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The influence of media on body image, thematic analysis
The influence of media on body image, thematic analysis
The influence of media on body image, thematic analysis
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Nowadays, society is obsessed with the way our body looks because it is now used as a way to portray what is on the inside. The ideal body image is socially designed as the ultimate goal that one can attain in order to fit-in and be acknowledged in today’s society. The image that society has on the “perfect body” that has been gathered through media, ads and culture, is something that most people have started to “idolize” and are setting
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
Each and everyday we see a new home being built, or a shopping mall opening, or even an apartment complex in the making, but we never think of at what expense all of this is happening. By building all of these new additions we are killing hundred of different species in the process. Humans are cutting down forests, and destroying animal’s habitats. Extinction is one of the most pressing problems we are currently facing today. Each day a new species shows up on the extinction list.
Society today is more harsh n teens than your average bullies. Teenagers in our culture are constantly forced to act, feel, or more so pretend to feel a certain way. Society enjoys dictating how our youth should behave. The pressures placed on teens to meet a certain standard often lead to harmful outcomes. Although some pressures are only experienced by one gender and not the other, some are endured by both and it is only fair to say that both boys and girls feel the pressure of fitting into society’s norms.
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.
Given these points, the thin and muscular ideal being portrayed through the use of media constantly reminds individuals about how that is a standard that they should meet, leading them to have a negative body image. The idea of body dissatisfaction starts when individuals are very young in today 's society, and is supported by many around the world. Being so accessible to the media allows individuals to become more vulnerable to viewing images of celebrities that will affect them in a negative way and will have them wanting to change their appearance, even if that is not how those celebrities really look. Body discontentment has reached a whole new level to where the rate of eating disorders has increased. Individuals commonly compare their
The media plays a huge role in body image, in social media men and women are expected to look a certain way. Men are expected to be tall and muscular, and the women should be slim, fragile and never be bigger than the men. This is horrifying that
There are a number of pressures that influence how one perceives their own body image. The largest pressures on the ideal body image are spawned from the influence the media have on society and the reactions that emerge from interpreting the media and advertisements. In documentaries such as Killing Us Softly and Dying to be Thin, the media is entirely made out to be the lone culprit of body image skewing. However, the media cannot be completely to blame. Many pressures emerge from family members or members of society that have the influence to shape how one feels about themselves, which has been apparent since the Victorian Era, and can still be seen today in the case of Frank Bruni.
Enough is never enough to the society of today. The society of today is a consumer based society in which we all participate in and are all the victims. Trends are always continued through advertisement which help continue the cycle. Trends are proven to be followed through the following literary examples, Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk, Body, Image and Affect in Consumer Culture by Mike Featherstone, Celebrity Endorsed Television Advertisements Affecting Purchase Decision of Middle Class Consumers in Lucknow City by Syed Haider Ali and Raj Kumar and Young Compulsive Buyers and the Emotional Roller- coaster in Shopping by Anna Saraneva and Maria Saaksjarvi.
Seven out of ten girls believe they are not suitable, appealing, intelligent and/or amiable enough. From the beginning of time to the present day, people of higher influence have caused both males and females alike to look to them for the way their lives should be perceived by others. Today’s media and those conventional lifestyle portray what the “perfect” body should be like. However, these body images constantly change over time. Those who control the media, ranging from people within the government to Hollywood, flood the media with messages that tell people that their way of living is not good enough if they do not mirror this version of perfection.
The biggest contributors the unrealistic body standards have to be lingerie companies, with their labels of what a perfect body should and shouldn’t look like. In 2014 Victoria’s Secret got a lot of heat when they released a ‘perfect body’ campaign, a lot of women expressed their dissatisfaction with the companies lack body representation since the company has women of one body type as models. Even celebrities know to be queens in the lingerie business started to protest. The protest showed how pop culture can be used for a good cause. Another contribution to body standards and self-image has to be Social media.
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
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 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.
