Teenagers constantly worry about their body image. Magazines, newspapers, and television don’t exactly help to boost their confidence. The portrayal of stick thin woman and body building men forces teens to believe they need to achieve that “perfect” body and look. The biggest issue of these images being broadcasted to teens is the effects that the images have on them. Teenagers who obsess over their body image can experience stress due to trying to impress others, develop an eating disorder, and neglect, and even jeopardize, important aspects of their lives when they focus too much on their body image. Stress is a big part of teenagers’ lives. From school to boyfriends to keeping up with the latest fashion trends, there is already enough stress to deal with. To add to it, teens often spend too much time focusing on how they look. Anna Quindlen, a humorous journalist and novelist, states that she works out three times a week to keep her husband from looking at younger women (283). She is clearly exaggerating the fact that her husband will leave her for someone else, but she is trying to make a point. Although Anna is older and married, she most likely still felt she needed to stay thin to keep guys interested when she was a teenager. Teens feel like they need to stay thin or fit to impress other people, rather than focusing on the good qualities they already have. Others wear a lot of makeup to try to live up to the images portrayed in magazines. Whatever happened to personality is the best quality? Teens are now so focused on how they look that they begin judging each other and forming cliques before they even have a conversation. But it’s hard to have a conversation with someone when their ribs are poking through their shir... ... middle of paper ... ...ng it. Not to say that tattoos and piercings are a bad thing, but when teens choose to get one, they don’t think of the consequences they might have. The images in the media are not going to go away or change, but the way we look at them can. Pointing out the positives in yourself is a great start to having a more positive self-image, and will help you to stop comparing yourself to others. Talking to someone about what is going on is also a big step in the right direction. We are never going to be perfect, but that’s what makes the differences in each of us that much better. Works Cited Maynard, Cindy. “Body Image.” Readings for Writers. Ed. Jo Ray McCuen- Metherell and Anthony C. Walker. Boston: Wadsworth, 2010. Print. Quindlen, Anna. “Stretch Marks.” Readings for Writers. Ed. Jo Ray McCuen- Metherell and Anthony C. Walker. Boston: Wadsworth, 2010. Print.
Body image and body change methods in adolescent boys and Role of parents, friends, and the media contributed a number of statistics to this facet. Of the participants from this study, 20% contributed a negative effect to the media with statements such as “I think I have a lot of work to do,” with 12.5% stating that it [media] promoted less eating in order to lose weight and slim down. It also showed that 37.5% of participants felt they were being pushed to go to the gym (Ricciardelli, et al.) The individuals in this study were ages 12-15, showing that the media has a strong effect on adolescent males as well as
Picture the world controlled by the media. Could you imagine how ugly, scarce, and hateful it would be. What would you do if a magazine or a television show told you that your body weight had to be twenty pounds lighter to be all most perfect? Would you actually consider the fact or let ignore it? Teens, mainly girls, will be sucked into these magazines. (National Eating Disorders Info Centre 15) These could be magazines like Seventeen and Cosmo Girl. In addition with many others of course. All though, the media is a bad example at times it is not precisely the main issue for negative body image. (National Eating Disorders Association 1) All though, these constant screaming messages the media produces can progress to something more serious. (National Eating Disorders Association 1) More serious as in an eating disorder.
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?
Our media continues to flood the marketplace with advertisements portraying our young teens much older than their age. Woman’s body images have been the focus of advertising for generations. However, now the focus is more directed to the younger teenage girls instead of woman. Young girls are often displayed provocatively while eating messy triple decker hamburgers, or sipping a diet sodas on an oversized motorcycles. As a result, young teens are dressing older than their age, trying to compete with this ideal media image. By allowing younger girls and teens to be portrayed as grown woman in advertisements, our teens are losing their young innocence. With society’s increasing tolerance, this epidemic will continue to exploit our young daughters, sisters and friends. Young teens feel an enormous amount of pressure to obtain the ‘ideal’ perfect body. Trying to emulate the advertisements seen in the media and magazines. As a result, more girls and woman are developing eating disorders. Media can no longer dictate how our young teenage girls should look.
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...
"Introduction to Body Image: Teen Decisions." Body Image. Ed. Auriana Ojeda. San Diego: Greenhaven Press, 2003. Teen Decisions. Opposing Viewpoints in Context. Web. 20 May 2014.
Firstly, the teens look up to the mass media (the celebrities) to find the idol characteristics of a man or a woman and try to copy them. One common thing that I have noticed among my peers ,which many of you I am sure must have noticed too, that when asked in...
To contradict what I said just over a month ago, things are good and I 'm not complaining. Well I should correct myself, I 'm not complaining about my own personal life but the world around all of it is still a little crazy. Like that wild American election, I 'll complain about that. Or the fact that it’s snowing and my brown, toasty heart is cold. Also let 's not forget that they killed Paris Geller on Scandal, of course I 'll complain about that because Paris Geller was (and soon, will be) one of the most iconic supporting characters of the 2000s.
With the limited time for socializing due to the pressures to succeed academically, teens are often found stressed or depressed due to the lack of peers as well as close relationships with family and friends. Teens have a hard enough time trying to fit into social groups with raging hormones and figuring out who they are as an individual, and adding the high expectations of society on top of that adds additional stress. Keith Allison, a teen from Nampa High School wrote “Layers of makeup, pools of mascara or pounds of plastic won’t change who you are on the inside, but who cares what’s under skin-deep? Society expects a Barbie doll out of a Cabbage Patch Kid, and our schools are Build-a-Bear workshop that transform an innocent little kindergartner
Notably, distorted body image is a significant risk factor to various other negative outcomes in teenage girls, such as low self-esteem (Frost and McKelvie, 2004), depression (Paxton et al., 2006), and eating disorders (Cash, Melnyk and Hrabosky, 2004). According to the National Institute of Mental Health (2015), 12.5% of adolescents aged 12 to 17 in the United States experience depression and 2.7% of teens from 13-18 years old face an eating disorder, but most do not receive the treatment they need (Merikangas et al., 2010). The ubiquity of clinical disorders as is evident from these statistics is an alarming state that needs to be addressed. Therefore, it is paramount that proactive action is taken by all parties involved in order to rectify this
Fitting into our society is an exhausting task. This is the hardest part about being a teenager now. The media portrays unrealistic images of beauty. You can find these on commercials, billboards, social media, the internet and the radio. Models are stick slim and have flawless faces. These images portray that standards of beauty for our society. High school is a time where everyone is trying to figure out who they are. It is undoubtedly difficult to overcome the pressure that is put on to be ‘beautiful’, because I am constantly reminded that I need to look picture perfect in order to be liked. The best part about being a teenager is that I have the ability to create my own future. As a high school student, there are several opportunities to
In order to help teenage girls experience healthy body image as the norm rather than the exception, teenagers and their parents need accurate information about healthy eating and the effects of media, society, culture, peers, and family on body image. Beginning at a young age, youth need to understand that bodies come in many different sizes and shapes. The message that everyone is different, and that different shapes and sizes are normal, should be clear and unbiased. Teenagers need to understand the physical and emotional changes that they will experience in puberty and acknowledge that their development is normal.
In the past 10 years there has been a substantial decrease in the moral standers for teenager. With the change in music, technology, and fashion the teens of the current generation have fallen into a mind set thinking that using profound language in public is okay and cool to do, that leaving the house half dressed and showing more of their bodies is fashionable, or even thinking that is more social to talk through a text message rather than speaking to someone face to face. That’s why today current teens are seen to have worse behavior than previous teenagers such as in the 90’s and it is caused by the change in music, the new innovations in cellular technology, and the new trending fashion that has been introduced to teenagers in the early
First, the majority of young people are dissatisfied with their physical appearance. Teenagers are more likely to have a lot of trouble accepting their bodies. They may not like the way they look in the mirror, so they want to look like someone else. Watching media and the environment all influence body image problems. When some teenagers see their friends around them and all the supermodels and stars on TV with their perfect bodies and skin, teenagers want to look like them. Often adolescents are associated with extreme behaviors and are engaging in practices that could be called dangerous. They try such drastic ideas they find on the Internet or by taking drugs. These body image issues can lead to eating disorders, anxiety, depression, and lack of self-confidence (Gregoire, 2013).
During the vast stages of adolescence, individuals are often at a point where they start figuring out where they stand in the community/environment. Thus, peers steer those standings and personalities of individuals. Most aspects of an individual’s life such as music preference, fashion choices, and eating choices are all influenced by peers (Becca). According to Erik Erickson, teens are often seen to be in the “identity versus role confusion” stage. At this particular stage, teens go through challenges to recognize who they are and what others think of them (Haq). This crisis of finding true identity and the desire of being accepted changes the way an individual does things due to their peers (Jax). Peers essentially change what they like, dislike, their moral beliefs to something that is suitable for the “social group.” They want to “fit in” and essentially seek membership and be recognized in the group. To do so, they will undergo alterations which might harm their own health in order to look “normal” for the group. According to the 2007-2008 Dove Campaign for Real Beauty, “92 percent of young girls want to change something about their appearance through peer influence or because they feel they’ll appear more attractive” (Clark, 45-47). Adolescents will alter the way they dress, walk, sit, and everything else to “fit in” with the group as its part of the norm for them. To be considered part of the “clique,” social groups often encourage the individual to carry the same identity as them. Influence from peers promptly induces negative influences for individuals as they want to replicate similar identities as the social groups and are restricted from showcasing their own personalities and who they actually