The Perceptions Of Body Image

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Body Image has become a very important part of our society and what creates our view of it can come from anywhere. It is difficult to pin point what can exactly shape a person’s view on body image because bodies are everywhere. In certain time periods, one’s body image can be influenced by different things. In the Victorian Age status influenced women to be skinny, while currently advertisements and the professional world influence people to achieve the “ideal” body. However, nothing is more influential than what a person goes through during their everyday life. Even though status, advertisements, and the professional world help shape a persons view of their own body image, the strongest pressure comes from our own personal experiences. In …show more content…

Most women seem to develop the disorders because of their profession whether it be ballet or modeling. Ballet doesn 't necessarily get the “spotlight” modeling does, in the case of eating disorders. Ballet is a competitive industry and a couple ballerinas talked about what it takes to stay relevant in that industry. The process involved talent and a petite body.The more petite the body, the better the career for the ballerina. One of the ballerinas stated that when she started to lose weight she saw an increase in positive feedback from the choreographers. (Dying to be Thin) The idea of being the best and getting opportunities to further one’s career shaped their idea of their own body image. This was also the case in the modeling world. Kate Dillion discussed how losing a certain amount of weight was never enough, there can always be a couple more pounds to shed here or there. The constant nagging from the companies to make her lose weight eventually came to a halt for Dillion. She decided to not let photographers and companies shape how she thought about her body, and became a plus-sized model. However, with the digital age becoming more prominent advertising has become a hub for people to create views on their …show more content…

Advertisers create images people think are the most appealing based on their targeted audience. For example, in the documentary Killing Us Softly 4: Advertising’s Image of Women Now, Jean Kilbourne sheds light on how advertisers use unrealistic, distorted images to reach their target audience. Kilbourne showed a video on how photoshop is used to turn a normal woman into the “perfect” woman used on ads. This shapes how woman view their own body image because they want to be like the women used on billboards. This does not exclude men. According to Fabio Parasecoli, there is a growing regard on the muscular body which increases the pressure on men to take better care of their bodies. This in part has to do with advertising and how advertisers portray the ideal man. An example is the Old Spice commercial, which features a very toned good looking male talking to the camera, (female members of the audience) telling them to look at him and then to look at their “man” and how if their man uses Old Spice they can look like him. This clearly shapes how men look at their own body’s because they want to look like the ideal male. Advertisers distort images and use these “ideal” people to display their product to sell, but really its shaping how people view their own body in a negative way. Although advertisements have now become a big part of body image, people’s views are strongly stemmed

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