“Size 6: The Western Women’s Harem” by Fatema Mernissi portrays one woman’s difficulty in her efforts to purchase a skirt in an American department store. As the protagonist is told that her hips are too large to fit into a size 6 and that there are no clothing items in the store that will fit her, the author delves into the essence of a prevalent standard placed on the woman. The author expresses an understandable concern in respect to the critical and uncompromising preconceived notions of a woman’s size in America. In our country today, there is an extremely harsh stereotype associated with the weight of women. Discrimination against heavier women is well documented and steadily increasing at a rapid pace. Studies have confirmed that women who try to achieve the cultural ideals of beauty in America are more susceptible to developing eating disorders.
We live in a world of stereotypes, judgments, and assumptions. Although we may not have taken part in creating the prevalent social attitude toward the bodies of women in America, we are still influenced by it. Conscious acknowledgement of harmful stereotypes such as judgments based on appearance, beauty, and size is the key to shifts in attitudes and actions. There is no denying that influential beauty stereotypes exist; whether they originate from a Western specification or a more deeply rooted cultural expectation, they fill the pages of magazines, television programs, and retail stores.
More importantly, sociocultural standards of feminine beauty fill the hearts and minds of women, both young and old, all across our country. The media bombard women with images of what is considered to be the “ideal body.” These standards of beauty are virtually unachievable for most women. B...
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...o either squeeze ourselves into molds that don't fit, hating ourselves all the while, or we just give up entirely. (42)
In closing, the pressure many women in the United States feel to measure up to a certain social and cultural ideal of beauty can lead not only to the development of poor body images but to their having to withstand the unforgiving stereotypes associated with their weight, discrimination, and the impacts of conforming to these societal standards, which lead to eating disorders. Many foundations, nonetheless, are working toward changing the ways both girls and women think and talk about beauty and body image. We can be optimistic that the extensive research studies focused in this area will ultimately be able to help women overcome destructive stereotypes and truly embrace healthy, genuine, and realistic ways of being beautiful.
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.
Beauty is often described as being in the eye of the beholder. However in modern western culture, the old adage really should be beauty is in the eye of the white makeup artist, hair stylist, photographer, photo shop editor, and advertiser. Beauty and body ideals are packaged and sold to the average American so that we can achieve vocational, financial, social, and recreational successes. Mass media and advertising has affected the way that women perceive and treat their own bodies as well as their self-concept. Women are constantly bombarded with unrealistic images and hold themselves to the impossible beauty standards. First, we will explore the role of media in the lives of women and then the biggest body image issue from a diversity stand point, media whitewashing.
Through Thick and Thin Society is obsessed with fitness and weight loss. Ever since I was in sixth grade, I have had issues with my weight and self-image. The article “Fat Is a Feminist Issue”, by Susie Orbach, focuses on how our society puts this unrealistic image of what women should look like into everyone’s heads. The media and magazines urge women to conform, at any cost, to a constantly changing expectation of what is beautiful. Women are taught to look at themselves from an outside view, to be a sexual image for men and fuel the diet and fashion industries.
How should I look like to have the ideal body? An increasing number of women ask themselves this question many times in their lives. Deborah Sullivan’s essay, “Social Bodies: Tightening the Bonds of Beauty”, discloses the different cultural traditions that require various methods of body modifications. Women should undergo such modifications to obtain social acceptance. Similarly, “Pressures to Conform” by Celia Milne discusses the effects of media and society on women, and how women view their physical appearance. The media gives women a plethora of choices for the perfect body and even provides ways on how to achieve them. There is no escaping. There is no excuse of not getting the ideal body that ranges from that of a stick-thin ramp model’s to the buff and chiseled outline of a body builder’s. Still, the struggle doesn’t end here. Women also desire smooth, wrinkle-free skin, hairless faces, and ample busts. “Stencil” women are celebrities, models, actresses - women whose coveted looks are seen through discriminating TV screens, posters, and magazines. The steady demand for these forms of media is mainly due to women who are looking for body images to pattern from. These women are on the constant lookout in updating their appearance and considering the bulk of information that the media presents to them, the media is a source of considerable amount of physical and psychological stress. In their fight for their roles in society, women undergo various body modifications to suit the taste of the present-day culture.
In the modern US, the topic of women’s beauty standards is an ever-evolving one that has left many with questions. What effect do these standards have on women? Is the “ideal woman” healthy? How does a truly healthy weight compare with society’s ideal? In her article “Too ‘Close to the Bone’: The Historical Context for Women’s Obsession with Slenderness,” University of Southern California lecturer Roberta Seid explored some of these questions. In the first two sections of this article, she explains that the American standard for beauty has become impossibly and dangerously thin. While Seid’s argument argument about America’s standards may appear compelling, the oversimplification of that argument becomes clear when one strips away her loaded diction and realizes how one-sided her beliefs really are.
Every culture around the globe stresses specific ideals for body image. In the United States and many other countries, the media plays a big role in how we view ourselves- it shows us what is "good" and what is "bad." In many ways our society infiltrates our concept of ideal body image by setting unrealistic expectations for both genders. At an early age we are instructed to pay special attention to our appearance. A...
Serder, Kasey. (2005). Female body image and the Mass Media. Perspectives on How Women Internalize the Ideal Beauty Standard. Retrieved from https://www.westminstercollege.edu/myriad/index.cfm?parent=2514&detail=4475&content=4795
Everywhere one looks today, one will notice that our culture places a very high value on women being thin. Many will argue that today’s fashion models have “filled out” compared to the times past; however the evidence of this is really hard to see. Our society admires men for what they accomplish and what they achieve. Women are usually evaluated by and accepted for how they look, regardless of what they do. A woman can be incredibly successful and still find that her beauty or lack of it will have more to do with her acceptance than what she is able to accomplish. “From the time they are tiny children, most females are taught that beauty is the supreme objective in life” (Claude-Pierre, p18). The peer pressure for girls in school to be skinny is often far greater than for boys to make a team. When it is spring, young girls begin thinking “How am I going to look in my bathing suit? I better take off a few more pounds.”
“...8 out of 10 women will be dissatisfied with their reflection, and more than half may see a distorted image” according to the Social Issues Research Center, and the statistics of self-shame and negative reflection are increasing worldwide. A person who shames their own body learned how to do so from someone else, and took it as that body shaming is acceptable if it is to oneself. This self-shaming pandemic has become far worse over the past few decades, where people are striving to look like their role models in unhealthy ways. Our society can push for and encourage a healthy way of life without body shaming people and putting them down in a negative way.
Every culture has a “perfect body image” that everyone compares their own bodies to. Girls especially have the mental thinking that they have to live up to the models on TV and magazines. In the United States the skinnier the girls, the more perfect their image is perceived. The “perfect body image” has an intriguing background, health and psychological problems, and currently few solutions.
Throughout history when we think about women in society we think of small and thin. Today's current portrayal of women stereotypes the feminine sex as being everything that most women are not. Because of this depiction, the mentality of women today is to be thin and to look a certain way. There are many challenges with women wanting to be a certain size. They go through physical and mental problems to try and overcome what they are not happy with. In the world, there are people who tell us what size we should be and if we are not that size we are not even worth anything. Because of the way women have been stereotyped in the media, there has been some controversial issues raised regarding the way the world views women. These issues are important because they affect the way we see ourselvescontributing in a negative way to how positive or negative our self image is.
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.
Recent studies on parental involvement in education have found that there are many benefits for both the student and the adult when parents become involved in their children’s education. Without parent support, it is very difficult for a child to be motivated. From what I have seen growing up, only a small percentage of students are self-motivated, so it is absolutely vital that parents assist in the motivation process. I found this table to be particularly interesting and important.
The concept of “beauty” is something that everyone feels, thinks, or wants, in order to fit society’s standards. In today’s society, we are often faced with the unrealistic ideals of what beauty is. Due to society’s constant portraying of unrealistic beauty ideals, this reinforces a negative influence upon women’s idea of beauty, resulting in a negative impact in their confidence, and self-esteem, which leads to others, specifically women to be manipulated by society’s corrupted outlook of what beauty is. To add onto this issue, we are constantly surrounded by sources of this negative influence in our everyday lives, including magazines, television, advertisements, and so on. However, women specifically, are more prone to be victims of this negative effect, thus will have more pressure upon themselves to match society’s idea of “beauty,” which includes unrealistic and sometimes unattainable beauty standards. Women especially, can sometimes be so deeply manipulated by society’s unrealistic ideals of what is beautiful, such that it’s possible that they don’t even realize it Furthermore, in order to do so, women often will receive negative impacts rather than positive impacts, such as in their confidence and self-esteem. The negative effects of society’s beauty ideals also lead women to have an overall corrupted idea of what is “beautiful.” Society creates unrealistic ideals of beauty towards women through the media by creating an unrealistic image of what women should look like to be considered beautiful. Men negatively affect women’s idea of beauty by using the unrealistic beauty standards exposed by society which further pressures women to try to fit society’s idea of what is beautiful. Beauty pageants negatively affect women’s ov...