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Women have struggled with the ideal body since the 1800’s. Unlike today’s society, women in the 1800’s to 1900’s strived to be more voluptuous; women with extra weight were viewed as healthy and wealthy. Going into the late 1900’s, models and actresses had curves and averaged at sizes 12-16. In today’s society, the thinner the woman, the more attractive she is. Women have fought for centuries to meet the specific expectations of others. With this constant battle, many eating disorders including anorexia, bulimia nervosa, and binge-eating disorder rose up in women of all ages. Many women develop a lack of confidence due to the obsession with the perfect body. It becomes devastating to a woman’s self-esteem when she constantly is preoccupied on how others perceive her. There is no single answer for eating disorders and lack of confidence in women, but the use of research brings in the idea that thin, unrealistic models and actresses play a part in those disorders. Can body image be a struggle? What is body image? The way we look. The way we feel. The way we are perceived by others. According to Kasey Serdar, undergraduate at Westminster College, body imagine is a “complicated aspect of the self-concept that concerns an individual's perceptions and feelings about their body and physical appearance”. Serdar’s article is located on Myriad, which is an undergraduate academic journal for students to post current issues facing college students and adults. She also include multiple theories that have been tested to give more information on how females try to compare one’s body and self-image to another. This concept of the untouchable standard is not simply and idea that an overweight person conjured up to make excuses for themselves. Th... ... middle of paper ... ... impacted. Works Cited Braunstein, Glenn D. “The Realistic Skinny on Moms, Pregnancy and Weight Gain.” The Full. Huffpost, 5 Nov. 2012. Web 21 Apr. 2014. Grabe, Shelly and Monique Ward, Janet Hyde. “The Role of the Media in Body Image Concerns among Women: A Meta-analysis of Experimental and Correlational Studies.” PsychNET. American Psychological Associations, 2014. Web. 20 Apr. 2014. "Media, Body Image, and Eating Disorders | National Eating Disorders Association." Media, Body Image,and Eating Disorders. NEDA: Feeding Hope, 2001. Web. 10 Apr. 2014. Serdar, Kasey L. "Female Body Image and the Mass Media: Perspectives on How Women Internalize the Ideal Beauty Standard." Westminster. Westminster College, n.d. Web. 13 Apr. 2014. Valeri, James. "Dissatisfaction with Our Bodies and Eating Disorders." University of Minnesota Duluth, n.d. Web. 13 Apr. 2014.
Moe also discussed the emergence of the mass media which confronted people with many “ideal” bodies to look at and quickly, body image became a widespread obsession. The book did a great job of going into depth on how television and movies and magazines and newspapers are powerful promoters of the “be thin” message.
The media can impact people’s lives in many ways, whether it’s fashion, movies, literature, or hobbies. One of the impacts is how women view their bodies. Movie stars and models feel pressured to catch attention and to look good in order to have a good career in their respective field. People tend to judge how someone looks based on their body composition. The result of this “judgment” is that Hollywood is getting skinny. Since models and actresses serve as role models for people, people tend to want to look like them. The result of this seemingly harmless model of behavior is in an increase in eating disorders.
Over the years the rise in body image dissatisfaction has grown as both male and female progress to adulthood. This factor can be contributed to societal standards that the media presents to the public daily. These standards continue to rise making the body image more difficult to attain. With these standards comes the push to seek the “perfect body”. This myth of true beauty commonly found in today’s society, is the price that adolescents buy into often sacrificing their health. The perfect body can often present a distorted view of one-self leading to unhealthy methods of weight reduction. The most common methods for weight reduction are the diseases Anorexia and Bulimia. The similarities and differences between Anorexia and Bulimia will be used to prove that the society’s pressure to fit a certain mold contribute to the onset of the disease.
Finally, we need to understand that the review might not be everything related to the relationships between mass media and females’ perceptions of body image. In particular, most studies that were featured in this literature review were conducted not from a local context but it will be able to aid us in the formulation of our survey questions for our specific sample group of a particular population.
Body image can be defined as the picture one has in his mind about the appearance (i.e. size and shape) of his body, and the attitude that he forms toward these characteristics of his body. Thus there are two components of body image: the perceptual part, or how one sees his own body, and the attitudinal part, or how one feels about his perceived bodily appearance (Gardner, 1996). A negative body image can be in the form of mild feelings of unattractiveness to extreme obsession with physical appearance that impairs normal functioning (Rosen, 1995).
Paragraph 1- Girls can become victims of eating disorders because of society's promotion of an ideal thin female body. Models and stars shown in the fashion industry, magazines, movies, and other forms of media often appear very thin. These models are not a true reflection of the average female. Many are unnaturally thin, unhealthy or airbrushed. One former Victoria Secret model was shocked by the waiflike models that were shown on the runway during designer shows. A study referenced in the the article “Do Thin Models Warp Girls Body Image” describes how studies of girls as young as first grade think the culture is telling them to model themselves after celebrities who are svelte and beautiful. The same studies showed girls exposed to fashion magazines were most likely to suffer from poor body images. Psychologist and eating disorder experts agree the fashion industry has gone too far in showing dangerously thin images that women and young girls may try to emulate. The use of super slim models and stars, is sending the wrong message to young impressionable girls. These harsh influences lead us to think that thin is ideal body size. Seeing super thin models in the media plays a role in anorexia. Society’s promotion of a thin female body contributes to eating disorders for females striving to achieve this ideal bod...
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 recent years, sociologists, psychologists, and medical experts have gone to great lengths about the growing problem of body image. This literature review examines the sociological impact of media-induced body image on women, specifically women under the age of 18. Although most individuals make light of the ideal body image most will agree that today’s pop-culture is inherently hurting the youth by representing false images and unhealthy habits. The paper compares the media-induced ideal body image with significant role models of today’s youth and the surrounding historical icons of pop-culture while exploring various sociological perspectives surrounding this issue.
Women in our culture today have developed an obsession with body image and weight that has contributed to the development of eating disorders. The media portrays super-thin models and women take that as the ideal of what they “should” look like. This can have a tremendous impact on their self esteem, and on both the low and high end of the BMI scale, a measure of body fat calculated using your height and weight; whether it be a woman with anorexia, or a woman with obesity. Men also experience this pressure to be muscular and tall, yet it is small compared to what women face. Statistics of college men show that 25% binge eat, 24% diet and 3% purge (Cain, Epler, Steinley, and Sher, 2012). Studies show that people with higher BMI’s experience more body dissatisfaction and and negative body image than people with lower BMI’s (Duncan, al-Nakeeb, and Nevill, 2013). When people feel bad about their body they can experience low self esteem: when a person feels inadequate and lacks respect for the self (Mäkinen, Puukko-Viertomies, Lindberg, Siimes, & Aalberg, 2012). Someone with low self esteem is more at risk for experiencing body dissatisfaction, which can lead to abnormal eating habits (Mäkinen, Puukko-Viertomies, Lindberg, Siimes, & Aalberg, 2012). This can take two forms, dietary restraint and binge eating. High and low BMI has a negative impact on self esteem and body image of women due to the pressure to be perfect in today’s society. The presentation of the following studies of children and adults will seek to understand the differences in men and women and their relationship with BMI, self esteem, and body image through its effect on eating disorders, body dissatisfaction, and the thin-ideal portrayed by the media.
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Dittmar, Helga. "How Do "body Perfect" Ideals in the Media Have a Negative Impact on Body Image and Behaviors? Factors and Processes Related to Self and Identity." : Sussex Research Online. N.p, 6 Feb. 2012. Web. 27 Mar. 2014.
Holmstrom, A. (2004). The effects of the media on the body image: A Meta-Analysis. Journal of Broadcasting and Electronic Media, 48(2), 196-217.
A tall, glamorous runway model is every girl’s dream. Long beautiful legs, lean body, and beautiful shiny hair is what an average young woman views as an ideal image for a female. If you don’t resemble the images of those stunning Victoria Secret models and Fashion Week models, you suddenly become ashamed of your own body. It is a great life to have with the high pay, fame, drinking champagne on a yacht with famous celebrities and even being on the Vogue cover page. Fashion Modeling Industry has been the most influential source in our young women’s lives. Young girls and young women are seen eating as little as they can, even starving themselves at times to resemble those models. What they don’t realize is that they are contributing to the 2.7 percentage of 13- 18 year olds suffering from anorexia and bulimia. Susan Albers, a psychologist at the Cleveland Clinic said exposure to thin models is a great trigger in maintaining an eating disorder. When watching America’s Next Top Model or flipping through a Fashion magazine, these young women don’t apprehend that those models are either naturally slim or they are suffering from an eating disorder themselves, in other words, hostages in the dark hell hid behind those runway curtains. The growing number of young anorexia and bulimia patients, and the number of websites such as thinspiration, where girls put up pictures of their thin bodies clearly suggest that the fashion modeling industry do not at all bear any responsibility in providing healthy, realistic physical role models for young women.
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