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Media and its influence on body image
Body image and self esteem among teens
Body image and self esteem among teens
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Women have always been under extreme pressure to look a certain way. These double standards are news to nobody. However, lately they have been pushed on younger audiences. Teenage girls have to deal with a great deal of compulsion to look pretty, and the strive to meet these demands can have negative impacts on both their mental and physical health. A struggle among many Americans today is body image, particularly with weight, and no group faces this at quite the rate of teenage girls. The percent of teenage girls who are or think that they should be on a diet is at 53%, and the percent of girls from ages 15-17 who have acknowledged having an eating disorder is at a frightening 13%. The percent of 10 year old girls who are afraid of being …show more content…
That would be hypocritical of me, seeing as I wear a pound of it per day. Girls should be allowed to express themselves in any way and to look however they want. However, the trouble comes when girls are expected to wear makeup at all times and begin to feel uncomfortable without it. At least one in five girls between the ages of 8 and 18 who have worn makeup before associate their “bare face” with feeling insecure, unattractive, and unappealing, and over a quarter of girls who regularly wear makeup rarely or never leave home without it (“From Barbies to Blush - New Survey Reveals Young Girls Are Wearing Makeup Earlier Than Ever To Hide Their Insecurities”). Personally, I feel incredibly insecure leaving the house without at least concealer and mascara on. This is the effect of years of growing up seeing airbrushed magazine covers, advertisements targeted towards girls, making them feel inadequate in order to sell a product, and other unrealistic cultural messages. Just watch an episode of Toddlers and Tiaras. This can cause girls to have a negative self-image and begin self destructive behaviors, not to mention acne cosmetica, hormone imbalances, eye infections, and more (Alvarez). Makeup is a creative and fun thing, but it is no longer enjoyable when you are forced to wear it because you feel like something’s missing without
Within the past ten years, the rise of eating disorders has gotten more public attention. This spark increased scientific research geared toward explaining and responding to this disaster. It is now widely recognized that body image dissatisfaction, broadly defined as strong negative feelings about the body, are persistent among women, especially concerning weight and dieting. Merely being a women in our society means feeling too fat (Wolszon 542). Survey data indicate that three fourths of normal weight women in the United States feel fat, more than half of adult women in the United States are on a diet, and on study showed that nearly 80% of fourth grade girls are watching their weight (Shelly Levitt 64).
Due to these unrealistic images and ideals during this impressionable developmental stage, it is not surprising that adolescent girls make up 95% of individuals who suffer from eating disorders (ANAD, 2013). Clearly, media images and messages greatly contribute to the development of eating disorders, such as anorexia nervosa (Edwards, 2008, Maclagan, 1998). Dokter describes an eating disorder as, “a reflection of a person’s degree of unhappiness with themselves” (1995, p.208). Mitchell adds that eating disorders are a “disturbance of delusional proportions in the body image and body concept” (Brooke,2008,p.15). Eating disorders include: anorexia nervosa, bulimia, binge eating, and other non-specified eating disorders. It is crucial for individuals with eating disorders to seek treatment due to the fact that it is life threatening. Of all mental disorders, eating disorders bear the highest mortality rates (ANAD,2013).
“There’s no magic bullet; there’s no pill that you take that makes everything great and makes you happy all the time. I’m letting go of those expectations, and that’s opening me up to moments of transcendent bliss. But I still feel the stress over ‘Am I thin enough? Am I too thin? Is my body the right shape?” –Anne Hathaway. It seems as if every young girl’s desire is to become a model. Eating disorders affect an increasingly large number of people, especially young women, in today’s modern societies. One study even found that some girls are more afraid of being fat, than of a nuclear war or getting cancer. The most common types of this disorder are anorexia, bulimia, and purging, each having a discrete effect on different people. Right now, one percent of all American women- our sisters, mothers, and daughters, are starving themselves to death.
In modern day society, many adolescent girls are self-conscious of their bodies, like Samantha Murray. In “Female Body Image and the Mass Media: Perspectives on How Women Internalize the Ideal Beauty Standard,” Kasey Serdar writes, the standards of the woman’s body are visibly set through forms of media; furthermore, the pressures are high to achieve these unrealistic looks (1). A plethora of self-esteem issues result from the media’s portrayal of unrealistically thin models. In addition, today’s society places a significant amount of importance on what the eyes perceive, rather than what is on the inside, as the article “Factors That May Contribute to Eating Disorders” states (1). As a result, eating disorders now begin at a younger age, since girls grow up viewing the “ideal body” as skinny; furthermore, images in the media affect the self-esteem of women so immensely that many develop eating disorders after spending time viewing these unrealistic images. Women should not feel the need to cha...
As women, we get looked at and is given a “score” based on how we look. If a woman look doesn’t meet the standard then they will be placed at the bottom of the list and their self-esteem goes down with their score. Putting on cosmetics has been shown to boost self-esteem and according to science, women simply feel prettier when they’ve got it on. When women look their best, they become more confident in themselves, giving them a push away from the confidence gap. Makeup can help women feel more confident to go for that leadership position or fight for
As part of our culture, while growing up boys and girls are expected to learn the basic skills to fulfill the "roles of their gender." For boys this includes learning all of the the routine maintenance on a car, to work out and be stronger then the girls, and are usually expected to be better with electronics. While at the same time girls are steered towards learning how to cook, clean, and look pretty. All of the female roles require a lot of practice and trial and error before they can be mastered, but the hardest and most time consuming skill to be learned still remains applying make-up. Just as anything else (even writing an essay) the finished product always seems so simple and easy enough to be done by a child in a few minutes. Although, in reality girls spend years doing trial and error to find out what looks good on them and a few more years making it look "natural." This is necessary for every girl go through on her own, to be able to have her own look. However, there is a routine make-up application process that will help any beginning girl with he basics.
However, makeup can effect some woman negativity. Women who think that makeup is “obligatory but unwanted”, and would rather spend their time more wisely than putting on makeup do not feel confidence when they do put on makeup
It creates the social norms about the standards of beauty, “Media, including fashion magazines and music videos, are also cited as powerful influences on girl’s body image, or their belief about the “ideal” body weight and physique” (Grabe, Ward, and Hyde). The ideal body shape that Barbie doll represents in “Barbie Girl” gives teenager girls a complex about their figures. The result of it is the girls think they must strive to be beautiful and to live a perfect life, and they are obsessed by the idea of perfection. For example, the girl starts her diet or drinking medicine which advertised by the mass media so as to lose weight and attain her look, even if it leads to being unhealthy and dangerous for health. They consider makeup as beauty and always makeup when they go out.
That leads to them starting to use more makeup than they used to youth, and at the same time, the makeup industry itself begins to generate and produce a lot more and are forced to produce new products. the pressure of society leads women to spend part of their money on make-up, by which I mean that at the same time it is almost part of their daily viuda, since some jobs even require their female employees a certain percentage of makeup so that its appearance is always the best, and always give a good first impression, and all this for the good of the obvious company. It's amazing how schools in my country forbid students to wear makeup to attend school, and they take it as a demerit if they do. At the same time it is worth mentioning that the teachers of these institutions in my country, if they wear makeup and it does not matter, because they are authorities, in my point of view I do not look at it right, since the teachers do it to look good, also the students have That right to look good like the teachers who wear makeup. With this I do not mean that the teachers should not be authorized to use makeup, only that I look unfair that they can and that the students can not.
Young girls take makeup as a way to fit in, and sometimes jealousy plays apart like "They were said to be envious of her good looks"(Bullied to Death for Being Pretty). How girls are looked upon can sometimes give off a sense of shame or envy. The world brings upon a way of life, a way of living to societies needs in a way where a thirteen year old is putting makeup on her face. Influences from the media involving makeup as well as photo shopping models in magazines causes a
It seems like every little girl dreams of becoming a model. They want to be thin and pretty like the models they see on television and in magazines. Often the desire becomes an obsession and young girls see "thinness" as being a needed characteristic. For many girls, the teenage years are spent trying to acquire this look. Females are trying diets and are exercising like it is a competition to see who can lose the most weight the quickest. The obsession of many young girls over their appearance or weight has led to a growing number of people who have developed an eating disorder to try to deal with their lack of self-esteem or other related problems.
I choose to discuss the long-term effects of makeup on teens and how it affects the skin. In this article written by Dr. Manny Alvarez talks about how makeup can be what’s causing damaging acne; it can also leave your skin damaged for months or even years. Next, he talks about how there was a study done in Brazil; and 45 percent of women who wore makeup daily had some type of skin disease that was linked to making up. Next, in certain kinds of makeup they put chemicals that have been linked to infertility and forms of cancer. Imagine your loved one in a life threatening situation because they put their favorite foundation and concealer on to feel beautiful for the day.
While some makeup brands claim to be healthier for your skin than others, but they’re all the same. In fact, makeup can cause more problems than we actually know, including acne, cancer, or even eye infections. Makeup really is putting women in danger. Makeup products vary from quality and ingredients; some ingredients can clog pores in your skin. It covers up acne, but also aggravates it.
It's a way for some girls to express themselves, because if you really think about it, makeup is a type of art. You need to
Teenagers constantly worry about their body image. Magazines, newspapers, and television don’t exactly help to boost their confidence. The portrayal of stick thin woman and body building men forces teens to believe they need to achieve that “perfect” body and look. The biggest issue of these images being broadcasted to teens is the effects that the images have on them. Teenagers who obsess over their body image can experience stress due to trying to impress others, develop an eating disorder, and neglect, and even jeopardize, important aspects of their lives when they focus too much on their body image.