The Media's Negative Impact On Body Image
As guest editor of Star Telegram newspaper, I did what was asked of me and reviewed the article written by Susan Bordo “Never Just Pictures”. Bordo focuses on body image and our perception of beauty and how we are “supposed” to look according to the media. “Never Just Pictures” should be published because Susan Bordo has factual evidence to back up her reasoning to her claim about body disorders, the role that different types of media have on society, and how it is creating a false image of what true beauty really is. In this article, Bordos central claim is for the readers to get an understanding of today’s obsession with body image, and how we are no longer accepted for just our personality and our good traits but for the physique of the human body.
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.”
In the outside they appear as how society wants
The media is a social institution that came from societal shifts such as the evolution of the traditional family unit and the displacement of gender roles (Conner). The media has always shown what it feels is beautiful body image. The definition of body image “is how you see yourself when you look in the mirror or when you picture yourself in your mind (What Is Body Image).” Which has made women like Ronda Rousey feel bad about their body image. The media has brainwashed people to think they must look a certain way.
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
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.
Yvonne Nyatich English 1111-70 Prof. Heidi VanDixhorn Rough Draft Due: 2-3-2017 How the media affects our body image Many people believe that when the media displays different products as in cosmetics, fashion, and health, the purpose is to show the importance of human expression with a different meaning each to their own. Although I sympathize with their point of view, I am ultimately concerned about the media and the affects that it has on young adolescents. Therefore we must cultivate ways to teach young children about the damages that often results from their own insecurities with their own body, which causes them to go through stages of depression and low self-esteem that significantly lead them to incorporate unsafe eating habits to live up to the
“It’s never easy to except, that our bodies are fallible and flawed, but when do we draw the line?” (Body Love Part 1, Mary Lambert). One in every twelve teenagers between the ages of fourteen and fifteen cause harm to themselves, whether it be by cutting, burning, or something else. Most of these girls harm themselves because the specific body image society has put on them. This has been taken too far, last year there were 12 suicide attempts per day.
In Cindy Pierce’s article, “How Objectifying Social Media Affects Girl’s Body Image More Than You Think,” she argues that society controls how girls and women see themselves, and this will not be solved until they stop caring what other people think. Things celebrities and people we know post online make girls feel inadequate to the standards of others and in effect makes them unhappy with what they look like. Pressure is starting to build on girls at an early age and into adult hood to reach this standard of beauty set by social media. The only way to escape this feeling of being unworthy or less than the ladies in magazines is to become numb to the idea that women are not good enough. Women in magazines are photoshopped to sell products to help women reach the standard the internet has set.
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.
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
Self-absorption attitudes in adolescents and young adults are influenced by social media to develop body image and empathy issues. For example, “Social Media and Narcissism: Rise of A Self-Obsessed Society”, written and published by Jay Thadeshwar, describes how “blogs and social media … encourage constant [self-absorption] by allowing [individuals] to broadcast details of their lives” (1). Narcissism and self-absorption are synonyms relating to the same thing—feeling extreme confidence in one’s physical appearance or characteristics. When adolescents use media to post images of themselves, they cannot help but compare what they look like to others. This comparison is needed to validate an individual’s expectations of themselves.
Whether it’s magazine covers, instagram, twitter, on television or just on the world wide web in general, everywhere we look we see stunning models. Models that are incredibly thin and can look good in anything. Our society is obsessed with how perfect they look, yet at the end of the day women everywhere looks in the mirror and doesn’t see the body of the girl she sees on social media. Even though women come in all shapes and sizes in nature, the expectation to have a skinny, perfect body just seems to be the expectation for our society nowadays. Society puts too much pressure on females to have the perfect body.
According to New York Times, “There has been a progression towards thinner and thinner models in ads and magazines: twenty years ago, the average model weighed 8 per cent less than the average woman – but today’s models weigh 23 percent less” (Simmons n.pag.). The dramatic increase of percentage in thinness is alarming for future generations. Not only does this mean that the body has been prioritized as more important to this generation, but to reach this high of a standard is harder. By putting ads in magazines to promote healthy weight and self worth, readers are more aware of these unattainable ideals. Though opposers may add that even if people take away commenting on media sites there will still be pictures provoking unrealistic body types.
B: Body image is socially constructed: In medicine, the human body is viewed as a biological entity made of several organs, each has a specific function. In contrast, sociologists believe that the human body is socially constructed. In this sense, the human body has two dimensions: biological and social. The first refers to the way the body carries its biological function and the later refers to how the cultural and societal values shape the body to carry out social functioning.
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