In addition, they are losing their self-esteems, because they believe that they must look more beautiful, sexier, and more fashionable. Most females are aware of society’s emphasis on the importance of appearance, while knowing the social standards of beauty. Those females are strong-minded individuals who reject current standards and have a positive body image.
With the continuous growth of the advertising industry, women feel the need to have the ideal body. Photoshop and airbrushing are quite often used, giving women a false image for what they should look like, and it can often be so unrealistic that it becomes damaging to women. The effect that advertisements have on viewers, often leave them feeling worse about themselves. The pressures to reach perfection often cause women to put themselves through self harm.The ways that media portrays body images, leaves vulnerable women and girls damaged in sight of how they view themselves. When it reaches the point where people are left feeling so self-conscious about themselves that they feel the need to suffer through eating disorders and even take their own life, the media should not be able to promote unhealthy body images.
This provides positive outcomes such as females becoming more health conscious and exercise obsessed in order to meet others’ judgements in the “warranting principle”. As a result, women are no longer emaciated and stick-straight, but fit and healthy. Contrary to this, the concerns about perfect beauty are a reality check as the social costs outweigh the benefits of a promoted social comparison behaviour. I believe that the positive outcomes of social comparison in SNS is a mistaken deception. In fact, constant social comparison between themselves and the beauty ideal fuels the fluctuation of contemporary women’s self-esteem.
The Affect of the Mass Media on Society's View of a Woman's Ideal Weight Over a period of time societies view of the ideal woman and their weight has dramatically changed. According to Joan Jacobs Brumberg (an author of a popular book, Fasting Girls) in the 19th century, "bigger was considered better." Back then "the larger a man's wife was, the more she was seen as a good provider. Today, however, fat is seen as unhealthy and being "thin is in." Now when we see an overweight woman we tend to stereotype them as "lazy" and "sloppy" and we equate slenderness with being successful and attractive to men (Michael Levine, 1987).
In today’s generation, girls are given high expectations which they are required to live up to. As shown by the media, if a girl is not thin, tall, or tan they are usually not considered to be beautiful. According to, Are Women Portrayed in the Media? It is stated, “The media sells an image of what they deem to be the ideal women; young, tall, thin with the perfect proportions, hair, skin, and teeth. Everywhere you turn we are bombarded with unattainable images which models are manipulated in some cases.” (StudyMode.com).
The weight loss advertising has definitely caused adverse effects on the youngsters and women. The adverse effects are in threefold. They are giving an illusion to women, coercing them into losing weight and providing a wrong means to lose weight. The first adverse effect of weight loss advertising is that it gives an illusion to women that being thin means beauty. The slimming companies recruit many beautiful celebrities to be the spokespersons.
Media fuels this unrealistic image and convinces women that in order to be accepted and considered beautiful, you better be fat-less, have silky hair and a flawless complexion. Unrealistic media images of women are so prevalent that it seems that females who fulfill such a standard are more the norm than the exception. The Cultivation theory argues that images that portray women who match the sociocultural ideal of beauty are extremely prevalent in pop... ... middle of paper ... ...ded) to possess society’s sick vision of beauty. Due to the portrayal of specific beauty standards in the media, women have re-imagined true beauty, causing drastic impacts that affect the lives of women both physically and psychologically. In order to reach the societal standard of this “ideal body”, women of all ages go to drastic measures to achieve it (extreme dieting and plastic surgery).
Unfortunately, this has led to a powerful influence on how many women and teenagers view their bodies today and this has contributed to social issues such as eating disorders, the high rise of sales for over-priced diet supplements that promises to make women consumers at home look as good as the model. Society has made some women dislike themselves. Over the years, the average female body has grown larger and curvier but the media standards of the female body have remained thinner with less curves. Most models being displayed in the media are below the ideal body weight listed among the National BMI chart, thus meeting the diagnostic criteria for what is called anorexia nervosa disorder. Today’s magazines and advertisements are one of the prominent sources of idealizing these unrealistic images.
Homeschooling parents tend to be more engaged in their kid’s social lives than parents that have their kids in school. Homeschooling will not miraculously repair pitiful parent-child connections. Although it will offer a precious opportunity to better your talent as a parent as well as design the connection you desire to have with your kids. Homeschooling parents and kids are with one another through the good and the bad... ... middle of paper ... ... 3.5 (2002): 1-7. Unless The Lord Magazine.
Based off the cultivation theory, heavy mass media users tend to “cultivate” perceptions of the world that are congruent with those that are shown in the media (“Cultivation Theory” 1). With the media being such a crucial and inescapable part of our lives and with the media endorsing and broadcasting the idea of a thin ideal to young girls and females around the world, many females will therefore cultivate the ideals that are shown on the media. Through the exposure of media, these females will develop a warped perception of beauty and identity. Research has shown that images shown on the media usually interpret a standard that is close to unattainable however, it is a standard that women in society are expected to work towards (Serdar “Female Body Image and the Mass Media”).