“[In] a poll done by the American Association of University Women (AAUW) of 3,000 fourth to tenth graders revealed that most girls can’t look in a mirror and say, ‘I’m pretty!’ or even ‘I’m okay!’”(Cordes 4). Social media, avenues of peer and parental influences, and role models of “beauty” cause young girls of today’s society to develop distorted views of beauty for themselves. America over time has reached a level that depicts beauty as an unrealistic and unachievable model of the “perfect beautiful girl.” According to research by Shelly Grabe, Janet Shibley Hyde—both staff of the Department of Psychology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison—and L. Monique Ward of the Department of Psychology at the University of Michigan, half of the population of females younger than twenty-four confess to being dissatisfied with the way they look (Grabe, Hyde, and Ward 460). Females of today’s society look to their culture to derive what exactly beauty is, and recently the depiction of beauty has been tainted. There is a plethora of speculated causes for this trend of negative self-perception in young females, and many of these causes eventually lead to dangerous extreme measures by girls striving to reach the “idealized level of beauty.” Peer influences such as appearance conversations and friendship cliques have proven to have direct correlation with young girls and body image. Gathered from the research of two professors from the School of Psychology at Flinders University Levina Clark and Marika Tiggermann, “poor body image in children has been associated with teasing by peers and conversations with peers about appearance” (Clark and Tiggermann 1125). Peers easily persuade young girls, and if a girl’s peer group considers the unreal... ... middle of paper ... ...e Effect of Experimental Exposure to Images of Dolls on the Body Image of 5- to 8-year-old Girls." Developmental Psychology 42.2 (2006): 283-92. PsycARTICLES. Web. 29 Nov. 2011. Grabe, Shelly, L. Monique Ward, and Janet Shibley Hyde. "The Role of the Media in Body Image Concerns among Women: A Meta-analysis of Experimental and Correlational Studies." Psychological Bulletin 134.3 (2008): 460-76. PsycARTICLES. Web. 29 Nov. 2011. Smolak, Linda. "Eating Disorders in Girls." Handbook of Behavioral and Emotional Problems in Girls. Ed. Sharon L. Foster, Eric J. Mash, and Deborah J. Bell. New York: Kluwer Academic/Plenum, 2005. 463+. SpringerLink. Web. 29 Nov. 2011. Stice, Eric, and Kathryn Whitenton. "Risk Factors for Body Dissatisfaction in Adolescent Girls: A Longitudinal Investigation." Developmental Psychology 38.5 (2002): 669-78. PsyARTICLES. Web. 29 Nov. 2011.
Media is infamous for having a tremendous effect on teenage girls. The mass media have long been criticized for presenting unrealistic appearance ideals that contribute to the development of negative body image for many women and girls (Harrison & Hefner, 2006). Whether it’s the influence on their choice of friends, school, or their self image, media has played an important role in affecting those decisions. A growing number of experimental studies have demonstrated a causal link between acute exposure to "thin-ideal" images (i.e., images of impossibly thin and attractive female beauty) and increased body dissatisfaction (Hargreaves & Tiggemann, 2003). It has recently been brought up that media influences girls in preadolescence, which is highly likely since most young girls idolize Barbie (Rintala & Mustajoki, 1992). “Were Barbie a flesh-and-blood woman, her waist would be 39% smaller than that of anorexic patients, and her body weight would be so low that she would not be able to menstruate” (Rintala & Mustajoki, 1992). Most young girls wish that they could look like Barbie when they grew up, but if they knew the reality of having her measurements their perceptions would probably change. Children frequently fantasize about who they will be, what they will do, and how they will look when they grow into adulthood.
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.
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).
Adolescence is one of the most difficult times for development. This difficulty is experienced very differently for boys and girls. This paper will examine how gender role socialization effects girls more specifically, the emergence of eating disorders and depression in adolescent girls.
Not surprisingly, Attie and Brooks-Gunn assert that disturbed body image is one of the main precursors for disordered eating and dieting in adolescent and young adult girls (as cited in Serdar, n.d.). Moreover, Striegel-Moore and Franko argue that the prominence of dieting and maladaptive eating patterns has become an increasingly prevalent concern in adolescent and young adult populations; research has shown that around two-thirds of adolescent females report dieting at some point (as cited in Serdar, n.d.). Even more startling is the increasing number of girls who feel pressured to restrict their diet at dangerously young ages when their bodies are still developing. Hoffman claims that “while 42% of first- through third-grade girls wish to be thinner, a staggering 80% of girls have dieted by the time they reach the age of ten” (2004). Concerns with the development of disordered eating are an especially vital issue because such patterns have been found to be a major predictor of clinical eating disorders. “Research suggests that strict dieting to achieve an ideal figure often plays a key role in triggering eating disorders, which affect 5 to 10 million American girls and women” (Hoffmann, 2004). Early signs of bulimia and anorexia nervosa are appearing in girls of surprisingly young ages. “According to the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, as many as 10 out of 100 young women suffer from an eating disorder” (Hoffmann, 2004). Furthermore, approximately 5% of adolescent girls meet the criteria for bulimia nervosa (Morris & Katzman, 2003). The occurrence of eating disorders among college women is even more startling. “One in five college women struggles with an eating disorder, and one in three displays borderline eating disorder behavior” (Hoffmann, 2004). The prevalence of eating disorders in America poses a serious
To answer their research question, they used four experiments. Their sample was 127 girls between the ages of 10-13 who attended school in England. The video used for the intervention was a girl in a Dove commercial. The commercial shows how much is edited before publishing the image in a magazine or a billboard. They explored body dissatisfaction, body image, body satisfaction and body esteem. Some of the girls watched the video and some of them did not. This was to see the difference in reactions. There was a significant difference in people who watched the video versus the girls who did not. For the girls who did not watch the video, after they were exposed to thin models, their body satisfaction lowered. For the girls who did watch the video, their body satisfaction did not change. The same results were found for body esteem. The authors concluded with the results that the girls who did not watch the video of how the media edits and alters models bodies had a lower body esteem and dissatisfaction after looking at skinny models. This article is a great help for my research because it shows the results when people see skinny models without knowing the editing that goes
Solomon, Mindy, John Venuti, Jilda Hodges, Jena Iannuzzelli , and Catherine Chambliss. "Educational Responses To Media Challenges To Self Esteem: Body Image Perceptions Among Undergraduate Students." ERIC. 2001. n.p.Web. 27 Dec. 2013. .
“Adolescent girl and Body image.” National Association of Social Worker. National Association of Social Worker Web. 18 Nov 2013
Dohnt, H. K., & Tiggemann, M. (2006). Body image concerns in young girls: The role of peers and media prior to adolescence. Journal of Youth & Adolescence, 35(2), 135-145. doi:10.1007/s10964-005-9020-7
Body dissatisfaction is so common among women that it is considered a normative female experience (Knobloch-Westerwick & Crane, 2012). Nearly half of American women experience poor body image (Peterson, Tantleff-Dunn, & Bedwell, 2006). Not only does body dissatisfaction prompt women to attempt to control their weight and shape through dieting (Groesz, Levine, & Murnen, 2002), but it is strongly correlated with eating disorder symptoms (Peterson et al., 2006). Furthermore, body dissatisfaction has been associated with psychological issues such as depression, sexual dysfunction, social anxiety and suicidal behavior (Myers, Ridolfi, Crowther, & Ciesla, 2012). With so many women affected by body dissatisfaction and the associated risks being so severe, it is important to discuss and examine possible interventional methods.
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 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...
Rosenblum, G. and Lewis, M. "The relations among body image, physical attractiveness, and body mass in adolescence." Child Development 70.1 (1999): 50-64. doi: 10.1111/1467-8624.00005
The media’s portrayal of the female body image has a negative effect on the female population, as shown in both literature reviews and this research. The dominant factors which affect body image are that of the frequent comparison to others, seeing models, celebrities, in the media as well as the general society around. The supposed ideal physical appearance and what is considered to be the ideal body plays a great role in the nega...
Teens oftentimes gain dignity and confidence when their physical faults are corrected, but dissatisfaction is shown to decrease the older one gets. Analysis directed toward boys and girls ages 11-18 found that body image satisfaction was higher at age 18 for both boys and girls. Participants were most discontented with reflected the culturally determined stereotypes