I. What I Know Insecurity is no stranger to the middle school environment; I noticed that girls as young as twelve felt that they needed to hide themselves with make up. This seems to be caused by an unattainable ideal of perfection, an ideal which appears to be enforced by mass media. I have noticed people seek appearance morphing products to hide themselves, and these types of products are filling up the majority of the commercial time on television. I believe there is a terrible correlation between a person's appearance and perceived worth; this is depicted in “Barbie Doll” by Marge Piercy. This pressure can weigh down on an individual heavily making that person feel trapped, and in desperate need of a solution to help alleviate the pressure. Therefore, the person must strive to fit the mold of what the media and society depicts as perfect. Sometimes this leads to a person physically changing themselves. As noted above, body image and insecurity seemed to be the theme throughout middle school. I remember hearing girls talking in the 7th grade locker rooms about how they were trying to lose weight. I remember watching a girl eat nothing but an apple for lunch everyday at school. I recall hearing rumors about parents letting their children take weight loss pills so they would fit in. I remember girls who dyed their hair and wore make up in the sixth grade. I also remember that I didn't think anything of it; it just seemed normal. Why did I think this was okay? When and why did girls want to start changing themselves; why did they believe they were not enough? I read an article about a preteen who got a nose job because her peers would bully her; she was only thirteen. She said she had never been bullied until the second time... ... middle of paper ... ...dy is on display but it is reconstructed and “painted on” (19-24). Being changed is a solution sought out by people with BDD to end the criticism; they are facing from themselves or others. In the end the main character was accepted only in death because she was changed. However, when people with BDD use cosmetic surgery as a solution their disorder does not go away; cosmetic surgery can even exacerbate the problem. Works Cited Gorbis, Eda. "Plastic Surgery Addiction in Patients with Body Dysmorphic Disorder." Psychiatric Times 22.10 (2005): 79-81. Proquest. Web. 6 May 2014. Kilbourne, Jeane. “Killing Us Softly 4.” TruTube. TruTube, n.d. 2010.Web. 5 May. 2014. Serdar, Kasey L. "Female Body Image and the Mass Media: Perspectives on How Women Internalize the Ideal Beauty Standard." Westminster College. Westminster College, n.d. Web. 04 May 2014.
Now I’m going to give those teens a way to ignore what others think and think about themselves in the most important years of their lives. Body image has become more important that education and it needs to stop. I am going to point this article more towards teenage girls. Although I know guys are self conscious about themselves too I cannot relate to that. Girls when you look in the mirror do you see what you want to see?
...h BDD often tend to rely on cosmetic surgeries for body parts they see as irregular or deformed. This is often a big problem because more than half the time the patients are still unsatisfied with their body parts after they pay thousands of dollars for the surgery. In other words, not only is getting the cosmetic surgery unbeneficial to their mindset of themselves but it also can hurt them financially. In addition, once the cosmetic surgery is over with, they tend to focus on another body part that they are aggravated with resulting in a never-ending cycle. Once the individuals realize their surgery was pointless, it has been documented that surgeons have occasionally been victims of violence and even murder by BDD patients who are in despair over their procedural outcomes. Although this may seem out of the ordinary, it’s chances of happening are extremely high.
Why is this topic of utmost importance? Undeniably, the media now has become an essential tool for everyone in this era, be it for information and social networking (Shakeel). However, it has also become a platform for people to look up to – for both the good and bad reasons. Generally, most females look to the media as an example for an “ideal” body image. If so, what are the impacts? To what extent does mass media contribute to negative perceptions of body image by females? Does the amount of time spent using the mass media contribute to females’ perception of their body image? What factors influence why some females are affected by the images of the media and some aren’t? This literatu...
Cosmetic surgery is essentially not a bad thing. Some people suffer facial and body injuries or are born with a deformity which can only be corrected by plastic surgery. Cosmetic surgery can also be a life saver in cases of extreme obesity. However, some people-especially young females- are becoming too obsessed with their looks and body. The quest of finding the perfect body has led many to the operating table, opting for multiple cosmetic surgeries.
If one does not fit this ideal, then they are considered unappealing. Unfortunately, there is nothing one can do to truly change their body image other than think happier thoughts, obtain plastic surgery, or go to the gym to make themselves feel and potentially look better. Popular media is making it extremely difficult for one to maintain a positive body image. They have created the perfect human image that is almost unattainable to reach. The idea of a teenager’s body image is being destroyed by the standards of magazines, television shows, and society as a whole, making it to where it will never recover again. To better understand the effect popular media has on one’s body image, viewing psychology, medicine and health sciences, and cultural and ethnic studies will give a better understanding on the
Recent studies have shown that approximately 75 percent of adolescent females wish to be thinner and over 35 percent of them resort to drastic extremes to achieve the new “thin ideal.” (Body Dissatisfaction in Early Adolescent Girls) Today in our culture, this ideal of body image is portrayed in every aspect of our lives. We see a representation of attractive, extremely thin women in magazines, television shows, movies, commercials, etc. The new body image, which today is described as being perfect, is a new, unrealistic standard of skinny. This type of representation presented by the media compels female adolescents to view themselves in negative ways which results in eating disorders, body dissatisfaction, or even depression. The new standard of the “thin ideal,” according to society, is simply unattainable and irrational. So the question still remains: How has the media altered female adolescence’s perspectives on the “perfect” body image, and how has this changed our female society?
What is the perfect body type? Throughout our adolescence ages into the adult hood stage many of young women struggle to answer this question. Our idea of what the perfect body type is ever changing however it is always influenced by the Medias perception of what the perfect body image should look like. We all idolize these images we see on television and in magazines and some of us would do anything to look just like them. This image forces us to have self esteem issues.These advertisements are damaging both our mental and physical state of being Many young girls who take extreme measures to live up to the Medias perception of the perfect body type are more likely to develop one of the many body image disorders. The average age a girl starts to diet is eight ("Media and Eating Disorders" 1). When a girl becomes obsessed with dieting and looking better, they can easily become anorexic or bulimic. 79% of teenage girls who vomit are dedicated readers of woman's magazines ("Media and Eating Disorders" 2). The Medias standard of perfection puts stress and pressure on young girls to become skinner. Eating disorders, excessive exercise, and depression are a result of the Medias influence on their self image. The media have negatively influenced the self image of young girls by forcing their unrealistic perception of what women should look like onto them .
In modern day society, many adolescent girls are self-conscious of their bodies, like Samantha Murray. In “Female Body Image and the Mass Media: Perspectives on How Women Internalize the Ideal Beauty Standard,” Kasey Serdar writes, the standards of the woman’s body are visibly set through forms of media; furthermore, the pressures are high to achieve these unrealistic looks (1). A plethora of self-esteem issues result from the media’s portrayal of unrealistically thin models. In addition, today’s society places a significant amount of importance on what the eyes perceive, rather than what is on the inside, as the article “Factors That May Contribute to Eating Disorders” states (1). As a result, eating disorders now begin at a younger age, since girls grow up viewing the “ideal body” as skinny; furthermore, images in the media affect the self-esteem of women so immensely that many develop eating disorders after spending time viewing these unrealistic images. Women should not feel the need to cha...
The media has a crucial influence on adolescents. Golan, Hagay and Tamir (2013) stated that “Since puberty, by its very nature, is associated with weight gain, adolescents frequently experience frequently experience dissatisfaction with their changing bodies” (p. 1). Young boys grow up with the expectation of having to become a strong, muscular, masculine man. Young girls see skinny models and movie stars and grow up thinking that it is only socially acceptable and attractive if they are also skinny, or very thin. “In a culture that glorifies thinness some adolescents, mostly girls, become excessively preoccupied with their physical appearance and begin to diet obsessively in an effort to achieve or maintain a thin body (Golan, Hagay & Tamir, 2013, 1). Little girls play with dolls that have narrow waists, full busts, lots of makeup and their hair done a certain way. Advertisers and manufacturers are portraying a particular body image with the dolls, and this makes little girls form an opinion on how they should look. “Young girls may engage in conversations...
Everyone has had their own personal stories of the times that they have been bullied; this could be anywhere from being bullied by their siblings to being bullied at school for things that they do or how they look. In school now, children from the ages of 5 all the way up until they are 18 or older are getting bullied for the ways that they look. Children all throughout school had dreamt of the day where they could just take their defected body part off and just switch it with a new “normal” body part. Most children do not know that there are doctors out there who can either remove undesirable body parts, or replace and enhance those body parts. There are thousands of people each year just in the United States that undergo cosmetic and plastic
The media have been criticized for portraying the thin women as “ideal” .This research plans to look at the effects of media on the body image of women. This cumulates the findings of empirical studies that observe the effects of media on body image. This study will also look at the different social comparison theories that relate media and body image. It will also investigate the different sources of media that have an impact on the body image of women. It also scopes to find out which sources have a greater consequence than the others. Furthermore it also researches about how the women could be prevented from comparing their body image from that of the models and actresses portrayed in the media.
The overwhelming idea of thinness is probably the most predominant and pressuring standard. Tiggeman, Marika writes, “This is not surprising when current societal standards for beauty inordinately emphasize the desirability of thinness, an ideal accepted by most women but impossible for many to achieve.” (1) In another study it is noted that unhealthy attitudes are the norm in term of female body image, “Widespread body dissatisfaction among women and girls, particularly with body shape and weight has been well documented in many studies, so much so that weight has been aptly described as ‘a normative discontent’”. (79) Particularly in adolescent and prepubescent girls are the effects of poor self-image jarring, as the increased level of dis...
Body image can cause the psychological impairment dysmorphophobia on adolescents. Dysmorphophobia also known as body dysmorphic disorder is described by Philips and Rogers (2011) as, “a distressing or impairing preoccupation with nonexistent or slight defect(s) in appearance.” According to Bolton (2010) usually the person with the disorder is continuously fixated with fixing or inspecting a portion of their body that they may feel is their biggest imperfection. This disorder mainly starts at early adolescence when individuals are starting to mature more physically. Due to society being so engrossed with the topic of image, many teenagers are developing this disorder and constantly try to fix themselves bases on what ma...
In American culture today, society's view of beauty is controlled by Hollywood, where celebrities are constantly in the lime-light. The media watches Hollywood's every move, and is quick to ridicule “A-listers” whenever they dare to gain a few pounds or to let an uncontrollable pimple show. The media has created a grossly distorted mental image of what should be considered beautiful, and with almost every junior high and high school-age girl reading and viewing this message, the idea has been instilled in them as well. This view of beauty is causing many teenage girls to become obsessed with a highly problematic and unattainable goal of perfection.
In today’s society, beauty and perfection is being striven for like never before. Confronted with all the “beautiful” celebrities and photo-shopped magazine pictorials, women are facing an unrealistic expectation of how they should look. If they don’t have a thigh gap or a lean stomach, girls feel commensurate with themselves and try to change how they look just to appeal to society. How often have we been told as children that beauty on the inside is all that matters, yet we see and live by different statements. We live in a shallow culture based on looks. Look at all the celebrities we see. How many of them actually have talent or are worth such a high status if they did not have their looks? I wish I could say that there was a time period where this statement was not true, but it can’t be said, with the key example being Marge Piercy's poem, “Barbie Doll”. She wrote this poem in 1973 and its message on body image can still apply to today's time period.