Media And Body Image Media and Body Image Essay example Media and Body Image Essay Body Image vs. Media Body Image In The Media Body Image in the Media Essay

1. Media And Body Image
The media is an ever–present part of our daily lives. Magazines line checkout lanes in grocery stores,
televisions are in stores and gyms and every home, cell phones carried in pockets allow instant
access to social media as well as digital versions of magazines and web–based platforms for
watching television shows and movies. This unlimited exposure is not always a good thing. The
benefits of having access at anytime to the latest news and entertainment is tempered by the damage
of the body ideals demonstrated in commercials, in magazines, in television shows and movies.
Everywhere women look they are told to be smaller, that smaller is beautiful and smaller is better,
and men are told that they should be bigger, stronger and more muscular...show more content...
The closest it comes to controversy are studies saying that it is an issue of social comparison,
though none say what the outcome would be if the celebrities men and women compared
themselves to had realistic and attainable bodies and levels of beauty. It has been shown that the
effect on media exposure is not as lasting nor as damaging to men as it is to women, with men often
experiencing only a slight drop in body satisfaction but their self–esteem remains steady (Barlett,
Vowels, & Saucier,
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2. Media and Body Image Essay example
Often, people of all ages, race, and gender catch themselves gazing into mirrors for hours, blaming
themselves for the way they look, not realizing that the media is actually the one to blame for
many people's body image. Body image is the way people see themselves, or how they assume
other people see them. It is not likely to see a plus sized model in a magazine or a model on the
runway with blemishes on her face. A person's negative perception of their own body is not
because they think it is wrong to look and be healthy; it is because the media is telling them that
being a size 2 with flawless skin is healthy and beautiful. If so many people are claiming that looks
do not matter and beauty only runs skin–deep, then why does the...show more content...
Basically, these companies are promising healthy weight loss only to make money, knowing that in
the end, it is only false advertisement. The worst thing about the media being such a big influence
on children and adults is that no one in the media is willing to change the obsession with perfection.
As people become more influenced, ill, and provoked, the media only continues to only publish
magazines with stick thin models with perfect features. Basically, the media is doing nothing but
using subliminal messages. The way they portray the models in magazines, it only confuses a
human's mind. This makes them believe that they must look like them to be considered beautiful.
Often in magazines, when positive values, success, love, and happiness, a thin person is shown.
This not only completely lowers a "healthy", or a plus sized person's self–esteem, but the media also
tries to make it seem as if in order to be happy and successful, a person must be skinny (Piazza).
Every day, companies come up with a new beauty product, or a new diet product to leer someone
into buying it to make themselves beautiful. New products every day completely sets aside the idea
that natural beauty is already beautiful enough. According to the media, though, people need these
products to look more humane, or look younger and thinner. The media also using editing and
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3. Media and Body Image Essay
How do the media influence females? Images of female bodies are everywhere. Women, and their
bodies, sell everything from food to cars. Women's magazines are full of articles urging women to
fit a certain mold. While standing in a grocery store line you can see all different magazines
promoting fashion, weight loss, and the latest diet. Although the magazines differ, they all
seemingly convey the same idea: if you have the perfect body image you can have it allВ…the
perfect marriage, loving children, great sex, and a rewarding career. The media, whether TV, print,
or Internet advertising, seems to play a huge role in influencing women of all ages; from
adolescence and teens, to women in their twenties and thirties, as well as...show more content...
It seems that younger females are more apt to believe that most everything they see in the media
is realistic and attainable, and they try to mimic what they see on TV or read in magazines. They
also tend to watch TV shows like One Tree Hill, Laguna Beach, and Gilmore Girls. Why do our
young females look to these fictional characters for real life answers? Do they see these characters
as role models? One has to wonder if they believe that if they mimic how these characters look and
act they will belong and then they, too, can have the same outcome the characters do. How many
times have you walked down the street and seen an 8– or 9–year–old girl wearing something that
might be more appropriate if worn by an adult? Females between the ages of 9–12 read fashion and
beauty magazines, and their exposure to these "ideal" images coincides with a period in their lives
where self–regard and self–efficacy is in decline. This is the same time period where body image is
tied to self–esteem and it becomes quite fragile due to physical changes of puberty. This is also
the same time frame where the tendency for social comparison is at its peak. Girls thus find
themselves in a subculture of dieting, due to the messages given by the media. Over the past 4
weeks I have spoken to many adolescent girls, ages 9 through 12, who candidly admitted they had
already tried dieting. These
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4. Body Image vs. Media
Body Image vs. Media Perfection is the ultimate addiction, in the eyes of the media. Body image is
a problem that women and even men have been struggling with for as long as the media has been
around. The media constantly puts pressure on young men and women brainwashing them into
thinking that the ideal body image for women is small and slim and the ideal image for men is
muscular. The media uses interesting standards to define beauty. There are different aspects to
beauty that a lot of times, the media does not exhibit. For instance true beauty comes through dignity
and character, not necessarily through how a person looks. Nevertheless, there is no denying that
ads do affect some of us. Women and young girls all around the world are...show more content...
Until the photographers of the media stop promoting unhealthy images of models, Supermodels can
then live care–free. As a key component to products being sold, photographers believe that Sex
sells. In a survey that I personally conducted I asked 5 males and 5 females, whether or not erotic
imagery of in–shape men/women in advertisements affected them in any way. My results proved
that the women were not intrigued by the advertisement, compared to the men. The media will
go as far as this to capture your attention so that you can read the words. Sex has always been a hot
topic , so using sexy images of models in the eyes of the media, is a must. Soon we will come to
the conclusion that sex does not sell, it is only lack of creativity and it will soon become a myth.
"Technology has brought us many [good things], but also problems. Beauty is subject to its magical
touch–ups. What we see on magazine covers as the model of beauty isn't real. I think that's very
damaging. Celebrities feel this pressure too. A few years ago, I considered [cosmetic]
surgery."(Pop singer Shakira , Teen People, May 2006, p. 54.) Everything you see, whether it's an
ad or a magazine, is all fake. This is called the power of airbrushing. What a paintbrush is to a
painter, is what airbrushing is to a photographer. Airbrushing can transform a model within seconds.
"As reported by Scott Schild, Sports Illustrated 2006 summer photo intern, in Sports Illustrated's
Swimsuit Edition,
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5. Body Image In The Media
The issue of distorting body image in the media and its effects on people is not a new concept to
modern time. There is a long history of body image's powerful place in society because of people's
impressions of each other based on body image. Research has been done on the effects and
outcomes of this issue. Recently, consumers have fought with the media to try and achieve a safer
way to spread information and let these media outlets be successful without having severe impacts
on adolescents especially, among other age groups. The general ethical principle that the
stakeholders use in this fight is similar to utilitarianism, because each stakeholder believes they are
bringing the greatest good to the greatest number of people. The stakeholders...show more content...
The media group that retouches images skews the "normal" body image of people through many of
its outlets, including models in advertising and magazines, and actors in TV and movie productions.
"The average model portrayed in the media is approximately 5'11" and 120 pounds. By contrast, the
average American woman is 5'4" and 140 pounds" (Holmstrom, 2004). This statistic shows how the
media manipulates consumers into believing that because they are not what the average model looks
like, they are not living up to a certain standard which implies that they need to look like that to be
beautiful. Another research fact that shows a similar concept is that, "In the United States, 94% of
female characters in television programs are thinner than the average American woman, with whom
the media frequently associate happiness, desirability, and success in life" (Yamamiya et al., 2005).
This association of female thinness and happiness, desirability and success makes consumers believe
they must achieve this unrealistic thinness to achieve more ultimate goals and fulfillment in life.
"The media also explicitly instruct how to attain thin bodies by dieting, exercising, and
body–contouring surgery, encouraging female consumers to believe that they can and should be
thin" (Yamamiya et al., 2005). This idealization of thinness in the media is seen so much, and is
extremely harmful to women's self confidence and is often associated with body image
dissatisfaction, which can be a precursor to social anxiety, depression, eating disturbances, and poor
self–esteem (Yamamiya et al.,
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6. Body Image in the Media Essay
Body image today is so drastically exaggerated in importance that people, often adolescents, go to
the extremes of trying to be perfect. The media is what I believe makes body image such an
important issue these days. It makes people want to change everything about themselves, their look,
their choices, and their personality. The media are the ones also bringing this on to adolescents
because of all the places they advertise. The adults are also people that I would blame for the cases
of young children causing themselves to hurt for things they shouldn't be caring about. The
indicative that shows that my findings are correct are all the cases that are reported about
adolescents and their body image problems. Places that the media stress...show more content...
The internet is also making people believe differently about their bodies. It has things posted all
the time describing how a body should be, and with the millions of people who get on the internet
everyday seeing this causes them to believe think differently about their bodies. One thing that
these people who post blogs up don't tell you is that, the adolescents trying to act like these stars
end up getting pregnant or many other things. For instance, teenage girls these days try to be like
other girls on TV and this causes them to be sexually active, and with this occurring nearly 1 in 4
girls ages 14 to 19 acquire a sexually transmitted disease, as Time Magazine describes it. It also
says that in African American girls it's even more likely, 1 in 2 girls obtain a sexually transmitted
disease. Sexually transmitted diseases are also not the only thing that adolescents obtain. The other
phenomenon that occurs because of the media is that teenagers these days try to make their bodies
perfect, just like the bodies of the stars on TV. There are many different ways how they can try to
make their bodies perfect. As the website, MEDIA AWARENESS NETWORKS mentions it, fasting,
skipping meals, excessive exercise, laxative abuse, and self–induced vomiting are all considered as
unhealthy methods of maintaining weight. Some of these methods are also under the name of
Anorexia. Girls are mainly the ones who turn
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