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Standards of beauty in society
Body image and its effects
Essay of Body image
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Recommended: Standards of beauty in society
The “Perfect” Body
Stereotypes are not a new concept, and they change almost every day. They range from ideas of what a person should look like all the way to who they should be. In today’s society, women are under a significant amount of pressure to look and act a certain way. Many feel that if they are not skinny enough, sporty enough, or physically fit enough, then they are not pretty and therefore are undesirable to others. This stereotype has been around for a long time and has only seemed to heighten with the rise of social media. However, it is possible that this idea of “the perfect woman” is starting to lose momentum. Women do not have to be skinny in order to be pretty and desirable.
There have always been ideals placed on women
For some girls, they only feel a little bit of body shame when they look in the mirror. For others, they diet and exercise religiously just to keep up with society’s ideals. Sadly though, this is not the most extreme that it can be. From the pressures of wanting to be skinny, eating disorders have become more common, especially in teens and young adults. The two most common are anorexia and bulimia. Anorexia is when a person starves themselves, while bulimia is when a person eats then forces themselves to throw it right back up, all done to stay skinny and lose weight. As these mental illnesses have become more common, so has awareness and the ways to help people recover from them. Many affected by these eating disorders go through rehab and come out on the other side even stronger. In high school, I had a friend who suffered from anorexia. She went to a rehab facility, and is now doing better than ever before. People like her continue to prove that even though a person may struggle with something like this, they can recover from it. They are starting to defy the norm and change the stereotypes that women face every
A girl cannot scroll through her Instagram feed without seeing a picture of someone showing off their body. The media also worsens things with its tiny models and the way it portrays celebrities. Photoshop is a popular and common practice in the media as well, causing people to have desires of unrealistic bodies. Many celebrities have been body shamed for not having a small enough physique or for gaining weight. Selena Gomez is an example of this. Recently in an interview with Ellen DeGeneres, Gomez talked about how she had gained some weight, and was called fat because of a picture taken by paparazzi of her in a swimsuit. Even though the comments got to her a bit, Gomez took to Instagram to fight it and show that she is not ashamed of her body (“Selena Gomez Talks Lupus, Body Shaming, Boyfriends & Taylor Swift With The Ellen DeGeneres Show [HD]”). Gomez, along with other celebrities, have inspired other girls to take a stand and be proud of their bodies. There have been multiple songs, articles, and social posts written about this issue, all in an attempt to fight and weaken the argument that a girl must be skinny to be
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.
“According to the National Association of Anorexia Nervosa and Associated Disorders, about 70 percent of girls grades five through 12 said magazine images influence their ideals of a perfect body, a fact that’s plain to see in the online world of teenage ‘thinspiration’” (Krupnick 1). This quote explains that girls in grades five to 12 are more likely to have a lower self esteem because of the idea of a perfect body beinging spread through social media. Models enjoy sharing their work with their fans their instagram and twitter accounts, which isn’t wrong. However, sometimes the pictures they post are exposed subtly, this causes for the pictures to get under someone's skin before they notice. These models, like Kylie and Kendall Jenner and Gigi Hadid, are idealized but billions of people and have millions of followers on social media but all they do is post pictures of them living the luxury life that everyone watches. These posts could either help influence teens to work harder or cause them to try to achieve what they want in a harmful way. Having weight and height limits will lower the self esteem of others because they put out an image that most people think they must look
Times have changed throughout the generations and the portrayal of women in the media has definitely changed over the years. Unfortunately, there is still a stereotypical appearance and social role in the media that women need to achieve in order to be socially desired. Even though it has improved, there is such a stigma towards being too fat, too skinny, too tall, or too short and the list of imperfections go on and on. Aside from body image, social roles are a big issue in the media today. When you look at any advertisement in the media, you can notice the appearance, gender, and race of the model. The media’s idea of the “perfect” body is having the unflawed and women are typically skewed for this by society.
Within the past ten years, the rise of eating disorders has gotten more public attention. This spark increased scientific research geared toward explaining and responding to this disaster. It is now widely recognized that body image dissatisfaction, broadly defined as strong negative feelings about the body, are persistent among women, especially concerning weight and dieting. Merely being a women in our society means feeling too fat (Wolszon 542). Survey data indicate that three fourths of normal weight women in the United States feel fat, more than half of adult women in the United States are on a diet, and on study showed that nearly 80% of fourth grade girls are watching their weight (Shelly Levitt 64).
...ction for some people. Even though the person who has one of these disorders may think that this is the best way to be perfect, they are not treating their body as a temple but rather they are harming their body and mind. While the majority of people with eating disorders are female, there are also undoubtedly many males that suffer from these disorders. Anyone no matter the age, size or gender can suffer from an eating disorder and it can be a decision that is made in the blink of an eye and although there are some signs that a person may have one of these disorders it is quite possible that a person that you think you know best is hiding a harmful secret like this from you. As the years go by and as the ideas of perfection are being drilled into the minds of many, eating disorders are becoming more prevalent and can happen to anyone at any time.
Eating disorders are described as an illness involving eating habits that are irregular and an extreme concern with body image or weight. Eating disorders tend to appear during teenage years, but can develop at any age. Although more common in women, eating disorders can affect any age, gender or race. In the United States, over 20 million women and 10 million men are personally affected by eating disorders. There are many different causes of eating disorders such as low self esteem, societal pressures, sexual abuse and the victims perception of food. Eating disorders are unique to the sufferer and often, their perception of themselves is so skewed, they may not be aware they have an eating disorder. Media, for quite some time now, has played a significant part in eating disorders. Magazines with headlines ‘Summer Body’, or ‘Drop LB’s Fast!’ attract the attention of girls who may be insecure with themselves. Television productions such as the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show or American’s Next Top Model, show airbrushed and photoshopped women who have body types that may be unachievable. Those who are suffering from eating disorders can suffer dangerous consequences, and it is important to seek help.
In conclusion, women should be comfortable in their own skin and shouldn’t feel compelled to be as thin as a model. Women need to feel appropriate and content in their own skin, and to not feel inferior to the model on TV or pasted in a magazine advertisement. We are all different and no woman is exactly the same and even the ones that seem to be picture perfect have flaws and love handles, and women need to realize that is the truth. So, by accepting one’s self for who they truly are and what they have accomplished in life is what is going to boost our self-esteem. Once the world understands this, then the media won’t have such a monumental affect on society.
Everywhere one looks today, one will notice that our culture places a very high value on women being thin. Many will argue that today’s fashion models have “filled out” compared to the times past; however the evidence of this is really hard to see. Our society admires men for what they accomplish and what they achieve. Women are usually evaluated by and accepted for how they look, regardless of what they do. A woman can be incredibly successful and still find that her beauty or lack of it will have more to do with her acceptance than what she is able to accomplish. “From the time they are tiny children, most females are taught that beauty is the supreme objective in life” (Claude-Pierre, p18). The peer pressure for girls in school to be skinny is often far greater than for boys to make a team. When it is spring, young girls begin thinking “How am I going to look in my bathing suit? I better take off a few more pounds.”
“There’s no magic bullet; there’s no pill that you take that makes everything great and makes you happy all the time. I’m letting go of those expectations, and that’s opening me up to moments of transcendent bliss. But I still feel the stress over ‘Am I thin enough? Am I too thin? Is my body the right shape?” –Anne Hathaway. It seems as if every young girl’s desire is to become a model. Eating disorders affect an increasingly large number of people, especially young women, in today’s modern societies. One study even found that some girls are more afraid of being fat, than of a nuclear war or getting cancer. The most common types of this disorder are anorexia, bulimia, and purging, each having a discrete effect on different people. Right now, one percent of all American women- our sisters, mothers, and daughters, are starving themselves to death.
Take a moment to envision all of the people with an eating disorder across the world. Additionally, consider how much shame these individuals place on themselves. According to the National Eating Disorder Association, approximately ten million women American women suffer from eating disorders (Mirasol). The majority of these individuals with an eating disorder look in the mirror every day and do not like what they see. “Patients with eating disorders determine their self-worth largely, or even solely, based on their body, and judge themselves according to their ability to control their eating, weight and shape, intensively fearing losing control over these aspects” (Matos, Marcela, et al. 39) Placing additional shame on these individuals should
The overwhelming idea of thinness is probably the most predominant and pressuring standard. Tiggeman, Marika writes, “This is not surprising when current societal standards for beauty inordinately emphasize the desirability of thinness, an ideal accepted by most women but impossible for many to achieve.” (1) In another study it is noted that unhealthy attitudes are the norm in term of female body image, “Widespread body dissatisfaction among women and girls, particularly with body shape and weight has been well documented in many studies, so much so that weight has been aptly described as ‘a normative discontent’”. (79) Particularly in adolescent and prepubescent girls are the effects of poor self-image jarring, as the increased level of dis...
Eating disorders have the highest mortality rate than any other mental illness, with anorexia being 12 times higher than any other causes of death in women between the ages of 15 and 24, according to the National Institute of Mental Health. Teenagers and adolescents are growing up in a world full of mass media production: television, magazine, internet, movies, advertisement, etc. My best friend and I: both healthy girls-fell for societies ridiculous and awful standards of beauty. My friend (whom shall remain nameless) was a chubby girl-who was always made fun off about her weight; me, on the other hand slim, athletic never had any issues with my weight, but never thought I was pretty or beautiful. Being best friends: it was not out of the ordinary to experiment with eating disorders. Mind you, we were two naïve 12 and 13 year old girls. She wanted to stop getting made fun of I was obliged to help. This is when I say: advertising and magazine know how to target girls with low self-esteem. According to CQ researcher, about 35 million Americans have or will experience an eating disorders.
It seems like every little girl dreams of becoming a model. They want to be thin and pretty like the models they see on television and in magazines. Often the desire becomes an obsession and young girls see "thinness" as being a needed characteristic. For many girls, the teenage years are spent trying to acquire this look. Females are trying diets and are exercising like it is a competition to see who can lose the most weight the quickest. The obsession of many young girls over their appearance or weight has led to a growing number of people who have developed an eating disorder to try to deal with their lack of self-esteem or other related problems.
The media bombards the youth with gender representations and the types of bodies that are deemed to be attractive. Many teenagers all around the world are desperate to lose weight to be “beautiful”. A study shows that 44% of Latino high school students aim to lose weight due to the representations of media and stereotypes. This study also shows that these students turn to extreme measures of weight loss, such as vomiting and laxative abuse. The need for these students to lose weight as quickly as they can, is caused by how the media presents what is attractive and what is not - for example, women in the media are shown to be thinner than average (Lopez et al., 2013).
“Why we can't stop body-Shaming.” CNN, Cable News Network, 15 Apr. 2016, www.cnn.com/2016/04/15/health/fat-shaming-feat/index.html. The article helps support Demetria’s story because it stresses the fact that women cannot be happy without someone commenting on their appearance. Weingarten spoke up, "As a culture and as a society, it will never go away fully, but ... we should try not to be judgmental." Body shaming seems to be more common towards female celebrities like Amy Schumer, Demi Levato, and Melissa McCarthy. It is important to "Remember, you are ALL beautiful. Please don't ever try and look like the people you see in magazines or posters because it's fake." This is exactly what Demetria spoke about in her video addressing her haters. Demetria, like most of the celebrities in the article, stood up against the body-shaming and took pride in her looks. In other words, best said my Jessica Simpson, Demetria didn’t "have anything to prove... What other people think of me is not my business." Demetria was more than happy to show her natural curly hair and curvy