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Relationship between mass media and the society
Womens beauty standard in media and society
Relationship between mass media and the society
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It is a serious numbers that are increasing daily, and its constantly been fuel by the press. As research shows, it is an issue that the standard of beauty for women is so unreasonable. Promoting a thin standard that is not achievable or realistic could be detrimental to adolescents s health. It is important to realize that parents should limit their children’s exposure to the media, by encouraging participation in activities that promote self- esteem building. This could help children form a better
The ideal of a women magazine model are full of photos with women who are typically white and very thin. Many women will agree that they may feel pressured to dress or look a certain way because of the way the models look. The media can make women feel insecure about themselves and have low self-esteem. The messages in the media says that women will always need to make an adjustment to fit the “ideal” look. Since, the media portrays such images and make women feel like beauty is important women need to make sure they love themselves.
Everyday females are exposed to how media views the female body, whether in a work place, television ads, and magazines. Women tend to judge themselves on how they look just to make sure there keeping up with what society see as an idyllic women, when women are exposed to this idea that they have to keep a perfect image just to keep up with media, it teaches women that they do not have the right look because they feel as if they don’t add up to societies expectations of what women should look like, it makes them thing there not acceptable to society. This can cause huge impacts on a women self-appearance and self-respect dramatically. Women who become obsessed about their body image can be at high risk of developing anorexia or already have
Waxed Generation by Michael Koenigs suggests that modern day media propels teenagers towards achieving utterly unrealistic standards of beauty in unnatural ways. Michael states, “Unfortunately the times have given my generation a perverted perception of beauty.” (Koenigs) He strongly believes that the digitally enhanced images magazines put forth to show teenagers, cause the people of this generation to strive for unnatural beauty. The “bombshells” and “hunks” featured in these magazines drive teenagers into insanity as they try to achieve these impossible standards.
According to a survey done by Jesse Fox, Ph.D., 80% of women feel bad about themselves just by looking in the mirror (Dreisbach). This has happened because of social media being changed to make girls feel like they need to have a certain body shape. Models and celebrities in magazines and media show unrealistic beauty and it contributes to eating disorders, depression, anxiety, and much more (Seventeen magazine). Media has put lots of stress on women throughout history with changing body shapes. A survey done by Dove found results that 9 out of 10 women want to change at least one aspect of their physical appearance.
by the psychologist Vivian Diller, the ideas concerning body image, its effect on the youth and the children of today and their preoccupation of looking good are detailed with countless examples that support one justified point of view. Photoshop, digital alteration, image manipulation subconsciously have a
The media negatively influences female perception of the body image in America. Advertisements, magazines, billboards and commercials portray women to be thin and flawless. The media’s perception of the perfect body image causes women to have a low self-esteem that can influence eating disorders, such as, bulimia and anorexia. Media influences cause women to look at image rather than personality, and creates a negative opinion about heavy people. Advertisements such as magazines and billboards spend thousands of dollars to persuade women to be uncomfortable in their own skin.
Various forms of media is present all around us. One of the social cultural aspects particularly influenced by the media is body image. Most of society, with the majority being young women, develop their body image in accordance with the ideas portrayed by the media. The media promotes an ideal image of both men and women and how subconsciously they promote messages that encourage the sexualization and dehumanization of women, while asserting dominance of men through violence. Advertising contributes to people’s attitudes about gender, sex, and violence.
Young adults are molded by the images surrounding them. Societies “ideal thin” comes from media. When the main character has a slim waist and big breasts, the male characters fawn over her. Adolescents are in a forming state and developing their personalities. Adolescent boys see women in film and develop their unrealistic ideal woman, then expect young girls to look the same way.
In today’s modern culture, almost all forms of popular media play a significant role in bombarding young people, particularly young females, with what happens to be society’s idea of the “ideal body”. This ideal is displayed all throughout different media platforms such as magazine adds, television and social media – the idea of feminine beauty being strictly a flawless thin model. The images the media displays send a distinct message that in order to be beautiful you must look a certain way. This ideal creates and puts pressure on the young female population viewing these images to attempt and be obsessed with obtaining this “ideal body”. In the process of doing so this unrealistic image causes body dissatisfaction, lack of self-confidence
According to Finley (2012) “average young woman’s perception of her body is fat”, we live in an era where perfection is the requirement to be accepted by society. An era where body image is so important for anything you do, people judge others by their looks rather than abilities or interests. Our role models are no longer an inspiration because of their ideas or contributions, a role model now days are those who can fit perfectly in body suits or tight dresses. We aspire for thinness and perfection, so, what is this thing that is making today’s youth in our forever quest for beauty? Media has been present since long time ago, they presented the ultimate fashion or the ideal body.
They used a sample of 77 studies and grouped them into four variables such as body dissatisfaction, body objectification, internalization of the thin ideal and drive for thinness and eating behaviors/beliefs. Out of all of these variables body image dissatisfaction had 90 studies in which they found a correlation between mass media and body image, the most out of all the others variables in this analysis. For measuring body dissatisfaction, they used over 14 different scales that evaluate the variable of measure, whether the participant is satisfied or dissatisfied which her body image after the exposure of media. These findings suggest that media exposure is associated with decreased levels of body dissatisfaction in women. According these findings repeated exposure to media content may lead to viewers to begin to accept media portrayals as representations of reality, and when they look within themselves and the standard is not met, dissatisfaction
Research suggests that media advertising mainly impacts a woman`s body image negatively (Grabe, Ward, & Hyde, 2008). On average a person sees 400-600 advertisements per day. The advertisements present beauty of unrealistic standards, distorting what true beauty is. The media flaunts girls with flawless figures and perfect skin. This creates pressure to look perfect rather than being healthy among females.
According to the Straight/Curve website, about 70% of teenagers think that the ideal body type can be found in fashion magazines, while only 5% of women naturally look that way and about 91% of women diet to achieve what they feel is the perfect body size. Influence of mainstream media on the beauty standards Johnson (2016) stated that from television shows to commercials to magazine advertisements to celebrity culture, mainstream media has a big influence on how we understand beauty. That 's why media including films, spend money in order to cast for good-looking actors and actresses to trick people into setting up their belief on what beauty standard should be expected. Female characters in Hollywood films Films have the power that moves far beyond pure entertainment. In particular, they can sway our collective imagination and influence our perceptions on crucial issues related to race, class, gender, etc., but the extent to which they reflect real-world situations is bleak, particularly in regards to women.
In today’s society, there is such a big focus point on what we look like. With all of the technology that is available today, adolescents grow up with unrealistic body expectations. From photoshop, to the fashion industry, to what adolescents grew up with, there is a driving force that pushes adolescents to strive for perfection, and nothing else. There is so much pressure from the media, and the public, that adolescents feel forced to have a “perfect” body. Adolescents have grown up with Barbie, a figure made for little girls, to show them that they can be anything.
