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Masculinity and feminism
How social media influences identity
Effects of society on our identity
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The proper self This purpose paper examines the proper self by deconstructing and analysing the following videos/ads: “Seeing Sociologically-Marginality and Crisis, “Date Rape” and “Eating Disorders.” Sociological perspectives enable us to see things from four points of view: see the general in particular, see the strange in the familiar, seeing society in everyday lives and lastly seeing sociologically-marginality and crisis. The later (marginality and crisis) has two perspectives which are important to us. The first point to the perspective is living on the edge; whereby being an outsider brings to your knowledge the social forces that shape an individual’s life; the poor and minority groups. The second point to the perspective revolves …show more content…
These categories of belonging have profound effects on my life chances, self-image as well as life chances. However, the mass media and the popular culture are also powerful socialization agents that impact on both my self-concept and self-image in my endeavour to conform to the representations of the proper-ideal-self. My sources represent masculinity and femininity in diverse ways. Seeing “Sociologically: Marginalisation and Crisis portray men as the powerful, wealthy, controllers, leaders and owners of the factors/means of production. They are therefore superior to the feminine gender and can be equated to the bourgeoisie. On the other hand, women are exhibited as subordinate to men and less powerful. They can thus be equated to the proletariat. Their place is mainly in the kitchen with their main role being the reproduction, providing free labour in the farm and taking care of the …show more content…
Women spend more hours watching T.V and movies, more hours on beauty parlous and boutiques in an attempt to keep themselves abreast with fashion trends. This is why most ladies join slim possible programs or develop eating disorders such as anorexia. The popular culture has a preference for thin women. The society also measures beauty regarding body size (thinness and tallness). There is, therefore, a preference for skinny, tall white models and women in general. As a result, fat women develop a negative self-image which leads them to eat less, over-exercising and doing anything that can make them slim despite the health dangers that are involved. However, this is not the case for men. The popular culture emphasizes on well-built men. This emphasis makes some men develop a negative self-image and the feeling of not being handsome. The men with high self-esteem can overcome this, while those with low self-esteem go for the gym to broaden their chests or develop an excessive eating
‘Women and men are different. Equal treatment of men and women does not result in equal outcomes.’ (Corsten Report, 16: 2007) According to Covington and Bloom (2003) numerous feminist writers have demonstrated and documented the patriarchal nature of our society and the variety of ways in which the patriarchal values serve masculine needs. ‘Despite claims to the contrary, masculinist epistemologies are built upon values that promote masculine needs and desires, making all others invisible’ (Kaschak, 11: 1992).
In a society similar to the one of the United States, individual’s body images are placed on a pedestal. Society is extremely powerful in the sense that it has the capability of creating or breaking a person’s own views of his or her self worth. The pressure can take over and make people conduct in unhealthy behavior till reaching the unrealistic views of “perfection.” In an article by Caroline Heldman, titled Out-of-Body Image, the author explains the significance of self-objectification and woman’s body image. Jennifer L. Derenne made a similar argument in her article titled, Body Image, Media, and Eating Disorders. Multiple articles and books have been published on the issue in regards to getting people to have more positive views on themselves. Typically female have had a more difficult time when relating to body image and self worth. Society tends to put more pressure on women to live to achieve this high ideal. Body image will always be a concern as long as society puts the pressure on people; there are multiple pressures placed and theses pressures tend to leave an impact on people’s images of themselves.
Meanwhile,, men and women are being forced to think what is attractive and what is not. Such as being too fat or to skinny. Many research has suggested that 86% of all women are not happy with their bodies and constantly want to lose weight (“Beauty and Body”). With all the high expectations the media is feeding to their audience, how could one not think they need to lose weight? We see it through magazines, we see it in movies; as a result, men and women all over the world want the unrealistic bodies that the media creates in these mediums.
Due to the woman’s obsession to have a look of perfection, when the media shows beautiful women with long hair, amber colored eyes, thin body shape, and a flawless skin-color/complexion, the average women starts to think and find ways so she can come to have the same body perfection. In the article about women self-objectification found that “women who viewed images of a thin model exhibited greater body dissatisfaction than women who viewed images of a full body model” (Tiggemann, Harper
Is there an enduring self? My answer to this question would be yes. It is my belief that the enduring self is our mind or brain. No matter the location of a mind, or how its state may become degraded, the mind is still itself in essence, and it is the culmination of who we are and our body is the vessel by which we express the enduring self.
People react differently depending on their own traits. Studies have shown that women identify the media as the major source of the perceived social pressure to maintain a thin body image. Male body image suffers as well. When men are exposed to unrealistic male bodies, they can suffer from the same symptoms as females. People should not let the media negatively influence their bodies. The public needs to view the media for what it’s worth…pure entertainment. Media’s depiction of a “normal” body type portrays a standard of beauty that is unattainable. Both women and men are suffering from trying to reach these unattainable goals and are suffering from low self-esteem, depression and eating disorders. This is a huge epidemic and hopefully one day it will change. The media needs to promote healthy lifestyles and show men and women of all shapes and sizes that they can feel good about themselves. The “real size” people in the world, will then be able to stop feeling pressured by the media to obtain a certain standard body
The pattern is similar for the portrayal of women on television, magazines, and other parts of the media. The way media represents women are for them to be thin-like models and other women on television to be the high standard of “attractiveness” to others. The advertising involved targets young teenage women and feature these models that are portraying desirable items, and the “norm” is for these women to be slender and beautiful (Vonderen & Kinnally, 2012). Research has been done to prove that media’s pressure on being thin causes women to be depressive and negative feelings about themselves . Women’s view are skewed and perceived incorrectly of what the typical female body should be (Haas, Pawlow, Pettibone & Segrist, 2012).
Erik Erikson composed a theory of psychological development that was composed of eight stages. Erikson’s theory focuses on how personalities evolve throughout life as a result of the interaction between biologically based maturation and the demands of society. According to Erikson, “Each stage of human development presents its characteristic crises. Coping well with each crisis makes an individual better prepared to cope with the next.” (Zastrow & Kirst-Ashman, 2013, p. 314) According to Erikson’s eight stages of development, I have only been through six of the eight stages.
According to Psychology Today, body image is the mental representation a person creates. Body image can be distorted by mass media and can influence a person's behaviour. Distortions of body image are widespread among females and, to a lesser extent, among males. Mass media is a big part of the 21st century. Whether it is through television, magazines, newspapers, online, or billboards, we are inundated with advertisements on a daily basis. Magazine advertisement have a negative influence on the body image among young adult men and women. "Exposure to fashion magazines is related to women's greater preoccupation with being thin, dissatisfaction with their bodies, frustration about weight, and fear about deviating from the thin standard." (Turner et al 1997). According to Norman (2011) males common body concerns included height, muscularity, fatness, skin complexion, fashion sense and style. There are consequences of living in a society in which media promote a thin body image, such as, the desire to alter their physical appearance cosmetically or surgically or to slide into the grips of anorexia or bulimia.
It analyzes the different aspects of appearance and helps us understand why our society views beauty the way it does. When looking at society’s expectations about appearance it is important to understand that the main cause of these expectations is the media. When it comes to the idea of weight society has a different expectation for men and women. Men are expected to not be too skinny, but they also cannot be too fat.
Having continuous exposure may influence onlookers to be self-conscious about their bodies and to be infatuated over physical appearances as a measure of their worth. (Granatino & Haytko, 2014). Body image in men shows that boys as young as 8 years old show concern over being the right shapes and many adults men ‘s self-esteem is related to how good they feel about their body shape. Women are the ones who are usually thought from such an early age to love you body, they are under continuous pressure to be a role model to their children, and to stay attractive and skinny. The question is, why do people want to be thin and for whom do they want to be thin?
In Mags and Abs, Hatoum and Belle found that men who are more exposed to magazines are willing to gain more muscle. This fact tells us that we manipulate our body to achieve desired beauty which is internalized through everyday life. As a result, it leads to lower self-esteem for men and women as their desired body image and their actual body do not match. Especially women tend to be unhealthy due to low BMI and lack of enough nutrition. Even a person with low BMI sometimes think that their bodies are not skinny enough, which often leads to anorexia.
Introspection of oneself could be interesting and moderately to an extent challenging to put into words. There are many factors that influences who we are as an individual or as a part of a group. Generally speaking I believe we all wear several masks that portray us in different ways according to our settings and who we are around. Ever since I was able to get allowances and old enough to work, I invested in cameras in order to capture the various aspects of my life. I always thought I would reflect back on them to describe the moments, where I was in my life and my views during those moments. I could describe myself as many things; an outgoing, shy, caring, loyal, trustworthy, kind, an altruistic and conscientious person and etc. These are the ways I view myself, while others might have a different prospective of me. Gazing through the six pictures of myself reflects my perceived self-control, self-concept and self-presentation at the different stages within my life.
Susan Bordo states in her article “Never Just Pictures”, that children grow up knowing that they can never be thin enough. They are thought that being fat is the worst thing ever. The ones responsible for this are the media, celebrities, models, and fashion designers. All of these factors play a big role on the development of the standard and how people view themselves. Everyone at one dreams about being the best they can in any aspect. But to achieve that most believe that one of the big factors is outer beauty. So people look at celebrities and fashion designers, and believe that to be accepted they have to look like them. That’s when they take drastic measures to change their appearance because they’ve been influenced by the Medias idea of “beautiful.” This feeling mostly happens in women but in recent years the gender gap has become smaller. Now men also feel the need to look good because of the media. On the TV, instead of having infomercials ...
Hi, my name is Rob Geis and I am currently in grade 12. I have been at County High School for a year now; I joined at the start of 11th grade, and have thoroughly enjoyed myself here. The school is great, the people are fantastic and the atmosphere is one that makes you actually want to go to school. Before I joined ASB I was studying at the Singapore American School for two years and prior to that I was at the International School of Kuala Lumpur for two years. I was born and raised here in Bombay city and grew up here.