Society has always placed a great emphasis upon the importance of a woman’s appearance, and through that emphasis women have instinctively been taught to measure their self-worth in terms of the image they present, even more so than their intelligence. They have been given rigid and challenging standards to live up to, standards that are usually unrealistic, unattainable, and disheartening. Many women spend a large majority of their lives suffering trying to meet these standards. The ideal body image in this country today seems to be the long-haired 5’7”, 95 lb female found in every fashion magazine, every sitcom and every movie you will ever see. However, many women at 5’7” could starve themselves for their entire lives and die of malnutrition before they would reach 95lbs, and many women do.
Some women go to great lengths to improve their appearances, even at the risk of their health or discomfort. Women spend billions of dollars every year to have silicone put into their breasts, to get their noses reshaped, or to get the fat sucked out of their thighs. An important question to ask is why these things even matter. Why would you put your life at risk to enlarge your breasts? The answer to this question is that women today value a man’s approval so highly that to gain a man’s admiration they will do almost anything. Women spend large amounts of time every day painting their faces, so that they might look a little b...
Beauty is a cruel mistress. Every day, Americans are bombarded by images of flawless women with perfect hair and smooth skin, tiny waists and generous busts. They are presented to us draped in designer clothing, looking sultry or perky or anywhere in between. And although the picture itself is alluring, the reality behind the visage is much more sinister. They are representations of beauty ideals, sirens that silently screech “this is what a woman is supposed to look like!” Through means of media distribution and physical alteration, technology has created unrealistic beauty ideals, resulting in distorted female body images.
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.
At first glance, it appears that body image researchers have not just focused on the individual. Nearly every researcher in this field acknowledges the essential role that cultural norms for appearance play in the development of one’s body image. They have even gone as far as recognizing the gender differences in appearance norms in our culture. Men are held to a standard of a moderate, muscular built that generally matches the size and shape of the average man, but women are compared to a cultural ideal that has thinned beyond belief (Wolszon 545). The Miss America contestants have become so thin that most are fifteen percent below their recommended weight for their height, a sympt...
It seems if a woman does not follow what the television or magazines do, they will be considered a ‘disgrace’ to society. “By the 1930’s, mass advertisements on radio and in magazines persuaded women to purchase cosmetic products by appealing to her fear of growing old or being rejected by social acquaintances,” (Gourley 56). The beauty industry specifically targeted women, using the ideas of an often highly feminine related idea of vanity. This also talked about women’s apparel in clothing and how they weren’t able to dress casually since they would be titled, slob. As looks represent a lot in a woman, the body type of a woman has always struggled with maintaining since the ‘perfect’ body types are not what everyone has. “In the 1890’s women had full bosoms, round hips. In actual measurements they were probably no rounder than Miss Cox but they seemed so because they were shorter, tightened their waists into an hour-glass effect … Now, though, the ideal figure must have a round, high bosom, a slim but not wasp-like waist, and gently rounded hips” (“This is What…”). Ideals women that society has pushed onto women to be for them to have any chance in romance. Though many women can drift away from this the women, though they won’t admit to it, had struggled to meet the ‘set standard’ for women. This shows how after women have gained the rights of voting, gender roles
Times have changed throughout the generations and the portrayal of women in the media has definitely changed over the years. Unfortunately, there is still a stereotypical appearance and social role in the media that women need to achieve in order to be socially desired. Even though it has improved, there is such a stigma towards being too fat, too skinny, too tall, or too short and the list of imperfections go on and on. Aside from body image, social roles are a big issue in the media today. When you look at any advertisement in the media, you can notice the appearance, gender, and race of the model. The media’s idea of the “perfect” body is having the unflawed and women are typically skewed for this by society.
When we look into the mirror, we are constantly picking at our insecurities; our stomach, thighs, face, and our body figure. Society has hammered into our brains that there is only one right way of looking. Society disregards that there are many different shapes, sizes, and colors. Then society makes us believe that corporations can shove detrimental products to fix our imperfection. As a consequence, we blame media for putting all the negative ideas into women’s brain. It is not wrong to say that they are in part responsible, but we can’t make this issue go away until we talk about patriarchy. In the article Am I Thin Enough Yet? Hesse-Biber argues that women are constantly concerned about their looks and if they are categorized as “beautiful” by society. These ideas are encouraged by corporations that sell things for us to achieve “beautiful” but the idea is a result of patriarchy. Hesse-Biber suggests that if we want to get rid of these ideas we need to tackle patriarchy before placing all the blame on capitalism.
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. In our society today, people would rather see what celebrities are up to than what is going on with our health plan. Watching the news makes us aware of the latest trend, new gadget, who’s in rehab, or who has an eating disorder. In the eyes of society, women like Eva Longoria, Kim Kardashian, and Megan Fox are the epitome of perfection. What girl wouldn’t want to look like them? Unfortunately, this includes most of the girls in the US. Through TV shows, commercials, magazines or any form of advertising, the media enforces a certain body type which women emulate. The media has created a puissant social system where everyone must obtain a thin waist and large breasts. As a society, we are so image obsessed with the approval of being thin and disapproval of being overweight, that it is affecting the health of most women. Women much rather try to fit the social acceptance of being thin by focusing on unrealistic body images which causes them to have lower self esteem and are more likely to fall prey to eating disorders, The media has a dangerous influence on the women’s health in the United States.
Women are bombarded by images of a thin-ideal body form that is extremely hard, if not impossible, to emulate. Comparing themselves to these women can lead to feelings of inadequacy, depression, and an overall low self-esteem. (Expand on, need a good opening paragraph to grab the reader’s attention)
The overwhelming idea of thinness is probably the most predominant and pressuring standard. Tiggeman, Marika writes, “This is not surprising when current societal standards for beauty inordinately emphasize the desirability of thinness, an ideal accepted by most women but impossible for many to achieve.” (1) In another study it is noted that unhealthy attitudes are the norm in term of female body image, “Widespread body dissatisfaction among women and girls, particularly with body shape and weight has been well documented in many studies, so much so that weight has been aptly described as ‘a normative discontent’”. (79) Particularly in adolescent and prepubescent girls are the effects of poor self-image jarring, as the increased level of dis...
The media has promoted a dominant view of how people should perceive beauty, and what consists of perfection in beauty. According to Dr. Karin Jasper, the media have women encouraging them to be concerned with their outward appearance and how others perceive them by surrounding everyone with the ideal female beauty. (Jasper, 2000) Body image has become a particular concern for young girls and women, often females work diligently to attain the perfect body image advertised in mass media. (Gibbs, 2010) When women are not able to obtain their ideal body goal, many develop negative feelings and become self-conscious about their bodies. Conversely, it is not possible for someone to look like a model in ads, someone without blemishes, scars, or pours. Another study conducted in 2012 showed contemporary media and culture has defined a women’s social desirability in terms of their bodies. For females, this has often resulted in comparing themselves to bodies shown in advertisements, commercials, magazines, etc. however not all body
From a young age, women are taught that to be successful and happy, they must reach a certain standard of beauty first. Rather than grow up thinking that the most important asset a woman can have is her self, young girls are taught through advertisements that their value rests on their appearance. This is an immense social issue. Today, being a successful woman means wearing a sexy outfit that shows just the right amount of cleavage and curve. It means turning heads everywhere she goes- men looking after her in lust, women looking after her in envy.
Image is everything in today’s society as women are increasingly putting more emphasis on their appearance. Women today are growing more conscious of how others perceive their outward appearance. Even in a relatively Oriental society like Singapore, it does not come as a surprise to see women going to Botox clinics during lunchtime hours to receive their dosage of Botox, a chemical used to paralyse certain muscles to prevent wrinkles. Furthermore, beauty advertisements nowadays feature women models that are barely out of their teens. Even with older models, they are usually models featuring in slimming centres or skin improvement advertisements.
First, women spend huge amounts of money to improve their looks. So here we are unable to escape the reality that we can never be flawless or blemish free; moreover, as long as women have the belief that all greatness de...
Nonverbal communication surrounds us all the time. “Nonverbal communication is all aspects of communication other than words” (Wood, 2016, p. 135). It is not communication with words, but we use nonverbal communication when we talk. We use nonverbal communication without even realizing it in every facet of our lives. This type of communication can be challenging depending on someone’s culture. Something that means one thing in America, can mean something totally different in another country. It is important to know this so that you don’t offend someone from another culture (Wood, 2016, p. 149).
Communication is an important aspect of processing and transferring information in our society. The important entities needed for a successful communication includes; a sender, receiver, message and feedback. First, the sender is a person or entity that is sending information to the receiver. After receiving the message, the receiver will attempt to decode the message and prepares a proper response (feedback). Communication is an essential part of our daily interactions; it can be seen used in businesses, for pleasure, sports, education and many more activities.