Unrealistic Women

In today’s society mass media creates unrealistic body images of women not ever being thin or flawless enough. Advertisements of this “ideal” body image affects how many women view themselves and how they think they should look. Advertising companies overly edit and photoshop images of women to create the so-called perfection that is the norm for the advertising world. These images of the “perfect” body send negative messages and create insecurities amongst many women. As the mass media uses unrealistic models to advertise its products and services, this sets the idea that the “ideal” woman must been unhealthily thin and blemish free. Advertisements of these “perfect” women negatively affect the way women feel about their physical appearance

For some women, the desire to look like that “perfect” model on the television or on that magazine article begins to consume their thoughts and diminish their self-confidence. As stated in the article Media Effects on Body Image: Examining Media Exposure in the Broader Context of the Internal and Other Social Factors by Vonderen and Kinnally, “This mediated thin-ideal is present in mainstream media, and mainstream media are a source women turn to for information about how to look” (41). As women continuously see these advertisements of “perfect” models, insecurities arise and women feel unsatisfied with their bodies. There is a plethora of evidence to show that the mass media’s perception of perfection affect the body image of many women in society in many negative ways from eating disorders to body dissatisfaction to low

The media’s thin “ideal” creates the message to women that the only way to be beautiful is to be really thin. As advertising agencies are constantly asking for thinner and thinner models, women become overly obsessed with the idea that they need to lose weight and reach an unhealthy weight to be beautiful. “This dissatisfaction is evident throughout a woman’s life span, with girls as young as nine indicating a desire to lose weight and it has led some women to take extreme measures to alter their bodies” (Spencer,Strahan, &Zanna, 331). In the article Don’t Take another Bite: How Sociocultural Norms for Appearance Affect Women’s Eating Behavior, Spencer, Strahan, &Zanna discuss various studies conducted on women’s exposure to mass media advertisements containing thin models and the studies showed that women who were exposed to these images more, felt the need to eat less and rejected their own bodies. Women feel dissatisfied by their body image and continuously strive to lose weight. These feelings of body dissatisfaction not only affect a women’s physical appearance negatively, but also it negatively affects a women’s mental and emotional