Argumentative Essay On Body Shaming

Body image is something that is a constant struggle for many. It does not target a specific age group or gender. However, many people with body image issues are adolescents and younger adults. It also does not discriminate, meaning anyone’s life can be affected by body image issues. In fact, most of us already have or will have a body image encounter. A person’s body image can come from, what they see by watching a television show, what they see on social media, and from their peers. As a person ages body image issues become less significant; they have accepted who they are, and are not bothered by how they look to others.

The portrayal of the perfect body type for men and women is influenced by things such as media, and even a change in society. Body shaming is commonly misunderstood, many people look at body shaming as looking down upon those who are overweight. In recent studies, body shaming is also towards those who are underweight and can still be emotionally damaging. By establishing unattainable standards of beauty and bodily

For a long time social media has been a part of society 's influence for negative body image. The individuals who are more influence generally speaking, are teenagers through the age of young adult women and men. Their faced daily with the Internet, magazines, and television. Depending on how self-conscious the person may be, all of this disposer to the media could lead them down the road to having depression and disordered eating structures. Even though it is true some social media and television entertainment promotes self-love and acceptance, there is an equal to or more than amounts of promoters for body shame over certain body types, suggesting that we change ourselves to fit in if we don 't already look the part. That being said, I will address how social media, peers, magazines, and television can impact young individuals in a negative way. Through that I will stress my point that social media should promote self-acceptance and show more love to all body types.

In the new era we live in, the levels of obese and overweight individuals are highly growing across the globe. Overweight is defined as the identification of individuals and groups at increased risk of morbidity and mortality. Obesity is considered to be a disease of fat accumulating irregularly to an extent that it can harmfully disrupt an individual's health, it is also related to psychological problems and negative consequences. The situation of cumulative incidents of excess body fat is mostly due to industrialization, a mixture of little exercise, more abundance and availability of food, commonly in the industrialized nations of the Western Hemisphere. This situation comes along with a lot of controversy on the topic; overweight and obese individuals began to feel offended and discriminated by society, thus in reaction to this they created the Fat Acceptance Movement. The Fat Acceptance movement is a social act seeking to change the way society views overweight individuals in a negative way. This movement emerged from the fat acceptance ideology that health can exist at any size, that overweight and obese people should accept their body figures and challenge stereotypes. It direct the message that it is normal to be overweight. Although the Fat Acceptance Movement might have initiated for a good purpose, it has taken it to a negative extreme level. Being Overweight became the new normal through the acceptance of it. The fat Acceptance Movement leads to negative outcomes, encourages an unhealthy lifestyle, offends low weight individuals and affects the views of health in young

The media portrays the average person as flawless, thin, tall, and beautiful. They advertise products that can help a person achieve what they call “perfection.” They slap photos all over the place, on billboards, magazines, and ads, showing us what a “real” person looks like. The media brainwashes us into believing that we need to meet their standards in order to achieve ultimate beauty and should we stray from the path they pave, we will not be considered beautiful. Our society places too much emphasis on our appearances, forcing many to undergo drastic changes to become “beautiful.” Many people begin to develop issues concerning their body and image. Teenagers, especially, feel the need to conform to society's view of the perfect body. They feel the need to have flawless skin, to be thin, to be tall, and to be perfect. They don't understand

It is specifically teenage girls which become aware of their body and begin to say,” I hate my thighs, I hate my nose, and my boobs are too small” and they also become aware of how others view them. Social media celebrities on Instagram, Twitter and Snapchat, have all been creating an unrealistic image of the ideal body. “Dysmorphia, a condition in which there is dissatisfaction with body appearance, is on the rise as teen[s] struggle to reach perfection. In fact, in a study by the Keep It Real Campaign, 80 percent of all 10-year-old, American girls have been on a diet” (Gross). Many teenagers that seek cosmetic surgery do it for aesthetic and superficial reasons, and are only really concerned about their appearance. Teenagers are willing to go under the knife solely for looks, for superficial and unnecessary reasons. Many teenagers will resort to purging or eating less and many will ask for cosmetic surgery in order to fix what they believe are their flaws, however there are people born with malformed body parts and birth defects that would need reconstructive surgery and need it in order to improve their day to day life, but when a young 14 or 16 year old wants liposuction or a breast augmentation, there is an extremely serious issue that needs to be addressed. The real issues of body image in teenagers are being overlooked and in fact according to the American Society of Plastic Surgeons “nearly 64,000 cosmetic surgery patients in 2014 were aged 13-19, and experts believe this number is bound to rise”(Olya). These teenagers are still developing; their bodies are changing and development is not complete until the early 20s and even then, the human brain does not fully

In contemporary times, one of the main aspects of its culture is the media. The media has developed a powerful influence on many teens and young adults. One of the messages the media endlessly sends out is body image. The media conditions what “beautiful” or “attractive” women are supposed to look like, and consequently, many young women now establish their body image in accordance with the standards the media has promoted. Because of the significant emphasis on body image, countless girls and women are now struggling with self-esteem, eating disorders, depression, and other harmful effects caused by the impossible body standards of society.

Have you ever looked at an image on Social Media, seen a movie, commercial, or show and looked at yourself and felt ashamed or unsatisfied. Many women around the world have struggled with their weight and how others see them. Media images of ridiculously thin women are everywhere – television shows, movies, popular magazines. The Media often glamorizes a very thin body for women. These are also the pictures that are being shown to teenagers at a time of their lives that they are particularly susceptible to peer pressure and looking good(Tabitha Farrar). They see other women who look different than they do and think to themselves why can 't i look like that. The idea of the “Perfect Women”, long wavy hair, a nice slim body, practically a barbie doll, is what causes these women to think such harsh thoughts about themselves. Some women will begin to think that they are ugly, unacceptable, substandard, the list goes on. This idea that every girl needs to look the same, like a doll, to be beautiful is absurd, and the people who enforce such thoughts are just as damaging.

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.

Body images and the ensuing and inevitable body shaming, has grown to become a pressing problem impacting the Canadian youth. With overweight rates at 65% and 30% for adults and children, respectively, one may see weight loss as the necessary solution to solve all body images stigmas. On the contrary, eating disorders such as anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa are climbing steadily amongst today’s Canadian youth. (Derene & Beresin, 2006). With such drastic sides of the spectrum, many have pointed toward different potential reasons for this trend however, a key determinant that must be tackled in the role the media play’s in the lives of today’s youth. The average child spends 4 hours per day watching television, heavily outweighing activities

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.

The article “Fat Pride World Wide” by Juliet Samuels describes the conflict in the US where “fat” people are claiming that prejudice and discrimination of larger people is a problem. This is met with the rising amounts of “fat pride” and “fat acceptance movements” which sparks many controversies. In my opinion, I disagree with these movements because they are ways to normalize being overweight (which is not a positive thing). It makes people more comfortable with being overweight even though it is a very unhealthy lifestyle. Some people out there are natural larger but there’s a difference between being too heavy that it impacts your health and just having a larger frame. Movements like these might make it easier to confuse the two thus leading

Worley states that fat people are often excluded from social events and situations, such as the lead role in a school play and parties. This occurs because people do not want to be around fat people for the fear of embarrassing themselves (163). Psychologically, fat people can be subjected to low self-esteem, depression, and anxiety due to the way people look down on them. In the ignorance of others and pressures of society, beauty is seen in thin and toned bodies (165). Thus, rather than accepting obese people for who they are, people disgrace them in society resulting in negative psychological and social

It is a crisis in today’s world where teenagers feel the need to censor certain parts of their personality and physical features. Some feel that they should be the same as someone else so that they are not judged as much. Some want to look and be different and still expect to be not judged. During the month of July 2015, teens started a trend, a ‘Don’t Judge Challenge’. Teens have been declaring war against body shaming. Body

For example, girls will style their hair to “become more attractive” (Berger 2014), or they will purchase ‘minimizer,’ ‘maximizer,’ ‘training,’ or ‘shaping’ bras, hoping that their breasts will conform to their idealized body image” (Berger 2014). This all appears to be harmless activities, yet when body image is only addressed outwardly and not psychologically, there can be an increase in poor and destructive behaviors. For instance, body image dissatisfaction can lead to poor self-esteem, which can create a cycle of increased body dissatisfaction, followed by decreasing self-esteem (Stapleton et al., 2017). Ultimately, a teenage girl can find herself in a cycle of “depression, eating disorders and obesity” (Stapleton et al., 2017). On study in 2012 revealed, “Two-thirds of U.S. high school girls are trying to lose weight, even though only one-fourth are actually overweight or obese” (Berger 2014). This self-view can lead teenage girls to begin extreme dieting, exorcising or develop a full-blown eating disorder, such as anorexia (Berger 2014). Therefore, it is important for society to encourage young girls to know that they are beautiful just the way they