Effects of portrayed beauty from reality television on adolescent and young females
We are all aware that media plays one of the largest roles in transmitting messages regarding society’s standards of physical attractiveness, and reality television is no exception. For nearly 3 decades now, reality television has continued to blossom into an accepted form of entertainment in our homes. We laugh with, cry with, and pose questions about the characters who are portrayed on these shows. Many of these shows appeal to a younger audience, particularly adolescent and young adult females. Because media influences society, there is no doubt that watching reality television and it’s characters impacts those who watch it, but in what ways? Media,
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in general, possesses an alarming ability to shape self-concept and self-esteem. When pondering the question of the effects of media, namely reality television, on its viewers, we need to be cognizant of one important fact: that the majority of its audience who are adolescent and young females are at a very impressionable age, attempting to fit in as well as create their own identity, often while they are in the midst of puberty and bodily changes. Reality television frequently portrays an unrealistic image of authentic beauty through its characters, resulting in unhealthy internalization and mental health concerns for our young women in society such as body dissatisfaction and lowered self-esteem. Research on adolescents and young adults is overwhelming in the field of psychology and has been studied for ages.
One particular area of study in this regard is that of self-identity. Psychologist Erik Erikson was a great contributor to the study of identity in the 1960’s, explaining the struggle in adolescence for one to create his or her own identity. Self-identity is how one defines herself, and it forms the basis for self-esteem. The development of a strong and stable sense of self is widely considered to be one of the central tasks during adolescence. Although identity development has the ability to change throughout one's lifetime, adolescence is the first time that individuals begin to think about how their identity may affect their lives (Steinberg, 2008). Considering adolescents and young females have been facing the issue of self-identity and self-esteem for a very long time, when you add the pressures of today’s society, it is very clear that these budding females are overloaded emotionally. It makes sense that a positive self-identity will relate to a positive self-esteem, but when teenagers have yet to grasp their self-identity, they are looking for ways in which they can identify. They turn to peers and the media. In our society today, they will turn to social media and media such as television. The majority of programming geared toward these adolescents today is reality television, so here is where these young females are finding their role models: the people influencing who these teenagers will become and how they will identify themselves. Many of these reality shows are appearance-based, such as “Keeping Up With the Kardasians” or “Jersey Shore.” When we think about these types of reality shows and the portrayal of ideal beauty, it is evident that the depiction is anything but ‘real;’ however, it is difficult for young girls trying to find themselves to see the ‘reality show’ as anything but
real. Studies have shown that adolescents can have a distorted view of what is real. The Girl Scouts Institute in the US performed a study on girls aged 11-17 regarding reality television and their thoughts on the programs (2016). The results had significant findings. 8 out of 10 girls who regularly watched reality television shows believed that these programs depicted real life, were unscripted and were spontaneous. In the same study, they found that 38% of reality television viewers believed that a girl’s value is based on how she looks versus 28% of non-viewers expressing that opinion. Although this number does not express a significant difference, it does express a correlation. There was a widespread emphasis on the value of a female being about how she looked rather than how she positioned herself. According to research by Flynn (2015), teenagers inaccurately perceive reality cast members to be similar to themselves and their peers and don’t see them as actual actors. They believe that the reality cast is chosen at complete random and therefore are a good indicator of reality. Many adolescents don’t understand that reality shows are ‘scripted reality’ or that the actors themselves are not chosen blindly. When trying to find themselves, adolescents use this idealized portrayal of reality casted characters to compare themselves, falsely believing they are are true representation of real-life, and they are in turn set up for negative judgement. Additionally, a study by Peek and Beresin (2015) also found that for adolescents, separating real life from reality television is not clear-cut. Furthermore, due to the inability to differentiate between the two, adolescents were inaccurately comparing themselves, resulting in negative mental health effects such as lowered self-esteem. A 2011 report from Parents Television Council in the US divulged that adolescents who watched reality programming express lowered self-esteem. In this study among 12-17 year olds, they found that only 24% of what females said about themselves was positive and only 21% of the language directed at or about females was positive. Although labeled at reality-based, Flynn, et al. (2015) found that the bodies displayed on the most popular reality television programs from 1004-2001, including ‘Real World’ and ‘Jersey Shore’ were nearly the opposite of real-life. Both female and male bodies of the reality cast were highly idealized. With approximately 70% of the females and 75% of the males coded as ‘low-fat,’ the finding was that overall, thinness was the most common body characteristic. Characters with these body types also exhibited higher levels of body exposure than others. They found that many viewers shared the same misperception that these body types are common and the norm. Knowing that media idols help form identity, combined with an audience comprised mostly of adolescent and young females searching for their self-identity, is a recipe for the development of body dissatisfaction. Body dissatisfaction, or how one perceives his or her own body, can result after one internalizes thoughts and feelings in this regard. Consider a young adolescent girl who is overweight and watches ‘Keeping Up With the Kardashians.” As she misperceives the reality of the physical appearance of Kim Kardashian as being the norm, and is attempting to discover her own identity, she will compare herself to the reality star, only to find herself coming up short. She can internalize this, thus causing her emotional turmoil and feeling inadequate about her own, real beauty. According to Gallivan (2014), 53% of 13-year-old girls and 78% of 17-year-old girls are unhappy with their bodies. Body satisfaction, hits a low between the ages of 12-15 and is the most important component of self-esteem. Reality television has been associated with higher levels of internalizing the social ideal of beauty (Thompson & Stice, 2001). Moreover, society’s changing figure of ideal beauty, increasingly thinner, tends to be unattainable and is a likely contributor to poor body image. Another recent, cross-sectional study revealed that watching reality television was related to the internalization of suntan ideals and self-objectification. (Trekels, Eggermont, Koppen, & Vandenbosch, 2017). Feelings of needing to be tan to increase beauty are one part of overall satisfaction with body image. Further examples of body dissatisfaction are evident in the area of cosmetic surgery. According to the American Society of Plastic Surgeons, buttock enhancement surgery has increased 252% from 2000-2015 and breast augmentation has increased 89% in the same time period. It should be noted that Kim Kardashian (reality star) is well-known for her buttock enhancement. Further, the show in which she became famous aired in 2007, directly in the midst of this extremely significant increase in buttock enhancement surgeries. Overall, cosmetic surgery statistics continue to increase, just as reality television continues to idealize women who clearly have had surgical enhancements. One study published in the American Psychological Association by Markey, C. and Markey, P. (2012) revealed that participants who watched a cosmetic surgery reality show viewed the transformations as positive and they endorsed the importance of females pursuit of beauty ideals. They emphasized the importance of physical attractiveness as well as the benefits of beauty. The study found that when there was a positive response to the show, the participants expressed a greater likelihood of obtaining plastic surgery themselves. Another similar study (Sood, et al., 2017) found that the females who possessed a favorable attitude toward ‘Keeping Up With the Kardashians’ displayed a significantly positive effect on their intentions to engage in cosmetic procedures. These studies show the impact that idealized images depicted by reality stars can have on females in society. Discussion The pressure from the media is real, just as the pressure on teenagers to form an identification of themselves. Adolescents and young females are especially at risk of developing mental health concerns of lowered self-esteem and body dissatisfaction while the existence of an unrealistic beauty ideal remains at the forefront of reality television. Reality stars such as Kim Kardashian, although portrayed as ‘real-life’ are far from an authentic image. Adolescents and young females need to be made aware of scripted reality and the fact that reality television casts are not in fact a random sampling of everyday people, as themselves. Once they are educated on this, they can stop the process of comparing themselves, internalizing their thoughts, and possibly reduce the high reports of body dissatisfaction. While adolescents girls are especially vulnerable and impressionable, they need to be encouraged to be critical thinkers and understand that although beauty is portrayed by reality television stars as thin, with enhanced surgical procedures, this is not the average person. Furthermore, we need to support them in understanding that beauty starts from within so that they can build a stronger self-image and increase their self-esteem and not feel that they have to resort to cosmetic surgery to be accepted. Conclusion Historical and current evidence suggests that there is a correlation between reality television’s misrepresentation of idealized beauty and its effect on society, particularly adolescent and young females’ mental health regarding body dissatisfaction and lowered self-esteem. Further research needs to be done to determine more of a causal relationship as opposed to a correlational relationship.
Sipple, L. (2011). The appeal of reality television for teen and pre-teen audiences. Journal of
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“Real To Me: Girls and Reality TV.” www.girlscouts.org Girl Scout Research Institute, 2011. Web. 29. Nov. 2013.
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