More handpicked essays just for you.
Gender popular culture and stereotypes
Gender stereotypes and culture
Effects of gender stereotypes in the society
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: Gender popular culture and stereotypes
In the article “Fat Acceptance : A Basic Primer” by Cynara Geissler published in Gee Magazine 2010, she takes on the popular culture around fatness negativity into which she had herself become immersed and eventually emancipated from it. She advocates for a perspective which is centred on the Fat Acceptance Movement ideology: that ones self images and locus of attention and motivation ought not to be ones body size but rather other aspirational ideas. Geissler in building her argument reviews elements of popular culture which she finds contrary, and she does to through a review of the critics of the Fat Acceptance movement and relating her personal struggle with fat. In particular she questions the nexus between ‘shame and motivation’ and
In this sincere essay, Teal Pfeifer creates an logical appeal that enlightens readers about the desperate need to boycott the magazines that use impractical female bodies, causing damage to young women. Pfeifer’s analytical evidence promotes an informative tone that makes her more trustworthy. Pfeifer states that according to research of Liz Dittrich, “twenty-seven percent reported that the images of models exerted direct pressure on them to lose weight” (Pfeifer 255). Pfeifer creates reasonable appeal with specific evidence based on studies that have been performed supporting her purpose to inform the reader. This creates an informative tone by including evidence of the situation at hand relating to the amount of women suffrage through the images exposed to them.
This constant fixation on physical perfection has created unreasonable beauty standards for women, ones we cannot possibly achieve on our own. Such standards permeate all forms of popular media, particularly fashion magazines and advertisements. Women are bombarded with the notion that we must be thin in order to be desirable. These images project an
In today’s media, being skinny has always been the ideal beauty standard. This author fought against it by showing how being fat is pretty too. The poem “Fat is Not a Fairytale” by Jane Yolen talks about the acceptance of being fat and the media’s negative outlook on it. The poem describes the wish of wanting positive fat representation rather than anorexic, life threatening waists that are considered “pretty” to media’s standards.
Being slim along with nice hair and a car is now almost a perceived requirement to get a job in today’s society. Years ago people could get a job from hard work and dedication, now it seems as if people do not reach a high visual standard their work will go unnoticed or almost lucky to get a job. Eating disorders are at an all-time high right now while females’ health is on a down fall. Places such as Hollywood have ignored the connection between image and illness. (Goodman)
Scrutinizing celebrities by the media hearts young women the most. “The message that girls are not pretty unless they 're incredibly thin, that they 're not worthy of our attention unless they look like a supermodel or an actress on the cover of a magazine… is something girls then carry into womanhood” (Anniston). On the covers of a lot of magazines also on a lot of programs on tv that use the life of celebrities as a major source of information to attract viewers and audiences. Some magazines choose to put on their covers pictures of naked celebrities then start examining how their bodies look which is an indirect message to the readers and viewers telling them this is the body you need to have. This is the standard of beauty to follow.”
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.
When this article came out by the New York Times, people were astonished that this controversial issue of body image was coming to the for-front through a newspaper article. Here is Serna Williams on the eve of here Wimbledon final win, and New York Times is talking about her body, what a time to bring this up! Serna teaches girl athletes around the world about hard dedication to win, and love what you do…not that she is afraid to show her arms because they can resemble a man’s arms. It angered people everywhere, here is an example of the media use an athlete’s spotlight, and tarnishing it for all the wrong reasons. Many considered this to be a criticism on Serna’s gender and race.
The myth that Hollywood is encouraging is to strive to be thin. Thinner is better, prettier, sexier and more attractive. Instead of celebrating and promoting all different body types and the individuality of all body types they single out one body type and infiltrate the media in all facets. The media has become the standard and are being looked too for examples to live by regarding outer appearance. Hollywood has resulted in extreme thinness.
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,
The author”S first introduction to society’s obsession with body image came at the age of ten when she was cast to play Penny on Good Times. She was told that she was too heavy and needed to slim down, and the wardrobe department informed I have to tell you ahead of time that I may be a bit biased about this book. Janet Jackson has long been one of my idols, and there isn’t much she could do that I wouldn’t like. With that out of the way, It is no secret that Ms. Jackson has had plenty of body image and weight issues.
From an early age, we are exposed to the western culture of the “thin-ideal” and that looks matter (Shapiro 9). Images on modern television spend countless hours telling us to lose weight, be thin and beautiful. Often, television portrays the thin women as successful and powerful whereas the overweight characters are portrayed as “lazy” and the one with no friends (“The Media”). Furthermore, most images we see on the media are heavily edited and airbrushed
Men and women nowadays are starting to lose self-confidence in themselves and their body shape, which is negatively impacting the definition of how beauty and body shape are portrayed. “...97% of all women who had participated in a recent poll by Glamour magazine were self-deprecating about their body image at least once during their lives”(Lin 102). Studies have shown that women who occupy most of their time worrying about body image tend to have an eating disorder and distress which impairs the quality of life. Body image issues have recently started to become a problem in today’s society because of social media, magazines, and television.
She seeks to answer, “What happens when they are not on the runway but, rather, on an ordinary sidewalk on a city street”(p. 58). Are they still the same liberated females challenging the standard of beauty in fashion? Czerniawski’s approach for this study stems from how the fashion industry defines plus size in relation to society’s image of a plus size woman. Due to this, many viewers have different perspectives of what constitutes as fat. She asserts, “Most casual observers of plus-size models would probably not even perceive them as ‘plus-size,’ let alone fat”(Czerniawski, 2015, p. 29).
The dangerous and unhealthy resort that these women are willing to use is very concerning and controversial. This essay will argue that falsely image of beauty shown in media and peer pressure provoked by cultural phenomena such as ‘selfies’ might be a strong reason causing women to undergo extreme dieting and cosmetic surgery. Fashion modelling industry recently criticize to be a problematic cultural institution due to excessively use thin underweight models in advertisement and fashion show. The tragic death of two Latin American model in 2006 cause by anorexia nervosa has effectively drew international attention and roar of protest against the ‘zero’ culture (The New York Times, 2006).
