Hollywood Body Image

Her research reviewed 21 studies of the media’s affect on more than 6,000 girls, 10 years or older. The results showed that the more the girls were exposed to the fashion magazines, the more they struggled to have a positive body image. (L2)

Take a moment and think of the perfect woman. Does she have scars and stretch marks? Are her teeth brilliantly white or tinted yellow? Is she a size 00 or size 12? The perfect woman probably doesn’t exist. She is, however, the ideal of media producers to make women believe that they are imperfect. In today’s society, the media has been allowed to corrupt the minds of young and old alike. This problem persists throughout all age groups including fit adults and hefty adolescents. Though it may be impossible to find an exact number, one could confidently propose that negative body image affects thousands, if not millions, of individuals across the globe. The problem is that one’s body image often suffers due to outside forces; to combat this, he or she needs to be able to be self-aware and self-confident when opposed.

Furthermore, media surrounds teenage girls in today’s culture. It is impossible to escape the sight of media. The media’s constant idealistic beauty is ever present to a vast amount of self-conscious girls. This image of beauty causes girls to have low self-esteem (Clay, Vignoles, and Dittmar). Media defining this perfect body image causes many adolescent girls to feel dissatisfied with their bodies and become depressed. “Viewing ultra-thin or average-size models led to decreases in both body satisfaction and self-esteem in adolescent girls aged eleven to sixteen, with changes in self-esteem fully mediated by changes in body satisfaction” (Clay, Vignoles, and Dittmar).

Teenage girls are at an impressionable time in their lives. Mass Media is a key idea in one of the factors of socialization that become important to teenagers. Teenagers look to the media for a sense of entertainment. Whether it is movies, magazines, or even some aspects of social media, teenagers get a lot of influence from the media’s message. The problem with this is the media has a specific way of doing things and can be negative to a susceptible teenage girl. Media’s way of portraying a woman can be skewed and unrealistic way from what reality is. Teenage girls then have a desire for this look or way. In this essay the three ways I will describe as to why the media can negatively affect a teenage girls body image is by showing

In the article, “The Negative Effects of the Media on Body Image” by Esther Vargas, there were several issues discussed about the negative effects that media has on body image in society. Many girls

Under society’s norms for decades, young women have been put under the pressure and anticipation to have perfect bodies. That is, thin and curved, beautified by applying pounds of the makeup to their face but not appear ridiculously overdone. Who’s responsible for these standards imposed on young women? When a young girl picks up the model along the cover of Vogue being called flawless, it’s easy for her to then aspire to be a real-life imitation of the photocopy. These companies produce magazine covers shown with girls’ images daily. As if keeping the perfect body wasn’t hard enough our culture also forces girls into the forever expanding world of composition, however, body image is a pressing issue for young women. Advertisements and posters of skinny female models are all over. Young girls not only could be better but need to be more upright and feel driven to throw the perfect figure. Moreover, girls are evaluated and oppressed by their physical appearances. With supplements and apparel designed to enhance a facial expression; social media, magazines, and marketing campaigns and advertisements add to the burden of perfection. The fashion industry is a prime object of body image issues, as they believe clothes look better on tall and svelte women. Established on a survey participated by 13 to 17-year-old in the U.S., 90% “felt pressured by fashion and media industries to be skinny”, with more than 60% routinely compares themselves to models, while 46%

My sister is eleven, and is slightly overweight. Up until a year ago she never had a problem with her body image, she was content with the way that she looked. However, recently she has brought up questions regarding her weight and if she looks okay. It has become evident that she is no longer okay with her body, and her self-image. Over the past year her Internet and television use has dramatically gone up, and her self-esteem has equally gone down. The ads shown in media portray women in a way that my sister, along with many adolescent girls, cannot identify with; they draw from stereotypical understandings, and fail to represent healthy girls. The media, and lack of sexual education for kids, ultimately leads to eating disorders,

Researchers have discovered that “ongoing exposure to certain ideas can shape and distort our perceptions on reality.” (Mintz 2007) Because young girls are subjected to a constant display of beautiful people in the media, they have developed a negative body image of themselves. Those who have a negative body image perceive their body as being unattractive or even hideous compared to others, while those with a positive body image will see themselves as attractive, or will at least accept themselves and be comfortable in their own skin. During adolescence, negative body image is especially harmful because of the quick changes both physically and mentally occurring during puberty. Also, young girls are becoming more and more exposed to the media and the media keeps getting more and more provocative. Young girls are looking to women with unrealistic body shapes as role models. It’s hard to find, in today’s media, a “normal” looking

Body Image and the Media have an effect on women and young teens these days, the Internet is every girl’s go to place to find the new trends and how they should be looking these days. The media portrays women as having to be thin and to dress a certain way. In this essay it is going to mainly be directed to women and young teens of all ages, considering women of all ages tend to follow what others have to say about them, when in reality something’s that people have to say aren’t always nice. Most women are so self-concise about who they are, that they tend to put themselves down, and start causing self-harm. While people should just over come the media and stop worrying about what they have to portray about how women should look and dress, because the real issue is that as the media progresses women start to question their bodies more and more each day, they start to ask questions like should we

Body image is an important topic for many children and teenagers. How a person feels about themselves greatly influences how happy they are and how they interact with others. While a child’s body image can be influenced

We live in a media-saturated world especially, in western society that provides a significantly influential context for people to learn about body ideals and the value placed on attractiveness that influences the way they perceive themselves. Media invades our lives through television, radio, magazines, newspapers, cinema, advertisements and internet and is very influential on vulnerable adolescents who cannot distinguish what is real and what is not Lopez-Guimera, Levine, Sanchez-Carracedo, & Fauquet, (2010). Mass media contributes to the promotion of the thin ideal as a way to achieve social approval, recognition, and success; in addition, it promotes dieting and food restriction as a socially agreeable practice. In America, body dissatisfaction has reached normative levels among girls and young women. Approximately 50% of girls and undergraduate women report being dissatisfied with their bodies, these perceptions begin at an early age of 7 and exist

As young women go through puberty, they begin to mature both physically and emotionally. Particularly, women begin to gain weight when they undergo puberty. Throughout their adolescence, women are exposed to harsh opinions others have on their bodies and how they should carry themselves. Most importantly, women are exposed to society’s values through the use of media. Women begin to value their body image and force themselves to conform to society’s idea of the “perfect body”. Personally, I think of body image as a trouble of mine because I struggle to come to terms with not having a flawless figure. Each day, I see women on social media with unrealistically perfect bodies. After being so exposed to the media’s opinion of a good physique,

Negative body image has become a pandemic which has spread to nearly every country. This affliction knows no boundaries, limitations, or prejudices. Cases of this issue can be found in all age groups, socioeconomic levels, races, ethnicities, and genders. The causes of this affliction can be pinpointed to the mass media, familial pressures, and the ever changing standards of beauty.

While waiting for basketball workouts to start, Candace P looked herself up and down thinking to herself that she didn’t look the part to play with the veterans in the gym for the cause that she was a bit overweight not to mention she some new basketball appeal because everything she had was old gear. Candace began to lace up her new under armour sneakers that her grandma just brought her. “HORN!” the buzzer goes off on the shot clock to aware the players that work outs were about to begin. Everyone approaches the line waiting to get picked for teams. While standing off to the side, and as players and being selected CP realized that she had not been chosen yet. Finally, Candace was the last person to be selected to play. As a couple scrimmages go by CP begins to understand that maybe if just took the time to put in work, instead of wasting the time she used to think negatively about herself maybe she will feel better and begin to speak highly of herself.

The importance of the body image and what is considered to be the ‘ideal’ body are two of the primary factors that contribute to the negative affect of the media on the teenage society of today.