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Western Influence On Society

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Proponents of Western culture’s influence on society will often praise the new clothing styles and trends or innovative fashion designers. However, there is one social group that continues to be heavily impacted by the social constructs formulated among those in the Western society: women. More specifically, women have become extremely subject to upholding the absurd beauty standards set by modern society. With the implemented preconceived notion that beauty is derived from being tall, thin, and hourglassed shaped, women have resorted to unhealthy eating trends to compensate for their low self esteem. With the considerable amount of research conducted on how Western culture influences eating disorders upon young women, it was reported that …show more content…

The corset originated in Greece, becoming extremely popular in sixteenth-century Europe and spreading to the United States shortly after. This article of clothing was utilized to change the physical appearance of the bodies of women by shrinking the waist. The widespread use of corsets among the women in colonial America radiated the impression that a slim figure was equivalent to having more beauty. However, the singular benefit of a corset is highly outweighed by the disadvantages that is has. Corsets can cause shallow breathing, extreme bruising, pelvic fractures, acid reflux, mood swings, decreased core strength, fainting spells, and deformed organs (“Peer, Parent, and Media …show more content…

These images used to be limited to traditional mass media such as magazines, movies, and advertisements, which was consumed on a weekly or monthly basis. As history progressed, the presence of media in the daily lives of not only women, but also men, increased with the development of new technology. Now with the rise of social media, the average person engages with these types of images multiple times within one calendar day. The constant engagement with these images and the analysis of adolescents who absorb them suggest that there is a higher rate of body dissatisfaction (“Social Media Helps Fuel…”). Social media amplifies the obsession of having the ideal body; Psychological factors of disorders, like anorexia and bulimia, are common in women and are associated with unrealistic body images displayed on social media.Due to the growth of social media platforms, exhibiting only the typical model frame, the search for the ideal body increased tremendously. Rachel Simmons, a leadership development specialist at Smith College, honed in on how the history of body image has been affected by the introduction and daily use of social media platforms. She provides valid evidence that psychologists have found evidence that links social media usage to self-objectification in adolescents, dieting,

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Moreover, Body Image, Media and Eating Disorders states that 30% of children are dissatisfied with their body image due to being overweight and 15% are dealing with obesity (Derene & Beresin, 2006). This demonstrates that the number of children watching television and the number of overweight, obese children are involving their selves more into the media rather than more crucial events. Correspondingly, the average model is 23% thinner compared to 25 years ago (Ravelli & Webber, 2012). Today’s media has an impacting effect on how women should appeal themselves to others in society. This guides them to behave a certain way and not truly be themselves.

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In “The Globalization of Eating Disorders”, written by Susan Bordo in 2003, the author declares that eating and body disorders have increased rapidly throughout the entire globe. Susan Bordo, attended Carleton University as well as the State University of New York, is a modern feminist philosopher who is very well known for her contributions to the field of cultural studies, especially in ‘body studies’ which grants her the credibility to discuss this rising global issue (www.wikipedia.org, 2015). She was correspondingly a professor of English and Women Studies at the University of Kentucky which gives her the authority to write this article. “The Globalization of Eating Disorders” is written as a preface to her Pulitzer Price-nominated book “Unbearable Weight: Feminism, Western Culture, and the Body” which was similarly written in 2003. Through the use of many logical arguments and evidence, Bordo successfully manages to convince her audience that the media, body images and culture have severely influenced the ‘so-called’ trending standard of beauty and how it leads to eating disorders across the world.

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“In the past, eating disorders were generally considered to be confined to young white females from middle-to-upper class families living in Western societies” (Caradas 112). Both studies exploit the false stereotypes associated with eating disorders and culture. Both parties believe that non Western cultures are being influenced by the “slim is beautiful” idea. Each view points out the false misconception that non Western cultures traditional ideas of being thick is related to health is protecting them from eating disorders. Studies prove all ethnicities have shown concern towards body shape and eating attitudes in recent years around the

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They started exposing more of their bodies, like their ankles and then their legs. Corsets were common among women. They were a type of body suit laced in the back, which was worn to enhance women’s hips and breasts, while making their waists seem as thin as possible. The use of corsets started in the 1800s and continued until the 1920s. (Cohen,1984).

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The people living on the earth are the results of million years of assessment. Show people are just the surviving individuals from the human clade. They are the branches of the huge monkeys. They are portrayed by upright stance and biped motion, physical wellness, the utilization of enhanced devices, and a general pattern towards bigger and more brains and more intricate social orders. Amid past people lived as seekers and gatherers.

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Microaggressions in pursuit There are a lot of us these days we get offended or discomfort by what people say about us because it could be our looks, how we sound or could be something else. These days we don’t want to feel slightly hurt or make the assumption and feel underappreciated. This can be a word called “Microaggression”. The way I see what microaggression could be it is when someone feels slightly offended. The times when I experienced microaggression is throughout my college life when I did feel offended, though often in places like a college campus different people experienced microaggression even more.

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During the nineteenth century, corsets were really common among women. They were a type of body suit laced to the back, which was worn to enhance a woman's hips and breasts, while make her waist seem as thin as possible. The use of corsets continued till the 1920s, as it was later attacked for its restrictiveness, both in breathing and movement.

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Anorexia survivor Erin Treloar said “my eating disorder was perpetuated by retouched magazine photos”. Beauty standards has such a giant effect on women emotionally, psychologically and physically. The pressure on women to be thin leads to unhealthy weight loss practices (Battle & Brownell, 1996), eating disorders such as bulimia and anorexia (Thompson, Heinberg, Altabe, & Tantleff-Dunn, 1998) and low self-esteem (Tiggeman & Stevens,

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Fauquet, Sánchez, Levine, and López (2010) engaged in a cross-sectional analysis that focused on the association between exposure and consumption of media outlets, such as television and magazines, and its relation to body dissatisfaction, excessive weight concern, and bad eating habits. The media integrates ideas, values, attitudes, and behaviors that potentially affect young female girls because it represents a distorted, unrealistic vision of the world and the expectations women are assumed to obtain. In one cross-sectional study conducted by Groesz, Levine, and Murnen (2002), focused on twenty-five experimental studies, which they controlled what the young women were exposed to. For example, excessively thin models in photographs, music

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We live in an era where social media has been everywhere and it has impacted many people. Everyone is obsessed with their bodies and ‘fixing’ ourselves has become a daily activity. The perfect body type is having ; thin and long hair, curves, flawless skin, big waist with a flat stomach, thick eyebrows, nice slim nose, big lips and much more. The media influenced this type of body image a person “should have “.During these decades, the beauty and diet industries are all over magazines, advertisement and all types of social media. These industries are filled with thinness ideals and it makes people feel unsatisfied with their body.

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Derenne and Beresin (2006) examined how the media has progressed throughout the years and what the “ideal” body type was in that time period, which influenced female dissatisfaction with their bodies. The study showed that in the colonial times, women contributed to physical labor, which resulted in bigger, stronger bodies. As time shifted to the 19th century, tiny waists and large bustles was favorited by society, which is difficult to attain. Advertisements that are available for kids and young adults display underweight supermodels, appetite suppressants, dietary supplements, which creates a negative repetitive message that being skinny is the only way to be beautiful. ( talk about how different factors in different locations play a role).

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When looking at magazines that contain advice on how women can perfect themselves and become more beautiful, pictures of women who are supposed to represent this flawless body image are constantly found to be exceptionally thin. Magazines specifically spreading this phenomenon include Cosmopolitan, Vogue, and Victoria’s Secret, to name a few. Of course, giving in to societal pressures is expected from the female adolescents who are exposed to these forms of media, as they feel that often times, physical attractiveness above all allows for ultimate perfection. This causes these girls to do anything in their power to attain this picture-perfect look, most of the time leading to disorders that could become potentially fatal to these teens. In an attempt to follow the crowd, adolescents look at themselves and, with the discouragement of not being as thin as the women in the pictures seen in the magazines, television shows, or movies, result in having anorexia nervosa which becomes a crucial impediment in their lives.

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Social media plays a big role in how society portrays body image. “Alternatively, an increased number of Facebook friends may provide girls with greater opportunity to rapidly make multiple social comparisons, itself shown to be associated with body image concern”(Tiggemann and Slater 82). According to the survey that was taken by Marika Tiggemann and Amy Slater, the more Facebook friends the girls had, the more likely it was that they had body image concerns. They were able to compare themselves to the other girls that they were friends with, which led to them to have an increase in their drive for thinness. “Further, these comparisons are likely to be with somewhat idealised images, in that girls mostly post photographs in which they look good or are doing something ‘cool’ (and can be digitally altered)”(Tiggemann and Slater 82).

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In the article Body Image & the Media: An Overview, the author describes the ways in which people’s opinion of themselves are being altered due to the unrealistic standards being viewed in the media. Since the growth of media and internet, people have been greatly exposed to what a “perfect” body should look like. These unrealistic standards have taken a toll on people’s physical and mental health. One envisions a perfect body image and is concerned about how others will perceive them and how they perceive themselves.

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Social media is a powerful source in today’s society, 81% of the population in the United States alone has set up a social media profile. Many use the media for useful things, like educational opportunities and business inquiries. Although there are people who may look at it more in a concerning aspect. Many people today view the social media as a stage where they are judged and told what the real way to look and act is, more specifically, body image. Social Media has a negative impact on body image, through creating a perfect view physically which affects someone mentally, targeting both male and female, and turning away from the real goal of social media.

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