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Beauty standards in today's society
Social media and the self image affects
Social media and the self image affects
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Many people are indifferent when looking at a photo shopped picture, but some people look at these pictures and feel bad about themselves. Research has shown that photo shopped pictures can be harmful to young people. All magazines use Photoshop to make there pictures look better, however that doesn't make it right. When young girls or boys see all these perfect pictures of celebrities in magazines it makes them feel bad about themselves. It also makes them feel like they’re not good enough. It can also pressure them into changing themselves from who they really are. I understand that Photoshop is a tool that photographers use to make their photos look better, regardless it’s not right. Reading magazines with perfect pictures in it could
make people feel like they need to change themselves to look like the people in the pictures. Of course I know that using Photoshop has been a standard practice for centuries, but if people sold their magazines with untouched photo’s I know a lot of people would be happier and be able to read magazines without feeling bad about themselves. Just by putting photo shopped pictures in magazines more people could be happier about leaving their homes and going out in public without feeling like they're not good enough. Young people already have a lot of pressure in their lives with fitting in at school and finding who they are in life, so when they open up a magazine with a bunch of photo shopped pictures it could presser them into changing themselves. People at magazine companies may think that they're only making their pictures look better by using Photoshop, but what they're really doing is making young boys and girls who read their magazines feel bad about their appearances. Photoshop is one out of a million reasons why young people have insecurities about themselves. So why don't magazine companies put not photo shopped photos in there magazines, it would make a whole lot of people feel better about themselves and make the world a better place.
On television, people always see beautiful actors and now with Youtube and Instagram, these effects are even more exaggerated. While watching these people our view of how we and others should act, dress and look is changed. Models not only wear the most expensive clothes and extreme amounts of makeup, but some companies go as far as to photoshop to the point where the models can not recognize themselves. This goes to show even though we push ourselves to look like these famous people they have the same struggles they may just arise in other places.
If a teenager or pre-teen is focused on particular celebrities and their goal is too look like them, it is not difficult to slip into acting like them as well, or at least being influenced by their behavior and perceived attitudes. The media abounds with bad examples of celebrity behavior, from Justin Bibber driving recklessly to Miley Cyrus parading around scantily clothed, and although every celebrity is not a terrible role model, a disproportionate amount of them can be found to have shaky morals and seem to have let the attention that they receive affect their behavior. In addition, the perfect bodies that most of them display are not realistic and in some cases not even naturally attainable, thanks to the modern tools of plastic surgery, augmentations, liposuction, and other cosmetic surgeries. The media too contributes to the unreal portrayal of models and famous people by using airbrushing on pictures and other editing that lead regular people to compare their bodies to images that are not even humanly possible. The Barbie-like models that girls compare themselves to and the ripped and muscled men that boys compare their bodies to are often completely unnatural and the people who have somehow attained them are,
Societal constructs of bodily perfection have a massive influence on both genders and on all ages. If you look at any magazine, you will see women constantly being compared to each other, whether it is in the “who wore it better” section or in the “do’s and don’ts” part of the magazine, comparing body images and overall appearances. All parts of the media that encompasses our daily lives are especially dangerous for young and impressionable teens because they see people being torn down for trying to express themselves, and are thus taught to not only don’t look like “don’ts”, but also look like the “do’s”. This is dangerous in that women in the magazine set very high standards that teens want to emulate, no matter the cost to themselves or their health. Celebrities have the benefit of media to make them appear perfect: Photoshop and makeup artists conceal the imperfections that are often too apparent to the naked eye. Viewing celebrities as exhibiting the ideal look or as idols will, in most cases, only damage the confidence of both young teens, and adults, and warp the reality of what true “beauty” really is. It makes teens never feel truly content with themselves because they will be aiming for an ideal that is physically impossible to attain and one that doesn’t exist in the real
Airbrushed models and teen superstars are only two of the types of influences on teens. The signal that is given is "Thin is in." Regrettably, these superstars project an image of perfection that is, consequently, unattainable and unrealistic. What teens see on the T.V. may shape their view of reality. T.V. produces images like Paris Hilton. She is skinny, sexy, attractive, and she fits into the smallest size of all the number one fashions. She may act as if she loves the delicious taste of home cooked meals like juicy sweet barbeque ribs on her television show "Simple life", but behind the scenes she was probably throwing it all up. The media knows that young girls dream of becoming just like her, but still they will try to make her look even skinner. What young a girl like Sherie does not see is what it takes to makes a great picture. The making of an impressive picture is usually done on a computer, they smooth the face out for a great complexion, add a smaller waist, and erase any "imperfections" they feel may exist
Magazines also share this negative influence in a more subtle way. Women tend to place the models within on a pedestal, viewing them as the definition of female beauty; however, these women also tend to lack insider knowledge, which actress Jamie Lee Curtis had publicly touched on.
People can become quite envious and concerned looking through idealized photographs of the ‘perfect’ woman or man. As a result, the viewer could be deceived simply by the massive effect lighting, makeup, and sometimes the use of Photoshop has on a photo. These highly glamorized photos have been criticized “[…] sometimes through humor as in Reddit’s “Pretty Girls Ugly Faces” meme, in which users upload photos of themselves with disgusting faces next to the conventional shot” (Rutledge). To put it another way, those users are mocking the ‘perfect’ selfies and in turn appeasing their concerns of their own physical image. For instance, one user explained “that the ugly selfie challenges her own vanity and puts her personality back into the self-documentation” (Rutledge). Not only do selfies give an individual a perspective on their physical self, selfies can give way to one’s identity. Through taking a selfie one can “[…] show facets of [themselves], such as the artsy side, the silly side, or the glamorous side” (Rutledge). As a result, the selfie taker can reflect on what makes them unique while giving others a glimpse of
"Children are influenced by media–they learn by observing, imitating, and making behaviors their own" (APA, 2001, p.1224). Girl’s as young as 4-years sees Britney Spears music clip “Baby One More Time”, who at the time was a 17-year old girl/world pop icon at the time wearing a school uniform showing off her midriff, wearing a lot of makeup and a short skirt. Disney teen icons such as Miley Cyrus aka Hannah Montana taking personal photos of herself in “sexy” poses and sending it to her ‘older’ boyfriend and then having it all published all over the internet for the entire world to see. Boys also face sexualization too, as has been seen in Calvin Klein ads, where pubescent-looking boys pose provocatively with perfectly sculpted six-pack abs hawking teen fashion These pop culture celebrities both female and male are always in the media, for inappropriate actions and they’re meant to be role models for children. In fact most of these sexualized celebrities are still children themselves. The sad part is it’s not just sexualization being encouraged in the media other negative things such as violence, drug and alcohol use ...
In modern society there is more and more digital editing without the knowledge of consumers. Currently there are various reasons for why women develop negative body image, low-self-esteem and eating disorders. According to Naomi Wolf in her novel “Beauty Myth”, one of the many reasons women obtain concerns with their bodies is due to the universal images of young female bodies presented through advertisements in fashion magazines. Advertisements in magazines are altering and shaping the desires of men and women. Magazines sell viewers images of beautiful, skinny, flawless confident young women. When people are constantly antagonized with the magazine industry’s ideal of “perfect beauty” the viewer’s then, subconsciously believe these images to be true and begin to form biases about what they themselves should look like and what other people must also look like. People who view magazines get mislead by advertisers because they are unaware that all the images displayed are digitally altered through Photoshop and airbrushing. Today’s magazines are formed completely on false ideals of flawless beauty and unattainable body images, to prevent women and men from falling victim to the magazine’s deceitful images we as a society need to become aware and educate ourselves.
The standard way of thinking while looking through magazines is to compare ourselves to the people we see in them. Innumerable teenage girls assume that the media’s ideal beauty is unrealistically thin women. Looking up to adults as role models, we are constantly influenced to be on a diet, to not eat as much, and to feel poorly about yourself if you aren't thin. Growing up with this expectation to be skinny, some women develop bulimia, anorexia, and binge eating. Americans today tend to believe that we can be as skinny as models if we just eat less, work out more, and get plastic surgery. Consequently, with technology growing, you can now alter a photo using an application called photoshop. Photoshop is a tool commonly used in magazines to enhance a photo to it more appealing to the consumers. The problem is, that many teenage girls don't notice the subtle changes the photo has gone through. Therefore unrealistic beauty standards women have been given are what makes us have negative body images.
Throughout the recent years, Photoshop has become a widespread phenomenon amongst the world. With the rapidly developing inventions of camera’s and devices with cameras on them; posting pictures on social media has become extremely popular. Along with that, the pressure to appear perfect in said pictures has increased dramatically. Society has become exceedingly focused on the idea of perfect, and what perfect looks like. Especially now, with growing photo sharing phone applications such as Instagram, photo editing is becoming even more popular. Photoshop has proven to have many beneficial uses; however, it also has very negative consequences such as false perceptions, and misleading people.
Photoshop can come in quite handy and it is useful when trying to perfect an image. Architects, fashion designers, web designers all use photoshop in their careers daily but there is a line and some people cross it. When using photoshop on a person to “perfect” the image the editors get quite drastic; in a recent cover for rolling stone Katy Perry was shown sitting on a bed in just a bra and underwear, seems like the average cover right? Well yes it is like every other magazine except this one had its pre-photoshop cover leaked as well.
Media has affected many aspects of society but it affects appearance the most. Teens are pressured to look fit and flawless due to the way the media portrays beauty. Photographs and videos are plastered in teenager’s lives to show them how they should appear, when the media should be focusing on how to show teens to accept themselves. Does society really need to flip a channel or open a magazine to feel beautiful or know that they are accepted? Fashion model Tyra Banks said it best when she stated “Women should understand that there is no such thing as standard beauty” (“About…”).
This gives children, teenagers, and even adults this factor. “In this media-driven age, it seems most people are dissatisfied with their bodies. Recent studies show that kids as early as third grade are concerned about their weight” (Maynard 6). To repeat on what Maynard stated, third graders are worried about their weight. What the media feeds to children gives them the sense of that it is something that they should be. Seeing thin models and looking back at themselves seeing that there is a big difference between the two. At this young of an age, they do not know anything about what the dirty truth is. What the media does to the pictures, photoshopping the flaws and enhancing the shape of face. Rollero conducted an experiment with college students giving them four images that were digitally altered. Results showed that retouching salience can reduce the level of internalization of beauty ideals and thus the negative effects of media images exposure, such as negative mood and decrease in self-esteem (Rollero 199). With this being said Rollero’s experiment shows that the digitally altered photos give the college students a false sense of beauty and a decrease in self-esteem. Giving these false ideals of beauty make men and females feel insecure about their bodies make them feel that there they need to fix the ‘imperfection’. What the media does not realize is not everyone can look the same, with these images
In American culture today, society's view of beauty is controlled by Hollywood, where celebrities are constantly in the lime-light. The media watches Hollywood's every move, and is quick to ridicule “A-listers” whenever they dare to gain a few pounds or to let an uncontrollable pimple show. The media has created a grossly distorted mental image of what should be considered beautiful, and with almost every junior high and high school-age girl reading and viewing this message, the idea has been instilled in them as well. This view of beauty is causing many teenage girls to become obsessed with a highly problematic and unattainable goal of perfection.
Firstly, magazines influence the youth and teenagers. There are so many magazines that the youth like to see to find out what is in fashion. People, Seventeen and Teen Vogue are a few of the magazines that attract some of the teens. Flipping through the pages of magazines teens will see mold after mold of an image in our society has made teenagers want to be. Many youth and teenagers will do anything so they can look like their favorite celebrity. This can happen to both girls and boys, like many young girls who want to look like their favorite celebrities that are skinny and they consider good looking. Many youth will do anything to look like the three favorite celebrity they will even start a diet that can cause them harm. One of the illnesses is called anorexia; it is when someone does not eat and they starved another illness is bulimic; when someone eats and then they vomit. These illnesses are most commended on girls but it can also be with the boys too. It could it so bad; they ended up being in...