Media Body Image Effects

One’s body is unique and everyone has their opinion about the ideal, healthy perfect body. In today’s society there has been a rise on obsessing over the thin ideal body which many people think that media plays a role to it. “The Role in the Media in Body Image Concerns Among Women” by Shelly Grabe, Janet Shibley Hyde, and L. Monique Ward was published in 2008 explains how the increase of thin-ideal body has greatly affected women's view on their body. While Amanda Vogel’s article Body Image: The Impact of Social Media published in 2015 explains the positive side of the issue. Grabe, Hyde, and Ward provide information and laboratory experimentations on over the past years media has portrayed thinner women which cause

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. People cannot help but be brainwashed by the media because its everywhere. The Negative side of the media itself is a social problem. For example, television shows glorifying people who are considered the standard definition of beautiful. These kinds of television shows are conditioning people to beat themselves up if they don’t look a certain

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.

There are particular messages associated in the manner body weight is showcased in media; media celebrities are viewed as the epitome of success and social desirability. Their body and beauty have often been associated with their success chart. This phenomena is apparent in thin-ideal media. The word “thin-ideal media” refers to media that contains noticeably thin female characters, which is likely seen in fashion magazines and television programs. This phenomena promotes the idea that thinness is an advantageous attribute and associate it to the most “beautiful, desirable and successful protagonists” (Harrison, 2000, p.121)

Further, a study also found that nearly 76% of the women aspire to have a smaller body size than their existing figure while only around five percent of the women aspire to have a larger body figure than their present figure. This dangerous culture of thinness may lead to a manifestation of body dissatisfaction which may further result in eating disorders (V & Maran,

91% of women are unhappy with their bodies. 5% of women naturally possess the bodies that are regularly displayed in the media. 80% of ten year old girls in america fear getting fat. 7 in 10 girls believe they are not good enough. As a result of my research I found that the body standard the media sets for adolescents leads to disorders, Suicide and self loathing.

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.

People in distinct societies, ethnic groups, and race have roughly the same size bodies. In Lorber’s article she says, “People of the same racial ethnic group and social class are roughly the same size-but there are many varieties of bodies” (Lorber 731). Society members can act as if they live in the norm because the people around them have usually the same size body. People in the same social class have an effect on each other. This can change a person negatively or positively. In Hesse-Biber’s article she shows, “They are barraged with messages from beauty magazines and TV, and from classmates and parents and doctors, about the value of thinness and the liability of obesity. Many of them, by virtue of being female, white, and middle class, are already primed to join the cult of thinness” (Hesse-Biber 769). Doctors, classmates, media, and family members have an everyday impact on the people around them. These people influence a person’s body image and weight. The media especially negatively influences white middle class females. These white females join the cult of thinness more than any other ethnic group. The media influences the women to have skinny bodies, the doctors encourage healthy bodies, and classmates make fun of the larger bodies. These white, middle class, females grow up with a disadvantage compared to other social classes. The media where these women live have a negative impact on

"If you ask men about their body image, they will tell you they look better than they do. And if you ask a woman, she'll tell you she looks worse", (Gloria Steinem, 2014). This quote explains the mentality men and women have about body image. Nowadays, there are many impacts on women based on their bodies than there is on men. In the essay "Distorted Images", (Susan McClelland, 2017) social media, environmental pressure and advertising link to the theme of body image.

Magazines, TV, music, books, and movies help one make decisions and take action whether consciously or subconsciously. This large sphere of influence, however, is not always beneficial for those who suffer victim to these forms of public entertainment. The medias version of beauty, shames those who are considered overweight and scares almost everyone into thinking that being thin is the only way to be pretty. Jolene Hart emphasis how important beauty is in the American culture in her book Eat Pretty: Nutrition for Beauty, Inside and Out: “There’s a multi-billion-dollar industry built on helping us achieve greater physical beauty” (Hart 33). By creating this manipulated and untrue image of beauty, the American culture encourages eating disorders like anorexia (undereating) and sustains obesity (overeating). When interviewing Shannon Herman, a licensed professional counselor and certified eating disorder specialist, she revealed that adolescents in 2015 are exposed to media about body types and sizes more than any person in history. It goes without saying that mixed messages are bounding and truth is always relative. There are no absolutes. Media does not have mercy on anything but perfection. The perfection that surrounds today’s media causes eating disorders like anorexia and bulimia. In order to achieve the body culture claims to offer, one resorts to dieting and exercise; dieting and exercise,

Dissatisfaction amongst today’s youth regarding their personal body image is increasingly common, warranting a necessary change in the norms and behaviours that are portrayed to Canadian youth. The necessary change that must be implemented moving forward is the portrayal of healthy and attainable body images through media. A 2012 ABC News article stated the average model weighs 23% less than the average woman (Lovett, 2012). Such an appalling statistic is something that must be tackled as we progress toward the future seeing as it showcases to the youth of today that anorexia and unhealthy body weight is seen as desirable or attractive. The relation between such a statistic and anorexia is clear. Such unrealistic body images featured prominently in media platforms (i.e. television, internet) and with media becoming more accessible to Canadian youth, it is unsurprising that anorexia and bulimia are being diagnosed at younger ages (Derene & Beresin, 2006). The link to such media representations and overweight is less evident however through further research it is clear that media can promote both extreme weight loss or lead to extreme weight gain. With media moving away from the promotion of healthy lifestyles, and rather working toward feeding the current media addiction plaguing Canadian children and teens, today’s media companies are feeding into the slippery slope that is weight

One of the biggest issues with the media is “thin-ideal media.” Many American celebrities of the twenty first century are incredibly skinny. However, this is only because so many of them lose weight due to unforgiving diets and overbearing workouts. Thin-ideal media causes the majority of issues, “‘thin-ideal media’ refers to media images, shows and films that contain very thin female leads… Thin-ideal media highlights the idea that thinness is a good and desirable thing to be, even if it is to a level that is potentially damaging to a persons health” (Farrar). Females are portrayed as feminine, skinny, and ladylike on screen. Those who are not are looked down on or shamed for loving themselves. The idea of thin-ideal media does not just affect women. Men are typically portrayed unrealistically muscular and strong, and those who do not fit that model are labeled scrawny and weak. Thin-ideal media can be incredibly damaging to how a person views his or herself

Sage, George H. "High School and College Sports in the United States." Journal of Physical

Media, in its current homogenized state, establishes and perpetuates a completely biased narrative that caters to benefiting the powerful and wealthy. Television, films, printed press, and all the various multimedia forms of communication are intentionally manipulated

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