media-supported ideals of beauty's negative impacts

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Ideals of beauty promoted by the media have created a brand new definition for the word “beauty”. Beauty is associated with extreme thinness and Caucasian traits nowadays. People are bombarded with thousands of beauty and cosmetic advertisements shown on tabloid newspapers, magazines and pop-up advertisements every day and everywhere. The negative impacts brought by these advertisements outweigh their benefits. This essay will consider how people's confidence, controlling ability when achieving ideal images and the norms of beauty in society are adversely affected by the media-supported beauty ideals. Firstly, exposure to media images may alter the way how people evaluate themselves or even lower one's self -esteem. A research found that advertisements from the U.S. lay more emphasis on body and fail to depict full range of beauty types. (Frith, Shaw & Cheng, 2005) For exampmle, an overwhelming majority of the magazines are showing Caucasaian models who are thinner than the average of the American in general. People may feel stressed and dissatisfied after watching a massive number of advertisements. One study suggested that women become less satisfied with their appearance with increasing media exposure. (Rivadeneyra, Ward, & Gordon, 2007) Another report also pointed out that men will suffer lower confidence and will be more concerned about their fitness and muscularity, having comapared themselves with the media images. (Hobza et al., 2007) It appears to show that both genders are negatively influenced by the media-supported ideals in terms of self-evaluation. Secondly, people may lost their inhibition when they fully conform with the media-supported standards of beauty. Some of the advertisements may contai... ... middle of paper ... ...g-Kong-dieters-warned-over-swallowing-parasitic-worms.html R. Rivadeneyra, L.M. Ward, M. Gordon(2007). Distorted reflections: Media exposure and Latino adolescents' conceptions of self. Media Psychology, 9 (2), pp. 261-290 Sowray B. (2012). From Cocaine To Eating Cotton Wool Balls, How Models Stay Thin. Telegraph. Retrieved from http://fashion.telegraph.co.uk/article/TMG9524919/From- cocaine- to-eating-cotton-wool-balls-how-models-stay-thin.html Treasure, J. L., Wack, E. R.,& Roberts, M. E. (2008). Models as a high-risk group: The health implications of a size zero culture. British Journal of Psychiatry. 192, 243-244. doi: 10.1192/bjp.bp.107.044164 Zuckerman, D. (2005). Teenagers and cosmetic surgery. Virtual Mentor, 7(3). Retrieved from http://virtualmentor.ama-assn.org/2005/03/oped1-0503.html.

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