Body Image

Today’s society is obsessed with being perfect. Having the perfect body, the perfect face, the perfect everything. This influence and drive for obtaining perfection does not simply appear out of nowhere. Taking a look at the production of our mass media consumption and the media culture it displays, it is clear that messages from the media not only idolizes certain body ideals and lifestyles it provides the basis for self-hatred and shame. Not to mention, there are thousands of websites that aid and help individuals to achieve false hope for obtaining these unrealistic standards. Upon the masses of websites that do this, there is one whose goal is to do the complete opposite. About-Face.org is an organization whose mission is to provide and

It has the potential to change and transform depending on environmental factors in which an individual is surrounded by. In today’s culture, media has become a big factor of our environment and has bought the potential to wreak havoc on how we see ourselves. According to the dissertation, In the Empire of Images: Preface for the Tenth Anniversary Edition by Susan Bordo, “the bar of what we consider perfection is constantly being raised-by cultural imagery” (17). With more technology and media platforms these photoshopped, mostly fake images constantly provide new ways for the normal human body to be viewed as wrong and fixable. These ever changing standards of what is considered ideal purposes a generation of people who will never be satisfied with themselves or their bodies. About-Face.org believes that with the right tools and education, people will become more aware of the differences between bodies in the media and bodies in real life. With this, they anticipate that people will have an improved sense of body image, self-esteem and resist the development of potentially dangerous practices, such as eating disorders and

Without the information that websites like About-face.org gives about understanding the media, many people believe that these certain ideals and the idea of perfection can be achieved, no matter what the cost. This is where we see a prevalence of people who undergo drastic measures such as constant and extreme dieting to match the images in the media. Because of this, the act of eating can become an emotional stressor signaling major restrictions that can cause increased food intake later on. These drastic measures then have the potential to become precarious habits and form into eating disorders. About-Face provides the realities and consequences of these conditions. Having or undergoing customs relating to eating disorders and dieting can have a huge effect on health and well-being. They point out that developing or practicing disordered eating is a precursor to other serious ailments such as starvation, hypotension, and loss of menstrual periods, anemia, and laxative/drug abuse. Furthermore, they believe that exposing the truth about the popular diets plastered through media can prevent or improve the presence of these