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Social medias effect on body image
Body image negative effects
Body image negative effects
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How many of you have looked at an image of a model, and have mentally questioned why you don't look just as good? Im pretty sure many of you sitting here have done so.
You realise that you feel very self conscious about your overall body image. Body image is defined as the way the person perceives themselves , physically and mentally. Our perception on beauty has been altered disturbingly, ever since media has played a role in society. When we look at celebrities, we generally idealise them , without processing the fact that they’ve been photoshopped, plastered in tons of makeup , used lighting and photographers and most obvious, had previous cosmetic surgeries. We’re completely oblivious to the fact that it is unattainable to be that “ perfect”, hence why we start believing these lies. People are constantly bombarded with all these advertisements, which eventually results in low self esteem for the individual. In fact it is stated that an average child sees 40,0000 number of commercials in one year.Young teenagers are manipulated into believing everything that is said , which leads to the state in where they resort to unhealthy measures. Different campaigns are aware of the impact that it has, and they try to prove that the over all appearance isn't what matters most. Teenagers and kids need to be informed by having speakers at their schools.
There is no doubt that celebrities look stunning in their photo shoots, but it is also obvious that they don't exactly look as they're portrayed to be. Our perception on beauty is distorted, the one factor that contributes to that is the use of photoshopping, makeup and surgeries. Teenagers, specifically look at these images and instantly feel very self conscious about how they look...
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... to 12th grades have reported that magazine pictures had influenced their idea of a perfect body shape. It is clear that the media has altered and distorted our perception on beauty. We no longer think beauty comes down to someones personality, but what size we are, and how attractive we look. Even though campaigns like dove have attempted to prove to people from different ages, genders and sizes, that beauty comes within, it has only little impact, and the media itself dominates it.
Can you not see how media has manipulated us into believing that our appearance is what matter most? A study also found that adolescent girls were more fearful of gaining weight than getting cancer, nuclear war or losing their parents.
Marilyn Manroe quotes “ to all the girls that think you’re fat, because you’re not a size zero you’re the beautiful one, it’s society who’s ugly”.
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.
Society is exposed to media everyday, and body image is included in this. Conception of body image varies from adolescents to adults, men to women, and different age groups of the same gender. The media gives off unreliable and impractical images sometimes that do not have positive affects on the public. Advertisers, parents, producers have a responsibility to portray positive information and representation to help benefit the public.
Societal constructs of bodily perfection have a massive influence on both genders and on all ages. If you look at any magazine, you will see women constantly being compared to each other, whether it is in the “who wore it better” section or in the “do’s and don’ts” part of the magazine, comparing body images and overall appearances. All parts of the media that encompasses our daily lives are especially dangerous for young and impressionable teens because they see people being torn down for trying to express themselves, and are thus taught to not only don’t look like “don’ts”, but also look like the “do’s”. This is dangerous in that women in the magazine set very high standards that teens want to emulate, no matter the cost to themselves or their health. Celebrities have the benefit of media to make them appear perfect: Photoshop and makeup artists conceal the imperfections that are often too apparent to the naked eye. Viewing celebrities as exhibiting the ideal look or as idols will, in most cases, only damage the confidence of both young teens, and adults, and warp the reality of what true “beauty” really is. It makes teens never feel truly content with themselves because they will be aiming for an ideal that is physically impossible to attain and one that doesn’t exist in the real
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.
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.
Picture the world controlled by the media. Could you imagine how ugly, scarce, and hateful it would be. What would you do if a magazine or a television show told you that your body weight had to be twenty pounds lighter to be all most perfect? Would you actually consider the fact or let ignore it? Teens, mainly girls, will be sucked into these magazines. (National Eating Disorders Info Centre 15) These could be magazines like Seventeen and Cosmo Girl. In addition with many others of course. All though, the media is a bad example at times it is not precisely the main issue for negative body image. (National Eating Disorders Association 1) All though, these constant screaming messages the media produces can progress to something more serious. (National Eating Disorders Association 1) More serious as in an eating disorder.
Perfect body image: The emergence of mass media in the 20th century created the perfect body image that is always changing throughout the years.
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.
Throughout the success of my solution to this problem, women will no longer be victims of the Medias negative influence on the imposed body image. In result, the empowerment of the redefined meaning of beauty will now allow women to start to really acknowledge themselves. They will start to focus on the part of them that is most beautiful which
In Nio’s dissertation, she states, “today, we are living in an era and culture that place much emphasis on the physical attractiveness of both genders” (3). Early research on body image started around the 1930s (Nio, 18). Originally, the research on body images focused on women and men feeling fat, dieting, weighting themselves, and eating disorders (Reed,1). In a more recent research study, done by Fallon and Rosen, they dived body images into four categories; current, ideal, attractive, and other attractive. Current is the way subjects perceive their bodies now, whereas ideal is the image they would prefer to have. Attractive is an image that subjects believe is the most attractive to the opposite sex, conversely other attractive is the body image that subjects prefer in the opposite sex. Through this research it is concluded that women have a distorted view on the body images that mean find attractive (Reed, 4). This is because “researchers have found that images of women in the media have been getting thinner over the past four decades” (Nio, 5). This is what Nio calls the Thin-Ideal Syndrome caused by an unconscientious internalized sociocultural of the ideal standard of beauty. This creates the idea of beauty being almost synonymous with being thin
The alternative cause of having an idealized body is women want to increase their attractiveness. Women seem very critic about their own beauty. In a commercial, “ Dove Real Beauty Sketches,” there is a lack of self-esteem on how the women describe themselves from behind the curtain. Dove published survey data asserting, “Only 4% of women globally consider themselves beautiful and 54% agree that when it comes to how they look, they are their own worst beauty critic.” The body images of women in which how women see themselves in the minor or in their mind have become so dramatic. Women are
People are more aware of how social media affects women on their physical features and how negative it can be. You will see on different advertisements, movies, and television shows of women being portrayed like a model, a beautiful, tan, toned, and tall girl with flawless skin complexion. This puts a lot of severe pressure on girls to become this image because most pre-teen and teenage girls do not meet these "expectations" since their body type may be from genetics or going through puberty, having baby fat, acne, or stretch marks, which is normal as it is natural for anyone. Girls compare themselves to these models and gain motivation to look exactly like the other girls that are being displayed. From this motivation the actions the girls will do can involve exercising, a healthy method to improve the body with muscle toning and having other health benefits, or eating healthy. But, a lot of girls choose to harm their bodies with three negative effects and put them under stress. These negative effects from girls trying to become skinnier include eating disorders, depression, and engaging in other negative activities, which was mentioned by the Do Something blog, (n.d.), and that 75% of girls with low self-esteem reported that the other listed negative activities were cutting, bullying, smoking, drinking, or disordered
Every day there are people criticizing themselves or others on the way they look. Do you know why they do it? It’s because of the media’s distortion of body image. The media’s idea of “real” beauty, such as being the thinnest or having the best skin, are some of the reasons why people of all ages suffer from conditions like bad self esteem, eating disorders, or even depression.
The pressure to measure up to society’s expectations is overwhelming causing these girls to feel insecure. An alarming 90% of girls aged 15-17 want to change something about themselves, weight being the biggest one. It’s absolutely horrifying to think that girls that young already want to change themselves. A study shows that by the age of 17, 78% of girls say that they are unhappy with their bodies. A huge factor in this is the way the female body is portrayed in the media. The average model is 5’10” and 107 lbs and the
Susan Bordo states in her article “Never Just Pictures”, that children grow up knowing that they can never be thin enough. They are thought that being fat is the worst thing ever. The ones responsible for this are the media, celebrities, models, and fashion designers. All of these factors play a big role on the development of the standard and how people view themselves. Everyone at one dreams about being the best they can in any aspect. But to achieve that most believe that one of the big factors is outer beauty. So people look at celebrities and fashion designers, and believe that to be accepted they have to look like them. That’s when they take drastic measures to change their appearance because they’ve been influenced by the Medias idea of “beautiful.” This feeling mostly happens in women but in recent years the gender gap has become smaller. Now men also feel the need to look good because of the media. On the TV, instead of having infomercials ...