Body image is a key part of our sense of identity and not a trivial matter or one of personal vanity. It is a fundamental part of our sense and self and affects our thoughts, emotions, and behavior. It is the belief that our size, shape, and weight convey to the world what type of person we are. Our bodies and appearances are under scrutiny on a daily basis. Between health campaigns, magazines, television shows, peers; there is a continual promotion or suggestion of how one should physically look. The topic I have chosen is Body Image and The Media with the focus question: "How does the media affect body image of 12-18-year-old girls?". I have proposed to investigate this concept to gain a deeper understanding of how other teenagers perceive themselves for various reasons, not just the media. Having already some background knowledge on the topic of body image and how it can affect an individual’s well-being, and having struggled with body image myself, has encouraged me to explore this topic in more detail. My hypothesis is that that there will be a negative correlation between media use and self-esteem where participants exposed to mass media, will have lower self-esteem. This study seeks to investigate …show more content…
My IRP has more than one research method in my data collection which was thirty questionnaires, a literature review, and five interviews. A good understanding of the research methods and completed sufficient readings of secondary data so that I am reasonably knowledgeable on the topic and will therefore not rely on biased judgments. During my Individual Research Project, there were some areas of weaknesses, such as when I was distributing the questionnaires. The participants were not taking it ‘seriously’ and were drawing on the questionnaires and making silly comments. I also had difficulties finding the age of participants because of the rollover during the school
According to the article “Enhancing Your Body Image” by Rebecca J. Donatelle, the author discusses the importance of body image. Body image is simply how you see yourself in either a positive or negative manner. It is a crucial in human development and shapes who you are as an individual. Body image can be expressed through body language, how you are
We hear sayings everyday such as “Looks don’t matter; beauty is only skin-deep”, yet we live in a decade that contradicts this very notion. If looks don’t matter, then why are so many women harming themselves because they are not satisfied with how they look? If looks don’t matter, then why is the media using airbrushing to hide any flaws that one has? This is because with the media establishing unattainable standards for body perfection, American Women have taken drastic measures to live up to these impractical societal expectations. “The ‘body image’ construct tends to comprise a mixture of self-perceptions, ideas and feelings about one’s physical attributes. It is linked to self-esteem and to the individual’s emotional stability” (Wykes 2). As portrayed throughout all aspects of our media, whether it is through the television, Internet, or social media, we are exploited to a look that we wish we could have; a toned body, long legs, and nicely delineated six-pack abs. Our society promotes a body image that is “beautiful” and a far cry from the average woman’s size 12, not 2. The effects are overwhelming and we need to make more suitable changes as a way to help women not feel the need to live up to these unrealistic standards that have been self-imposed throughout our society.
Media contributes in a way we see our body such as in an attractive or unattractive way such as Rebecca J.Donatelle in “ Enhancing your Body Image” explains. The way we assume about our physical appearance can lead to health problems and other side effects we can come across throughout our lifestyle. For instance the body image myths that the author states in the paragraph shows some effects on how our society feels today. And the changes one can make to become better to be better therefore changing our life for the better can combat in a lifetime experience.
“People often say that beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and I say that the most liberating thing about beauty is realizing that you are the beholder,” according to Salma Hayek. Society should have a positive outlook on body image, rather than face a disorder that can change one’s whole life. Negative body image can result from the media, with photoshop and editing, celebrity fad diets, and society’s look at the perfect image. Negative body image can lead to dangerous eating disorders, such as bulimia and anorexia. It can also take a risk to unhealthy habits, such as smoking, alcohol, and drugs. It is important to stress the effects of body image, because the world still struggles with this today. Society should not be affected by media, disorders, and pressure by making unhealthy choices and having a negative outlook on body image.
The media has had an increasingly destructive effect on young people who are becoming worryingly obsessed with their body image. The media is saturated in sexual imagery in which young people have to face every day. The sheer volume of sexual imagery in the media today has resulted in the vast majority of young people to become hooked on looking as near to perfection everyday by using the latest products and buying the latest fashions. This used to be enough but lately the next step to achieving perfection is cosmetic surgery. Everyone wants to look attractive, especially teenagers who are not only put under massive strain to succeed but to look beautiful and climb the ranks of the social ladder, and it seems that the only way to achieve the much desired beauty is to turn to drastic measures.
The Effects of Media on the Body-Image of Preadolescent Girls. Media is infamous for having a tremendous effect on teenage girls. The mass media have long been criticized for presenting unrealistic appearance ideals that contribute to the development of negative body image for many women and girls (Harrison & Hefner, 2006). Whether it’s the influence on their choice of friends, school, or their self-image, media has played an important role in affecting those decisions. A growing number of experimental studies have demonstrated a causal link between acute exposure to "thin-ideal" images (i.e., images of impossibly thin and attractive female beauty) and increased body dissatisfaction (Hargreaves & Tiggemann, 2003).
Body image is the perception, both thoughts, and feelings concerning an individual’s physical appearance. Research has suggested that exposure to an ideal standard of what it may mean to be beautiful is the norm for the media to expose a woman to. The results of an idea of feminine beauty can be disastrous for women, leading to depression, and an unrealistic body image. According to Posavac & Posavac in the article titled Reducing the Impact of Media Images on Women at Risk for Body Image Disturbance: Three Targeted Interventions...
The standard way of thinking while looking through magazines is to compare ourselves to the people we see in them. Innumerable teenage girls assume that the media’s ideal beauty is unrealistically thin women. Looking up to adults as role models, we are constantly influenced to be on a diet, to not eat as much, and to feel poorly about yourself if you aren't thin. Growing up with this expectation to be skinny, some women develop bulimia, anorexia, and binge eating. Americans today tend to believe that we can be as skinny as models if we just eat less, work out more, and get plastic surgery. Consequently, with technology growing, you can now alter a photo using an application called photoshop. Photoshop is a tool commonly used in magazines to enhance a photo to it more appealing to the consumers. The problem is, that many teenage girls don't notice the subtle changes the photo has gone through. Therefore unrealistic beauty standards women have been given are what makes us have negative body images.
Today adolescents, both male and female, aged between 13 to 19 years are faced with a negative impact from magazines about how they should look. Body image is a person’s opinion, thoughts and feelings about his or hers own body, and their physical appearance. Magazines such as Dolly, Girlfriend, Cosmopolitan, Mens Health and Zoo have become a powerful focus throughout the world today amounts adolescents, causing adolescents to rely on every information they read or hear about their body image.
Body image refers to a person’s unique perception of his/her body. It is how we perceive ourselves, how we think we appear to others, and how we feel about our looks from “our own internal view” (cash, 1990b, p. 51).This internal view is associated with a person’s feelings, thought, and evaluations (positive or negative). (Cultivation and social comparison, p. 3).
Body image dissatisfaction is increasingly identified as an essential target for public health action ( Paxton , 2002, P. 2) Body image refers to a person’s unique perception of his or her body. It is how we perceive our selves, how we think we appear to others and how we feel about our looks from “our own internal view”. ( Nio, 2003, P3). This internal view is associated with the person’s feelings thoughts and evaluations. It can either be positive or negative. Negative body image could be associated with low self esteem. This could include low willingness to be involved in activities due to poor body image. Self-esteem is an important psychological need of human beings. It is very essential for a person to have a positive body image in order to face and overcome challenges in life. It helps to boost motivation and mental attitude.
Body image, according to Webster’s dictionary is a subjective picture of one’s own physical appearance established both by self-observation and by noting the reactions of others. Body image refers to people’s judgment about their own bodies and it is molded as people compare themselves to others. Since people are exposed to numerous media images, these media images become the foundation for some of these comparisons. When people’s judgment tell them that their bodies are subpar, they can suffer from low self-esteem, can become depressed or develop mental or eating disorders.
In this age, media is more pervasive than ever, with people constantly processing some form of entertainment, advertisement or information. In each of these outlets there exists an idealized standard of beauty, statistically shown to effect the consumer’s reflection of themselves. The common portrayal of women’s bodies in the media has shown to have a negative impact on women and girls. As the audience sees these images, an expectation is made of what is normal. This norm does not correspond to the realistic average of the audience. Failing to achieve this isolates the individual, and is particularly psychologically harmful to women. Though men are also shown to also be effected negatively by low self-esteem from the media, there remains a gap as the value of appearance is seen of greater significance to women, with a booming cosmetic industry, majority of the fashion world, and the marketing of diet products and programs specifically targeting women.
Teenage girls are at an impressionable time in their lives. Mass Media is a key idea in one of the factors of socialization that become important to teenagers. Teenagers look to the media for a sense of entertainment. Whether it is movies, magazines, or even some aspects of social media, teenagers get a lot of influence from the media’s message. The problem with this is the media has a specific way of doing things and can be negative to a susceptible teenage girl. Media’s way of portraying a woman can be skewed and unrealistic way from what reality is. Teenage girls then have a desire for this look or way. In this essay the three ways I will describe as to why the media can negatively affect a teenage girls body image is by showing unrealistic bodies and women, women whose bodies are desirable by a mass number of people, and lastly not allowing all body types to be equally shown as “attractive.”
The importance of body image and the idealisation of the ideal body have become more dominant in society today.