Amanda McCallum Gessner/ Vance English IV Period 1 29 November 2017 Fight the Fake Body positivity is a rising topic, models are plus sized, bloggers are promoting self-love, sizeism, discrimination of someone based on their size or shape, (“sizeism”) is becoming less acceptable. Now is the time we want our daughters to grow up, we want them to grow up in a society that inspires them to thrive as they are and not one that makes them scrutinize every little detail of their body. Dread, the feeling most girls get when they look in the mirror or have to try on tight clothes, society is the reason girls hate the way they look, it makes them want to starve themselves and take extreme measures to get the body that fits societies standards. Do we …show more content…
“Home.” Celebrities Promoting a Healthy Body Image, www.mirror- mirror.org/celebrity-body-image.htm. Feldman, Jamie. “Finally, A Realistic Look At The Plus-Size.” The Huffington Post, TheHuffingtonPost.com, 30 June 2015, www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/06/30/plus-size- model-documentary_n_7696740.html. Kriv. “Effects of plus-Size Models on Women's Body Image.” Fox 26, www.fox26houston.com/good-day/morning-news/mary-jo-rapini/effects-of-plus-size- models-on-womens-body-image. Lewis, Anna. “Demi Lovato Shares a Body Positivity Message Everyone Should Read.” Cosmopolitan, Cosmopolitan, 9 Oct. 2017, www.cosmopolitan.com/uk/entertainment/a9270647/demi-lovato-shares-a-body- positivity-message-everyone-should-read/. “Sizeism.” Dictionary.com, Dictionary.com, www.dictionary.com/browse/sizeism. Vino, Lauren. “11 Body-Positive Instagram Accounts .” MTV News, 4 Aug. 2015, www.mtv.com/news/2206844/body-positive-instagrams/ “Whether Fit-Shaming Or Fat-Shaming, It's Still Body Shaming.” Fitness Reloaded, 23 May 2017, fitnessreloaded.com/body-shaming/. Wood, Kate. “14 Female Celebrities That Bash Hollywood's Ideal Body Image.” Lifehack, Lifehack, 19 June 2014, www.lifehack.org/articles/lifestyle/14-female-celebrities-that-
Wykes, Maggie, and Barrie Gunter. The Media and Body Image: If Looks Could Kill. London: SAGE, 2005. Print.
How should I look like to have the ideal body? An increasing number of women ask themselves this question many times in their lives. Deborah Sullivan’s essay, “Social Bodies: Tightening the Bonds of Beauty”, discloses the different cultural traditions that require various methods of body modifications. Women should undergo such modifications to obtain social acceptance. Similarly, “Pressures to Conform” by Celia Milne discusses the effects of media and society on women, and how women view their physical appearance. The media gives women a plethora of choices for the perfect body and even provides ways on how to achieve them. There is no escaping. There is no excuse of not getting the ideal body that ranges from that of a stick-thin ramp model’s to the buff and chiseled outline of a body builder’s. Still, the struggle doesn’t end here. Women also desire smooth, wrinkle-free skin, hairless faces, and ample busts. “Stencil” women are celebrities, models, actresses - women whose coveted looks are seen through discriminating TV screens, posters, and magazines. The steady demand for these forms of media is mainly due to women who are looking for body images to pattern from. These women are on the constant lookout in updating their appearance and considering the bulk of information that the media presents to them, the media is a source of considerable amount of physical and psychological stress. In their fight for their roles in society, women undergo various body modifications to suit the taste of the present-day culture.
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.
Lippert, Barbara. “The Media Are Embracing More Diverse Body Types.” 11 December 2006: 36-42. Print. 01 April 2014.
Mackler, Carolyn. Body Outlaws: Rewriting the Rules of Beauty and Body Image. Ed. Ophira Edut. Emeryville, CA: Seal, 2004. Print.
Serder, Kasey. (2005). Female body image and the Mass Media. Perspectives on How Women Internalize the Ideal Beauty Standard. Retrieved from https://www.westminstercollege.edu/myriad/index.cfm?parent=2514&detail=4475&content=4795
... working out lifted off their shoulders if they know there is other women out there like them. The average size of women in the United States is a size 14; which is the considered to be a plus size model.
The "Body Image" - "The Body Image" Readings for Writers. 14th ed. of the year. Boston: Monica Eckman, 2013. 310.
So do plus size models pose the opposite argument? That maybe, promoting women to flaunt thicker bodies in desirable clothing encourages obesity? An article written by Damian Sofsian shares current obesity statistics reporting
Throughout history when we think about women in society we think of small and thin. Today's current portrayal of women stereotypes the feminine sex as being everything that most women are not. Because of this depiction, the mentality of women today is to be thin and to look a certain way. There are many challenges with women wanting to be a certain size. They go through physical and mental problems to try and overcome what they are not happy with. In the world, there are people who tell us what size we should be and if we are not that size we are not even worth anything. Because of the way women have been stereotyped in the media, there has been some controversial issues raised regarding the way the world views women. These issues are important because they affect the way we see ourselvescontributing in a negative way to how positive or negative our self image is.
The factors of influence on body image that we are exposed to in the American culture are endless. There are magazines in every shopping market with magazine covers featuring the thin, tan, popular celebrities. This is harmful for people to see because they don’t realize these images are incredibly misleading due to photo alterations (Brady ). Almost every family owns a television w...
Greenberg, Bradley. Eastin, Matthew. “Portrayals of overweight and obese individuals on commercial television” American Journal of Public Health 98.3 (Aug 2003): 1342-8. ProQuest. Web. 12/26/2013
“Big is Beautiful” is a campaign started by H&M, a clothing company, which exposes “plus size models” ranging from sizes 16-30 (Rawi). The campaign was started because the designers saw a potential to branch out to younger people by widening their products to larger sizes and better fashion. While the campaign was mainly started to increase sales to more women, people took the name of the campaign and turned it into glorifying obesity rather than embracing being “thick.” The exaggeration of the campaign caught the eye of many women who were overweight and/or obese and they saw it as an opportunity to excuse their unhealthy body size. Having self confidence is a positive quality, being unhealthily obese is not. Obesity can lead to heart disease, heart attack, diabetes, and many other health issues. While being misfitly thin and having eating disorders are also not positive qualities, dieting and exercising 3-5 times per week may help to get to a desirable body
Graydon, Shari. “How the Media Keeps us Hung Up on Body Image.” Herizons Summer. 2008:
The majority of women are a size 14 or above, so its about time that retailers recognize the need for attractive plus size clothing. Due to consumer demand, there is a greater array of plus size clothing than every before including plus size lingerie, business suits, swimsuits, and formal wear. The reality is that what looks good on a size 4 is not necessarily going to look good in a size 16. So, simply replicating a style in plus size clothing may not work for fuller figures.