Unhealthy Images of the Female Body

Many women who expose themselves to the unrealistic standards of the media often idealize, covet, and become very insecure. The many women who do not expose themselves would influence others to perceive their physical appearances as beautiful. “Many popular magazines for females tell women to focus on their physical, outer attributes (i.e. body shape, muscle tone, bone structure, hair, makeup, clothing, etc.) and rarely mention the importance of being smart, sophisticated, funny and/or possessing many other positive attributes that have nothing to do with physical attributes” (Sparhawk 1).

The way media represents women are for them to be thin-like models and other women on television to be the high standard of “attractiveness” to others. The advertising involved targets young teenage women and feature these models that are portraying desirable items, and the “norm” is for these women to be slender and beautiful (Vonderen & Kinnally, 2012). Research has been done to prove that media’s pressure on being thin causes women to be depressive and negative feelings about themselves . Women’s view are skewed and perceived incorrectly of what the typical female body should be (Haas, Pawlow, Pettibone & Segrist, 2012). 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).

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.

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).

Although this ad targets insecure women from their teens all the way up to their 30’s, it also affects women and men of all ages. The company Wacoal claims its mantra is to make women look and feel their best however, all of them are slender, toned and flawless. These advertisers tell us what beauty is. When women buy into this image, they starve and purge themselves to ac... ... middle of paper ... ...cally look at these claims to beauty and flawlessness and take off our rose-colored glasses when seeing these “perfect” women. See the ad for what it is, a digitally retouched image that they have constructed by removing all blemishes, wrinkles, stray hair, pores, dark under eye circles with airbrushing and bleaching their teeth white.

Magazine advertisements of the shape or size of a woman’s body, photographs of famous actresses, and television characters are the leading forms of media that influence how women view ideal beauty (Myer and Biocca). All these types of media persuade girls to think they need to have the perfect body. It is one thing to want to be beautiful, but it is another thing entirely to have the media make the standard of beauty unrealistic. Unfortunately, low self-esteem and depression are frequently found in adolescent girls. Self-esteem is the confidence which someone has in their own abilities.

Supporters of beauty pageants would say pageants raise self-esteem and has a powerful message to young women in general (“Beauty Pageants”). They believe that pageants boost girls’ self-esteem and celebrate the beauty of all women (“Beauty Pageants”). Although, critics would argue that the only self-esteem it raises is the females in the pageant, the young women who watch end up with low self-esteem. Opponents would also claim that the contests objectify women, and create a homogeneous, unattainable ideal of beauty that promotes poor self-image in them (“Beauty Pageants”). Watching beauty pageants on television makes girls think that if they do not have their hair done perfectly, wear make-up, and their bodies do not look a certain way that they will not fit

As women continuously see these advertis... ... middle of paper ... ...en of “natural beauty”. Doing so would help encourage young girls and women that they are beautiful the way they are and thus reduce negative effects associated with being exposed to super thin, airbrushed photos of models. Works Cited Bessenoff, Gayle R. “Can the Media Affect Us? Social Comparison, Self-discrepancy, and the Thin Ideal.” USA: Psychology of Women Quarterly 30 (2006): 239–251. Web.

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).