Cinderella Body Image

The moment a little girl watches Cinderella for the first time can be a life changing experience. She now knows what she wants her next Halloween costume to be, the theme of her next birthday party, and maybe even her new bedspread. However, what happens when a couple of years later, she looks into the mirror and realizes she doesn't look like Cinderella? Or Belle? Or Tiana or any of their other beautiful royal friends? Cinderella doesn’t have a scar on her cheek or a gap in her teeth or bumps on her forehead. Many people, adolescent girls in particular, struggle with body image because they are presented with the idea that they must look a certain way to be successful, important, and accepted. This idea that the perfect look will lead to the

The powerful effects of photoshop can have negative impacts on how girls view themselves and their bodies. Many magazines, photographs, and commercials use photoshop to enhance the looks of the people being shown. This proves that the images society views as perfect are not real and therefore not attainable. In the article, “The Great Photoshop Crusade”, a concerned father says, “ These fake, impossible, and digitally altered bodies have been contributing to serious, deadly health issues like eating disorders for too long. When at least 30 million Americans are suffering from eating disorders, we can't simply ignore the problem and hope it goes away” (Cogan). Even though society is aware of the uses of photoshop and it’s unrealistic effects, there are still a lot of real people such as models and actresses in runways, fashion shows, and real life that have the beauty and perfect body that everyone wants. These models, actors, actresses, and singers are all successful which goes back to the point of with beauty comes success and acceptance. People see models and strive to have the features that models have because those models look good and people want to look good themselves. However, many models are still not happy with how they look and still have unwanted flaws. Ann Simonton, a former cover girl, turned her attention to body activism after an incident in the dressing room with other models. She explains how

It is a condition in which people obsess over visual imperfections that exist only in their mind. As many as 5 million people in the U.S. may have BDD and it can happen to all ages, however adolescence is the most common time of onset. It is normal and common for people, especially adolescents, to care a lot about their appearance. James Rosen, professor of psychology at the University of Vermont says, “but you begin to have a problem when you attach more importance to your appearance than is realistic. If you think that if you don’t look perfect nobody could ever care about you, or that people are repulsed by you, that’s not normal.” The symptoms of BDD can range from mild to severe and the condition can also worsen over time( Nutricise.com). Chris Trondsen, host of a music show who also interviews celebrities, spent his teenage years suffering from BDD. In an article he explains how he was never satisfied with his appearance and no matter what he did it never helped and he never looked good enough. His condition became so severe that he would wait until three in the morning to go to the grocery store and he eventually quit his job. He kept a list of things he thought were wrong with him and the longer it got, the worse his depression got as well. However, now Chris says he looks back at pictures where he had no acne or blemishes but during the time all he could see were pimples and scars on his face.