Imagine yourself, looking in the mirror pointing out every flaw you have. Abercrombie & Fitch changed their sizes to only go up to a size 10. On the other hand, Arie is now using real, un-edited models. The way the media portrays beauty has drastically changed over the years. It lowers the self-esteem of many people, targeting teenage girls especially. We can take a stand together to make it known that the way the media views beauty today is hurting more people than they know. The media tries to make plus sized people self-conscious by saying you are only beautiful if you are skinny. Samantha Romo, a sophomore majoring in journalism who writes bi-weekly columns has done her research which shows that girls today are risking their lives by doing things to make themselves lose weight fast such as anorexia and bulimia. (Romo) Allie Kovar is a student studying health psychology. In her paper written to provide scientific overviews of topics on health and beauty, she has found out that between the years 1988 to 1993 bulimia tripled and studies have shown that 1-5% of girls are now bulimic. (Kovar) (Morris) The way that the media photo shops and edits the models that you see on television, in magazines and everywhere else shows that women are not viewed the same today as they were 20 years ago. Women are human beings being treated like objects trying to be formed into a mold of how they think they should look and what is “beautiful.” (Romo) The media targets teenage girls the most because they know that is who will be the most effected. Anne Morris, a specialist in the department of paediatrics and psychiatry and in the eating disorders program, the hospital for sick children at the university of Toronto, Ontario has found out that gi... ... middle of paper ... ... not define you. It does not show the way you laugh until you cry while you hang out with your friends, it does not show the way your face lights up when you smile and it definitely does not make you beautiful. Works Cited Romo, Samantha. “As Body Image Issues Grow in Society, Be Aware of the Medias Influence.” The Crimson White. University of Alabama. 7 March 2012. Web. 12 March 2014 Ossola, Alexandra. “The Media’s Effect on Woman’s Body Image.” Hamilton. Hamilton College. 1 September 2010. Web. 12 March 2014 Kovar, Allie. “Effects of the Media on Body Image.” Health Phycology Home Page. Phycology Department. 30 April 2009. Web. 12 March 2014 Morris, Anne. “The Impact of the Media on Eating Disorders in Children and Adolescents” Pediatrics and Child Health. US National Library of Medicine National Institutes of Health. May-June 2003. Web. 12 March 2014
Hass, Cheryl J., et al. "An Intervention for the Negative Influence of Media on Body Esteem." College Student Journal 46.2 (2012): 405-418. Academic Search Complete. Web. 16 Feb. 2014.
Like a blueprint or instruction manual, the objective of a rhetorical analysis is to dissect a written argument, identify its many parts, and explain how all of them come together to achieve a desired effect. Susan Bordo, a professor of Gender and Women’s Studies at the University of Kentucky, wrote “The Empire of Images in Our World of Bodies”, published in 2003 in The Chronicle of Higher Education. Her essay examines how the media plays a pervasive role in how women view their bodies to the point where we live in an empire of images and there are no protective borders. In “The Empire of Images in Our World of Bodies”, Bordo not only effectively incorporates numerous facts and statistics from her own research and the research of others; she also appeals to emotional realities of anxiety and inadequacy felt by women all over the world in regards to their body image. Ultimately, her intent is to critique the influence of the media on self-confidence and body image, and to remind her audience of the overt as well as subconscious messages they are receiving on a daily basis.
Smolak, Linda, Michael P. Levine, and Ruth Striegel-Moore. "Media as Context." The Developmental Psychopathology of Eating Disorders: Implications for Research, Prevention, and Treatment. Mahwah, NJ: L. Erlbaum Associates, 1996. 235-53. Print.
Finally, we need to understand that the review might not be everything related to the relationships between mass media and females’ perceptions of body image. In particular, most studies that were featured in this literature review were conducted not from a local context but it will be able to aid us in the formulation of our survey questions for our specific sample group of a particular population.
Harrison, K., & Hefner, V. (2006). Media exposure, current and future body ideals, and disordered eating among predolescent girls: A longitudinal panel study. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 35(2), 146-156. McCabe, M.A., & Ridge, A.R. a.
. Romo, Samantha. "As Body Image Issues Grow in Society Be Aware of Medias Influence." The Crimson White 7 Mar. 2012: n. pag. Print.
Many individuals with bulimia, anorexia, or binge eating disorder, do not seek help until they reach their thirties or forties when their eating is deeply ingrained and more difficult to change. Bulimia is often treated more successfully that anorexia, partly because bulimia patients usually want to be treated. Aside from interpersonal issues, such as depression and OCD, eating disorders are strongly provoked by television, electronic devices, and in some cases because of the influences presented by one's parents or friends. Many are unaware of the harm media causes toward its targeted audience. Overall, the media has completely taken over our lifestyle and continues to gain more control every day. Eating disorders don’t belong to a specific face, race, or shape. Anybody can fall victim to these sicknesses.
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....
Dittmar, Helga. "How Do "body Perfect" Ideals in the Media Have a Negative Impact on Body Image and Behaviors? Factors and Processes Related to Self and Identity." : Sussex Research Online. N.p, 6 Feb. 2012. Web. 27 Mar. 2014.
Holmstrom, A. (2004). The effects of the media on the body image: A Meta-Analysis. Journal of Broadcasting and Electronic Media, 48(2), 196-217.
Derenne, J. L., & Beresin, E. V. (2006). Body image, media, and eating disorders. Academic Psychiatry, 30(3), 257-261.
Graydon, Shari. “How the Media Keeps us Hung Up on Body Image.” Herizons Summer. 2008:
It seems that the media’s portrayal of women has negatively affected the body image of The Wykeham Collegiate senior school girls. The media has a negative effect on the youth of today, primarily amongst the female population when it comes to how young girls and women regard their bodies.
The definition of beauty is varying among different people in the world. Even though almost everyone knows the term beauty, many people are struggling in defining it and persuading others to agree with their opinions. Beauty is defined by a combination of qualities existent in a person or thing that fulfills the aesthetic feels or brings about profound gratification. Many people define beauty as a term to describe a person’s physical appearance; they often think that beauty comes from magazines, video girls, or even models. Although the term beauty can define a person’s physical appearance, true beauty lies in the way one acts and thinks rather than the way one look.