Media Affects on the Self- image of Women

Media depicts women as ultra thin actresses and models, with this came an increase in women's concerns with their bodies. As teens grow up watching these images and depictions of women, they idolize them as something that they want to turn into. “The sexualization of girls and women in the media is a growing concern” said Emma Stydahar “It creates a limiting idea of beauty in our society.”(Nackman) We idolize these women that have been continually photo shopped and done up as if they were dolls. Teen girls are being continually subjected to magazine articles telling them that they should not be happy with themselves and to change their appearance. The media has changed the way women are now seen by both women and men alike.

As a result, this leads to a negative outlook of a girl’s body image. The majority of young girls try to live up the standards given to us by our generation. In order to do this, we turn to diets, tanning beds, and products that will enhance our beauty because that’s what needs to be done in order to be beautiful. Works Cited "Are Women Portrayed in the Media?" StudyMode.com.

(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.

The song “Sexy Bitch” by Akon supports the idea that women are seen as sexual objects of men. “Im trying to find the words to describe this girl without being direspectful” shows how being called a “Sexy Bitch” is positively influenced. Although advertisements may be seen as harmless, one ought to recognize that the media has a large impact on a woman’s self esteem. Marketers use flawless models in their advertisements in order to attract women and induce marketing comsumption of their product. As women try to achieve their unrealistic body frame, women turn to extreme dieting, and eating disorders to achieve their goal.

These issues keep the reader tied to the article while raising the important concern of what kind of messages these are for the quickly maturing girls of our time. As our youth are becoming more mature at an ea... ... middle of paper ... ...g that these are the images that all women have chosen; they are instead saying that this is the image the media has chosen for them. So why, after so many years of bra-burning and protesting, have women lagged behind on their upkeep of a positive image in society? Judith Timson's article is a prime argument for the media's influence on the image of women. Her argument that women are stuck in a stereotypical limbo of who and what to be in our world today is credible and intelligent, while funny and intriguing.

When mothers exercise obsessively, diet constantly, or make derogatory comments about their own appearance it influences the daughter because mothers are the most influential role model for most girls. Fathers also need to be more cautious of how they respond to the media images of sexy, thin women. There have been campaigns started by companies about real beauty that try to teach girls that they should appreciate who they are. The campaigns try to reject the ideal body image and explain that some beauty in the media is not attainable. The company Dove has created a great campaign about Real Beauty.

The influence of women in popular culture and how they present themselves can be a breeding place for physical and emotional unrest. When women are objectified in popular culture, they set a standard on how one should appear. Popular culture is transmitting subliminal messages on the must-be waist size of average teenager girls. One can see successful women in mass media and cannot help but associate their success with how they appear, thin. Amiee Nicole Hoffman states that “Study after study has proven that repeated exposure to ideal beauty as portrayed by the media causes detrimental psychological effects in children and adolescents ranging from distorted body images and lowered self-esteem to eating disorders and steroid use.” (1).

Women are bombarded with a constant stream of social networks and media paraphernalia telling them how to look and how to act. They then develop a socially based view on their appearance rather than an individually based one. While displaying some good qualities, media has an overall negative impact on women by creating problems such as a desire for conformity, eating disorders, and body dissatisfaction. Media has a heavy influence on women’s perception of themselves and conforming to the world has grown into a normal occurrence. Girls want to be deemed beautiful by society so badly that they will conform to any idea presented by the media (Piercy).

Body image for women has always been stressed for them to look a certain way and to try obtain “physical perfec... ... middle of paper ... ...deva, 2012). These results show a small part of the media's effects on the mindset of women. You can perceive yourself as something your are not, because of the things you are exposed to. The mass media plays a large role in shaping a teenage and adolescent girl’s body image. By pushing an ideal body type that is uncommon and untrue to life, girls strive, and struggle to obtain this image.

Today’s media is playing a huge role in the lives of everyday women and the way that they think about themselves and how they should look. This portrayal of unattainable beauty has effect women and young adolescent girls the most. The number one wish for girls ages 11 to 17 is to be thinner, and girls as young as five have expressed fears of getting fat (Tiggemann, 1996). The medias usage of ultra thin and beautiful models are leading to eating disorders and depression and other mental disorders in women. Robin Gerber who is a motivational speaker and author says “We don’t need Afghan style burquas to disappear as women.