The mass media over the years has had such a profound role in creating an image on how women should be viewed. From their appearance to what their duties are in everyday life, the media has made sure to depict unrealistic images of women. These images have caused not only the male public but women themselves to believe that they must attain a certain kind of body or occupation to fit into society. Women often feel obligated and pressured to comply to this praised image of perfection.
In the Media, women are feed the false illusion of what the perfect woman is supposed to be, what body type is ideal, what color of skin is preferred. In magazines, women are bombarded with suggestions of what men really want by “experts”. Which again, are mostly men. We are not allowed to be our unique selves, to be different, to love who we are. Equally speaking, social media has become a monster in falsely allowing women to believe there is such thing as perfection. Photo shopped pictures are idolized and ordinary women feel the need to change their bodies. When all they want is to feel accepted and
portrayal of a woman’s body image by the media is the root cause of eating disorders and selfesteem issues among women and girls today and thus implore your support in getting the media to stop airbrushing and promoting these unattainable images of perfection. Everyone deserves to feel beautiful. The eradication of the pressure to be perfect begins with the media.
What remains similar between the bodies flaunted across the media, is that they all possess popular standards of some kind of objective beauty. Women have an aptness to fall prey to advertisers and somehow unknowingly accept the creation of such standards for a woman’s body that is unrealistic for the majority of society. Slender, good-looking models are so prominent in today’s culture that chronic exposure to them reinforces a discrepancy for women between their actual body and the ideal body. 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...
The media has one of the most influential impacts on what is seen as beauty in society (Bromley, 2012).Women spend thousands of dollars on products and cosmetics to achieve the unrealistic and unhealthy look of models on advertisements (Valenti, 2007). In most extreme cases, women who feel that their unhealthy weight goal is not achieved turn to extreme eating disorders such as anorexia nervosa, bulimia, and binge eating (Cunning, 2011). However, despite the unrealistic frames of models on advertisements, women are still lured and pressured into the “perfect” image that is portrayed by the media using race, youth, and sexuality (Bromley, 2012).
Reichert, Tom, Courtney Carpenter Childers, Leonard Hall. “How Sex in Advertising Varies by Product Category: An Analysis of Three Decades of Visual Sexual Imagery in Magazine Advertising” Journal of Current Issues & Research in Advertising 33 (2012): 1-19. Print.
The depiction of women in all forms of media, including print, broadcasted and internet media, is constantly showing that they are the weaker of the two sexes.
“From children's toys to TV programs, images of the idealized body have permeated every level of our visual culture” (Swinson). As the Advertisement industry continues to grow, the focus on looks is increasing as well. With around half of the advertisements using beauty as an appeal to sell their products(Teen Health and the Media), the pressures to be 'perfect' are causing women to become dissatisfied with their looks, driving them to turn to unhealthy measures. The average teenage girl gets a significantly greater amount of media time each day compared to the amount of time they spend with their parents, this is usually around 180 minutes of media per ten minutes spent with their parents (Heubeck). With so much time spent on media influenced activities, and the constant exposure to unhealthy models, it is no surprise that women are being influenced. Most female fashions models wear a size two or four, while the average American wears a size twelve or fourteen (Mirror-Mirror).When advertisements manipulate the photos of their models, it alters the way that women view themselves. Advertisers should not be allowed to promote unhealthy body images because it leads to an increase in self-consciousness, eating disorders, and suicide.
The use of overly suggestive women in advertising has led to emotional and cognitive issues in the population of young women. Over the past few decades, the use of sexualization in advertising has become more common. Whether conscious or subconscious, the images and roles that are being portrayed send implied messages to the impressionable minds of children. Roughly 50% of teen girls in the U.S. read teen or adult fashion magazines, and a high percentage of those are exposed to commercials and billboards with sexual images on them (What’s the Problem). Because many of these advertisements shape women to be beautiful with thin waists, even skin, and large breasts, that becomes the standard for what other women should look like, whether attainable or not. The American Psychological Association conducted research in 2007, which proved that the “sexualization” in media has a negative...
An article by Christina N Baker, Images of Women’s Sexuality in Advertisements: A content Analysis of Black And White Oriented Women’s and Men’s Magazine emphasizes on how women’s are portrayed in media such as advertisements and Magazine. The author analyzes how media has a huge impact in our society today; as a result, it has an influence on race and gender role between men and women.