Essay On Body Image

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Women and adolescent girls are exposed, daily, to the media's portrayal of perfect beauty. After being bombarded with images of beautiful women with perfect figures and porcelain skin, this has had an effect on the way women and young girls portray their own bodies. This, in return, causes a drive for thinness which, ultimately, can ignite feelings of dissatisfaction which can cause eating disorders and poor health decisions. This epidemic has captivated many women and adolescents as they go through tremendous lengths to achieve what the media has defined as beautiful. Consequently, the media, and the distorted images they parade, is causing women and adolescents to become dissatisfied with their bodies. Women and adolescents girls are spending endless time and money, desperately, to get this look that the media has portrayed to be perfect, however not only is the media using advance technology to distort the images we see, they are distorting our minds which is causing bodily dissatisfaction. And the extent that women and adolescent girls place on themselves and their bodies to attain perfection, can cause massive stress and can be a risk to health. Obsessively, women and adolescent girls are trying to alter their appearance to achieve the look they see in magazines and movies. They have engrained into their minds that being excessively skinny is equivalent to being beautiful. Body image is everywhere you look in the media. In their research, entitled A Losing Battle: Effects of Prolonged Exposure to Thin-Ideal Images on Dieting and Body Satisfaction, Silvia Knobloch-Westerwick and Josselyn Crane explore the idea that "The media clearly emphasize[s] idealized, lean body shapes for women." Their research proved that upwards of "9... ... middle of paper ... ...lose" (Kite). These feelings, however, can be eased with the proper education. The study entitled A Preliminary Controlled Evaluation of a School-based Media Literacy Program and Self-esteem Program for Reducing Eating Disorder Risk Factors was "A Preliminary Controlled Evaluation of a School-based Media Literacy Program and Self-esteem Program" specifically designed to reduce "Eating Disorder Risk Factors." The study, conducted by Tracey Wade, Susan Davidson and Jennifer O'Dea, concludes with the idea "that delivery of a media literacy program within an interactive, student-centered, self-esteem building framework may potentially be a safe and effective way of reducing risk factors for eating disorders" (Wade). We should be able to communicate, effectively, the false conceptions of beauty that the media portrays. Thereby igniting feelings of bodily satisfaction.

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