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I am fake… ugly…worthless. I conceal my face with layers of makeup hoping that half a bottle of BB cream will be enough to make me as flawless as Kylie Jenner look on the cover of Seventeen magazine. I use innumerous acne medications, aspiring to be as unblemished as the girls in the Clean and Clear commercials. I reject bags of M&Ms and fudge brownies thinking that my sacrifices will make me “love my body” as much as the emaciated Victoria Secret models love theirs (see appendix A). I routinely shave my legs and armpits and pluck my eyebrows with fear of becoming the hairy woman the media deems horrendous. I do everything, yet feel like I am nothing. Nothing compared to the beautiful women pictured on television, magazines, and billboards. Regardless of how many beauty products I use, of how many chocolate chip cookies I decline, of how much money I waste trying to feel pretty, I will always be flawed. I will never be pleased with my appearance because I do not “measure up to the current standard of beauty,” because I am incapable of achieving the body image mass media advertises and—most importantly— expects women to desire (America the Beautiful). I am not going through a phase; my distorted body image (thank you Vogue!) cannot be overlooked the way mass media dismisses the guilt of setting unhealthy, not to mention unattainable, appearance goals for women and of being a leading cause of the eating disorders pandemic among teenage girls. I represent the 70% of all women who, according to America the Beautiful, feel ashamed of their bodies after just 3 minutes of browsing the pages of fashion magazines. I represent the average woman who is “bombarded with images of thin, beautiful young women,” with pictures of celebrities ... ... middle of paper ... ...top Blaming the Media for our Body Image Issues.” Huffington Post Women 1 Jan. 2014. huffingtonpost.com. Web. 22 Feb. 2014. Medium: Web. Dohnt, Hayley and Tiggermann, Marika. “The Contribution of Peer and Media Influences to the Development of Body Satisfaction and Self-Esteem in Young Girls: A Prospective Study.” 27 Mar. 2006. willettsurvery.org. Web. 22 Feb. 2014. Medium: PDF file. Edut, Ophira. Adiós Barbie: Young Women Write About Body Image and Identity. Seattle: Seal Press, 1998. Medium: Print. Solomon, Natalie. “Sophia Bush Declares War on Urban Outfitters.” MTL Blog 13 Sept. 2013. mtlblog.com. 22 Feb. 2014. Medium: Web. Waxler, Barbara. “The Influences of Mental Health and Culture on Weight and Eating Disorders.” Weight In America: Obesity, Eating Disorders, and Other Health Risks 2008ed. Detroit: Gale, 2009. galegroup.com. Web. 22 Feb. 2014. Medium: Web.
Beauty is a cruel mistress. Every day, Americans are bombarded by images of flawless women with perfect hair and smooth skin, tiny waists and generous busts. They are presented to us draped in designer clothing, looking sultry or perky or anywhere in between. And although the picture itself is alluring, the reality behind the visage is much more sinister. They are representations of beauty ideals, sirens that silently screech “this is what a woman is supposed to look like!” Through means of media distribution and physical alteration, technology has created unrealistic beauty ideals, resulting in distorted female body images.
“The Globalization of Eating Disorders.” The McGraw-Hill Reader. Muller, Gilbert H. 12th ed. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2014. 639-642. Print.
Hass, Cheryl J., et al. "An Intervention for the Negative Influence of Media on Body Esteem." College Student Journal 46.2 (2012): 405-418. Academic Search Complete. Web. 16 Feb. 2014.
Like a blueprint or instruction manual, the objective of a rhetorical analysis is to dissect a written argument, identify its many parts, and explain how all of them come together to achieve a desired effect. Susan Bordo, a professor of Gender and Women’s Studies at the University of Kentucky, wrote “The Empire of Images in Our World of Bodies”, published in 2003 in The Chronicle of Higher Education. Her essay examines how the media plays a pervasive role in how women view their bodies to the point where we live in an empire of images and there are no protective borders. In “The Empire of Images in Our World of Bodies”, Bordo not only effectively incorporates numerous facts and statistics from her own research and the research of others; she also appeals to emotional realities of anxiety and inadequacy felt by women all over the world in regards to their body image. Ultimately, her intent is to critique the influence of the media on self-confidence and body image, and to remind her audience of the overt as well as subconscious messages they are receiving on a daily basis.
In every magazine and on every page there is another source of depression, another reason to skip a meal or two or a reason to be self-conscious. In present society people are overly focused and determined on the perfect body that both the fashion and advertising industry portray and promote. Through diction, pictures and celebrities presented they are trying to convey a message to their viewers that is “suppose” to be used as a source of motivation and determination. The message they are truly conveying is self-conscious thoughts, depression, and the promotion of eating disorders. It is estimated that millions of people struggle with depression, anxiety, and low self-esteem; concentrated on dissatisfaction with their body image (Ballaro). The advertisement and fashion industry are conveying a message that creates an internal battle for their viewers, though they should be creating a fire in their viewers that provides motivation to be healthier, take better care of themselves and a source of inspiration for style.
Eating Disorders." Current Issues: Macmillian Social Science Library. Detroit: Gale, 2010. Gale Opposing Viewpoints In Context. Web. 20 Oct. 2015.
The Effects of Media on the Body-Image of Preadolescent Girls. Media is infamous for having a tremendous effect on teenage girls. The mass media have long been criticized for presenting unrealistic appearance ideals that contribute to the development of negative body image for many women and girls (Harrison & Hefner, 2006). Whether it’s the influence on their choice of friends, school, or their self-image, media has played an important role in affecting those decisions. A growing number of experimental studies have demonstrated a causal link between acute exposure to "thin-ideal" images (i.e., images of impossibly thin and attractive female beauty) and increased body dissatisfaction (Hargreaves & Tiggemann, 2003).
Previous research has shown, that women, in particular young girls, are highly likely to compare themselves and their body image with their peers. There is, however, yet to be studies shown that prove the correlation between peer interactions that influence body dissatisfaction. Body dissatisfaction can lead to dangerous eating habits, such as anorexia, bulimia and extreme dieting. Relationships between family, friends and fellow classmates are pertinent throughout adolescence as it is those surrounding the young female that have a great influence over her. Research compelling to the topic has focused on these particular factors, such as peer and parental influence but has not yet received the amount of exposure and attention.
Mackler, Carolyn. Body Outlaws: Rewriting the Rules of Beauty and Body Image. Ed. Ophira Edut. Emeryville, CA: Seal, 2004. Print.
The most fashionable, sought after magazines in any local store are saturated with beautiful, thin women acting as a sexy ornament on the cover. Commercials on TV feature lean, tall women promoting unlimited things, from new clothes to as simple as a toothbrush. The media presents an unrealistic body type for girls to look up to, not images we can relate to in everyday life. When walking around in the city, very few people look like the women in commercials, some thin, but nothing similar to the cat walk model. As often as we see these flawless images float across the TV screen or in magazines, it is hard to remember they are not real and hardly anyone really looks similar to them....
It has been said time and time again that media heavily influences the desastisfied body image, may women and girls enconter. Previous studies have shown how over expouser to the hyper-sexualized ads and images in the media lead to a distortion of body image in women and girls. However, there is yet another factor that influences the decline of body image just as much. Peer competition has been shown to contribute to this decline as well. Peer competition is any rivarly for supermacy amongst those of the same age group or social group. A recent study shows that women’s body dissatisfaction is influenced by peer competition with other rather than depictions of women in the media. Muñoz and Ferguson, (2012) developed a study in order to further understand the influence of inter-peer pressure in body dissatisfaction.
“Looks don’t matter; beauty is only skin-deep” (Godfrey, 2013). We hear these sayings all the time, yet we live in a society that seems to constantly contradict this idea (Godfrey, 2013). If looks don’t matter, why is every woman in magazines photoshopped? If looks don’t matter, why are women constantly harming their bodies because they are unhappy with how they look and just want to fit in (Godfrey, 2013)? The unrealistic standard of beauty that women are bombarded with everyday gives them a goal that is impossible (Godfrey, 2013). Sociocultural standard of feminine beauty is presented in almost all forms of popular media, forcing women with images that portray what is considered to be the ideal body (Serdar). A majority of the models
Did you know “a study showed that women experience an average of 13 negative thoughts about their body each day, while 97% of women admit to having at least one “I hate my body” moment each day” (Media Influence)? The internet, magazines, and television all contribute to the social standards of how women are supposed to look in today’s world. The Headquarters for fashion is located in New York City. Keeping quiet about their models, they hide their requirements for each girl. America and its Fashion Industry are destroying women, and the image of beauty.
Graydon, Shari. “How the Media Keeps us Hung Up on Body Image.” Herizons Summer. 2008:
It seems that the media’s portrayal of women has negatively affected the body image of The Wykeham Collegiate senior school girls. The media has a negative effect on the youth of today, primarily amongst the female population when it comes to how young girls and women regard their bodies.