Media Influence on Gender Identity Introduction The media dictates how the ideal woman looks like. The deliberate control of women by the media is taken up by the society and passed into generations. By using, digitally enhanced images, and exceedingly slim actors, the unattainable image of the ideal woman is generated, and for the average woman who does not match the mold, pressure is build for them to change their appearance accordingly. Gender is a cultural and psychological and term while sex pertains to physical and biological features. Sex is determined by the X and Y chromosomes, where XX denotes female while XY denotes male.
Mass media becomes a primary tool which encourages people to participate in a gendered world. (krijen et al ,
Media Influence on Body Image Outline Preface: The old adage says that beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder, however, in recent times the obsession of a signified perfect body has been escalated by media greatly. While most communities teach young individuals that physical beauty does not matter as compared to the inner beauty, this seems to contradict the same as depicted by media through reality shows, billboards, magazines, and a myriad of other platforms. In recent studies, body image perceptions have thus resulted to eating disorders amongst both females and males alike more likely affecting the teenagers and the young adults. This study thus seeks to determine the relationship between the media, body image, and eating disorders. Thesis Statement: Individual acceptance is a norm widely accepted across different societies, however, in recent development the portrayal of the perfect body image through media platforms has caused great body dissatisfactions and consequently leading to eating disorders amongst teenagers and young adults.
A study entitled “Gendered Media: The influence of Media on Gender” stated that: Of the many influences on how we view men and women, media are the pervasive and one of the most powerful. Woven throughout our daily lives, media insinuate their messages into our consciousness at every turn. All forms of media communicate images of the sexes. (Wood 31) As stated above, gender depictions could be observe in
It does more than report information and entertainment as it also presents us with views of human beings, events, issues, and cultural life. Therefore, most of the national media are trying to emphasized people by using an attractive advertisement. This is the reason that people are conducted by the mass media for modern culture. People tend to believe in media which lead to culture change. On the other hand, culture can be defined as the beliefs or values by making sense of our experiences, also concerns how we communicate these values and ideas through mass media.
The media influence body image negatively because it shows and represents unrealistic and perfect bodies of celebrities, not considering what the average American looks like. Another factor that affect body image is family, community and cultural groups; if the society accept people the way they are, it makes people have positive body image. In contrast, if the society accepts only certain body type, it tends to make people develop negative
People tend not to sometimes love the body they were created in because of the way the media culture has acculturated certain body shapes and sizes. Body image refers to a person’s mental representation of their body. The way people view their body mentally can either be positive or negative. In today’s society, where the media culture and celebrities dominate almost everything, including a certain way people should look, have made most people have a negative body image. As a result of people having negative body image, it has contributed to many eating disorders, low self-esteem and low self-confidence.
The way women are portrayed in media today is not helping their advancement. Media, specifically advertising, photoshops women and bends the reality of their real appearance, causing girls to form self-esteem issues. When women and young girls are shopping they see models in photos or advertisements that have “perfect bodies,” and aspire to look like them because
Mass media is a combination of technological advances with the intended purpose of communicating to vast audiences. The influence of mass media is everywhere covering society’s everyday life. However one effect that can be attributed to media is how it affects our ways of perception and thinking (McLuhan, 1964; McQuail, 2010). George Gerbner (1976) states that modern mass media’s capability can form new ways to rapidly, constantly and pervasively unify thoughts and actions. Mediums of mass media covers a wide variety like newspapers, television, books, films, fashion trends even politics.
In many cases, these figures used in modern beauty advertisements send an implicit message to many people that in order for them to be considered beautiful, they must have attractive features to make them look a certain way. Media, is often referred to as the communication network that broadcasts information regarding the news, education, data and promotional messages. Information can spread through different forms which include newspapers, magazines, television, radio, billboards, smart phone applications and internet websites. It is known that media has a massive influence on human behavior, cognition, as well as emotion due to the constant exposure to the