 80 percent of the total
Negative self-image mainly affects the minds of the youth, especially teenagers. “Body Dysmorphic Disorder is a condition that involves obsessions, mainly the distressing thoughts about perceived appearance flaws” (TeensHealth 1). The mind can be heavily influenced by the media, causing those who cannot live up to the standards to become negative about their self-body image. Society should not be displaying impossibly body images within the media world. How is it that society allows the media to easily influence the minds of people, especially the youth, when it has a high risk of causing mental disorders?
...y standards, further resulting in negative impacts on their self-esteem and confidence. Furthermore, this limited perspective of beauty causes women to be blinded and not realize that there is not one specific look of beautiful, but many. In a sense, women are taught to think that beautiful is being thin, having silky hair, toned legs, big breast, blemish and acne-free skin, and so on. However, in order to reach these beauty standards set by society, a woman can overwork her body in order to lose weight by dieting, or not eating to be “thin”, which also puts her health at risk and acts as an additional issue. Women who fail to reach these beauty standards set by society, may feel as though it is their fault and end up feeling even more insecure and bad about their body image, when in fact, the beauty standards were unrealistic and unattainable from the beginning.
Everyone care about beauty and media comes in the way to for its interest by using body image as a tool which only exists in people’s mind. It is unbelievable that how media is blamed for its actions. In the article, “How the Media Keeps Us Hung Up on Body Image” by Shari Graydon, the author claims that women are suffering from unhealthy and harmful disorders due to media influence. As strength, Graydon raises the attention of the readers by giving information on how media is affecting women through the usage of celebrities, professionals and researches’ data. However, Graydon’s argument unpersuasive because the author uses radical evidences to manipulate the readers, also blames only to the media regardless of other factors and the solutions to protect the people against the media are ineffective.