Media Has a Negative Impact on Females' Body Image

Advertisements affect the daily lives of women. Women are brainwashed to believe that makeup is a must-have and they cannot leave the house without it on. Advertisements have negative effects on body image causing pressure to women, which could lead into eating disorders and low self-esteem. Women back in the 13th century and the early 16th century idealized the body that would be considered overweight

All women desire beauty. As myriads of women seek a perfect body shape and attractiveness, they will have interest in having weight loss treatment. In fact, losing weight has come into a vogue. People, especially female, do not take their weight into serious account but follow the others blindly and participate in weight loss programmes. Patently, the main culprit of this phenomenon is the omnipresent weight loss advertisements.

Anorexia and bulimia are one of the main causes along with the media as to why adolescent girls are always slightly underweight and devastating skinny. If the media didn’t interfere with adolescent perceptions, maybe one half of fourth grade girls wouldn’t be on a diet. Intense fear of becoming fat and distorted body images aren’t the kinds of thing we want our adolescents girls to become. To think about their appearance and weight 24/7 isn’t right. The media should stop publicizing young female bodies and telling them what beauty is perceived to them.

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 advanced technology to distort the images we see, they are also distorting our minds which is causing bodily dissatisfaction. 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. Some studies show that eating disorders arise from characteristics such as neurobiology, genetics, personality traits, and personal environment.

Throughout time, the most controversial subject among female’s health has been body image. Society and our culture molds females’s brains into believing that being thin is what will fulfill complete happiness. Being thin means you are more successful, loved, attractive, and overall truly beautiful. Thin women are seen as having an altogether perfect life. However, there is another female figure that is seen as undesirable, hopeless, mainly disliked by most.

Girls want to be deemed beautiful by society so badly that they will conform to any idea presented by the media (Piercy). Technology has made it near impossible to avoid images of stick thin models and advertisements on getting thin quick. Media has made women conform to their idea of the perfect body and the perfect weight. Magazines are read by millions of women every day, and they do not portray real images of models. They are air-brushed, photo shopped, and computer generated versions of those women (Eating Disorders and Media Influence).

As the mass media uses unrealistic models to advertise its products and services, this sets the idea that the “ideal” woman must been unhealthily thin and blemish free. Advertisements of these “perfect” women negatively affect the way women feel about their physical appearance and therefore affect women mentally as well. Advertising companies should strive to portray the “ideal” women as that of real women today and create the message that all women are beautiful. Should mass media chose to change the way they advertise and portray the “ideal” women? What if they used healthy, more realistic women to advertise products and services?

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... ... middle of paper ... ...ght, eating disorders, and other forms of self-destructive behavior has increased, coinciding with the disturbing notion that such problems are normal. Works Cited Tiggeman, Marika. “Body image across the life span in adult women: The role of self-objectification.” American Psychological Association 37. 2(Mar 2001): 1-253.

The effects of seeing beautiful thin celebrities, models, and even athletes have negative effects on girls like eating disorders, poor self-image, and even getting plastic or cosmetic surgeries. The widespread images of thin actresses and models have harmed the self-image of girls and young women and encourage disorders (“Eating Disorders”). There should not be any encouragement for eating disorders; it can end up killing a person in just a few short years at least. Also, beauty pageants do not help either, they basically focus on a women’s attractiveness and nothing else. The pageants objectify woman creating a homogenous unachievable model of attractiveness that promotes poor self-image among girls (Beauty Pageants”).

Media has become a significant component within society. While media provides many pros, it supplies various cons as well. One very prominent fault that the significance of media has is its visual depiction of women. There is an abundance of media portraying women to have ideal bodies, and this undoubtedly has a negative effect on adolescent girls. Two of the many effects of media on females are depression and self esteem issues, as well as eating disorders.