In today’s society, people place high value on appearance. The number on the scale, the labels inside of clothes, and the way a person presents themselves, defines how the person is viewed or rather their entire existence. Everyone judges and makes first impressions based on the first three seconds, which can make or break their perception. Present thought indicates that social pressure dominates our society; America’s perception of body image has been altered towards extremely underweight, tall, and slender figures, which in turn, has intensified the number of people with eating disorders within society. Social pressures have a heavy influence on how a person perceives their body. Magazines and advertising portray skinny women promoting diet plans and exercise routines that magically drop the pounds. Dove’s Real Beauty campaign supports America’s strive to change the social norm of body image back towards a more normal perception. Women with regular body weights and measurements, according to doctors, need to be accepted despite the media’s push for thinness. Similarly, the fashion industry uses skinnier models in order to promote their clothing because it looks “more flattering on them,” but designers, like Mark Fast and Eden Miller, use plus-size model in order to capture the real women figure. Also, pressure from peers in schools and workplaces are causing women to rethink the way they look at their bodies. Dr. Ferguson of Texas A&M conducted a survey on Hispanic girls ages 10 to 17, in which they rated the looks of the actresses on three popular television shows. Also, they were asked about their bodies and how they were affected by what others thought of them. The results from their survey concluded “neither television ex... ... middle of paper ... ...y do promote the need for the disease. Eating disorders are not a subject to be taken lightly, and need to be addressed by professionals and doctors. People look at themselves in the mirror everyday to see what they look like. Do not let the mirror become the enemy and change certain perspectives. Jess C. Scott, and author, artist, and non-conformist, put, “the human body is the best work of art,” and everyone should embrace their body for what they have. The social norm now is thin as can be, but that is soon to change with the emergence of more fashion designers making clothes for plus size women, love your body campaigns, and the population’s newfound respect for people who are not stick thin. People should not feed into the rumors and gossip about making others feel bad about their bodies. A new era is rising and it is accepting people of all shapes and sizes.
From newspapers, magazines, television, movies, and the Internet, people are connected to the media in so many ways every day. Media plays a huge impact on daily life, telling the public what the newest trends are, events that are happening in day-to-day life, and scandalous stories of elite individuals involving politics, fame, and money. From young children to middle aged adults, people are constantly fixated on the images the media portrays for how they should look. “Body image is defined as “perceptions of and attitudes toward one’s own physical appearance” (Burlew & Shurts, 2013, p. 1). The media has an impact on how society and individuals view themselves and each other.
The female body image and what a person should, or could, look like in marketing and advertising is a controversial topic. Beauty sells and is to some extent a problem when the media produces images for women that seem unrealistic. Body image is a critical mental health issue for young girls. It is a concern widespread among women of color, specifically among Latinas. Increasing diversity and perceptions of beauty have driven the need for dialogue on the scrutiny Latinas face across all industries regarding their bodies and appearance.
“The mass audience doesn't want to see you if you aren't perfect. If you don't look a certain way, if you don't have big pecs and great skin and the perfect eyes. And it's unfortunate, because kids are growing up with body image dysmorphia because not everyone is represented on the screen” (Chris Pine). The media brings us many good things like news and the latest trends in fashion, but it also can have negative effects on us. Such as how it makes us view ourselves. How can the pressure of body image from the media be eliminated?
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.
Times have changed throughout the generations and the portrayal of women in the media has definitely changed over the years. Unfortunately, there is still a stereotypical appearance and social role in the media that women need to achieve in order to be socially desired. Even though it has improved, there is such a stigma towards being too fat, too skinny, too tall, or too short and the list of imperfections go on and on. Aside from body image, social roles are a big issue in the media today. When you look at any advertisement in the media, you can notice the appearance, gender, and race of the model. The media’s idea of the “perfect” body is having the unflawed and women are typically skewed for this by society.
Before understanding the effects of body image on contemporary women, one must first comprehend the term that is body image. According to Psychology Today’s definition, “body image is the mental representation one has for themselves. It is the way one sees their physical body. However, this mental representation may or may not always be accurate.
intro- Ninety percent of teenage girls have been on a diet. Some take it too far and starve themselves to be thin. Over one million people in just the US are afflicted with anorexia. If what is on the inside matters, then why are does society and the media constantly promote being thin? The influence of society’s promotion of a thin body plays a significant role in the development of such eating disorders as anorexia.
The way a person see’s oneself and imagines what they look like is one’s body image. One can either have a positive or negative connotation regarding their own body appearance. A positive body image means that most of the time one is comfortable and satisfied about the way they appear. In a sense, that means they feel good about the way they see themselves in mirrors or pictures. Having a negative body image is a common struggle for individuals. This means they are unhappy with their physical appearance and constantly want to change something about him or herself. Negative body image leads to serious mental problems such as anorexia or bulimia. Not only do we have a personal view on our body image, but society also has an input. Society
Media: are the main sources of news, entertainment and promotional messages. For example: television, newspapers magazines and radio.
Women have been facing crisis of body image since the dawn of man, for competition in breeding purposes, however women came under great scrutiny because of this. Often through history, they have been at the same level of livestock, treated poorly. Creating a rise in the early 1900’s to create the movement about pushing for the equality of women in the United States; it was after then when media first started adopting an ideal image of women in American culture, when marketing research found the use of images of ideal women in their campaigns made for higher sales.
The most fashionable, sought after magazines in any local store are saturated with beautiful, thin women acting as a sexy ornament on the cover. Commercials on TV feature lean, tall women promoting unlimited things, from new clothes to as simple as a toothbrush. The media presents an unrealistic body type for girls to look up to, not images we can relate to in everyday life. When walking around in the city, very few people look like the women in commercials, some thin, but nothing similar to the cat walk model. As often as we see these flawless images float across the TV screen or in magazines, it is hard to remember they are not real and hardly anyone really looks similar to them....
Everywhere one looks today, one will notice that our culture places a very high value on women being thin. Many will argue that today’s fashion models have “filled out” compared to the times past; however the evidence of this is really hard to see. Our society admires men for what they accomplish and what they achieve. Women are usually evaluated by and accepted for how they look, regardless of what they do. A woman can be incredibly successful and still find that her beauty or lack of it will have more to do with her acceptance than what she is able to accomplish. “From the time they are tiny children, most females are taught that beauty is the supreme objective in life” (Claude-Pierre, p18). The peer pressure for girls in school to be skinny is often far greater than for boys to make a team. When it is spring, young girls begin thinking “How am I going to look in my bathing suit? I better take off a few more pounds.”
Every culture has a “perfect body image” that everyone compares their own bodies to. Girls especially have the mental thinking that they have to live up to the models on TV and magazines. In the United States the skinnier the girls, the more perfect their image is perceived. The “perfect body image” has an intriguing background, health and psychological problems, and currently few solutions.
The Perfect Body In today's society, women are obsessed with having a specific body type to make others find them attractive. They want to feed the society’s body type expectations. What is a perfect body? Does it even exist? However, advertising, boyfriends, and family members often make women feel that skinny bodies are perfect bodies.
Body image, according to Webster’s dictionary is a subjective picture of one’s own physical appearance established both by self-observation and by noting the reactions of others. Body image refers to people’s judgment about their own bodies and it is molded as people compare themselves to others. Since people are exposed to numerous media images, these media images become the foundation for some of these comparisons. When people’s judgment tell them that their bodies are subpar, they can suffer from low self-esteem, can become depressed or develop mental or eating disorders.