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As a wise man once said, “To love yourself is to understand you don't need to be perfect to be good.” However young girls have so much pressure put on them to look in a way that is not only unrealistic but also unhealthy. As a result of this, young girls have a very negative body image and self-confidence.The problem is the unrealistic body standards that media and society have set for girls. According to SSCC, the average American woman is 5’4 and 140 pounds. There is a clear problem when the media is only advertising women that are 5’11 and 117 pounds, which is the average American model. Even though the body of a model is very rare and uncommon,girls are expected to look like they do. However, by promoting a positive body campaign, stopping the portrayal of fake and photoshopped models in the media, and expanding the diversity of models, we could lift unrealistic body standards and start accepting everybody as beautiful.

There are beauty standards all over the world, but America has one of the most highest and unreachable standard of the all. In the article “Whose Body is This,” the author Katherine Haines reflects the issue on how narrow-minded society, magazine and the rest of media is depicting the perfect body. The ideal body in America is established as skinny, tall, perfect skin, tight body are characteristics that destroyed majority of woman’s self esteem (172). As girls get older and into their teen years, they have been brainwashed to need to look like the unrealistic, and photoshopped models in magazines and advertisements. Girls don’t feel comfortable to be in their own skin, because they were not taught to love themselves for who they are right in the beginning.

Under society’s customs for decades, young women have found themselves immersed in the pressure and anticipation to have exemplary bodies. Nearly every young woman prefers to be slim, have a perfectly shaped body, that is beautified by applying pounds of makeup to their face but does not appear ridiculously overdone. Who’s responsible for these measures imposed on young women? When a young girl picks up the model on the cover of Vogue being called flawless, naturally it’s easy for her to then aspire to be a real-life imitation of the that model. 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 surging subject for young girls. Advertisements and pictures of lean female models are all over. Young women are measured and perplexed by their physical appearances with attire intended to raise their physical structures; social media, magazines, the society, marketing campaigns, advertisements, and the fashion gurus add to a strand of excellence.

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).

These young women feel an overwhelming need to make their bodies “better” in order to look like a model in a magazine. This may seem harmless, but it leads to young women turning to extremely excessive exercise routines and restricted eating in order to obtain their dream bodies (Fitzsimmons-Craft p. 144). Habits such as these lead to plenty of health problems, including dehydration, anorexia, and bulimia. The combination of body dissatisfaction and social comparison is toxic to young women’s physical and mental health.

In a 1992 study of female students at Stanford University, “70% of women reported feeling worse about themselves and their bodies after looking at magazines” (What’s the Problem?). By looking at this evidence, it can be concluded that stricter regulations need to be implemented as far as how sexuality is depicted in advertising in order to protect the young minds of women. Without the use of regulations, the small problem of objectification multiplies into many different disorders that are harder to fix than to simply stop the cause.

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%

The subject of this article are young girls, mainly who are in their teenage years, but also the parents of teenage girls. However, anyone can be impacted and learn from this article. This article questions why society drills the idea of thinness into the minds of people, and every reader can take a different stance and have a different opinion on the issue. Some people may take a stance and say that individuals, themselves, are the only influence on their body image. However, others may take the stance and say that society, as a whole, has a huge influence on an individual and their body image. The author of this article, Erica Goode, includes many quotes from parents of teenage girls, who feel as if they need to go to extreme measures to fit in with society. In this case, the author is creating the stance that society plays a role when it comes to influencing an individual. Goode also provides many

Accompanying unrealistic images of women, the media spends billions of dollars yearly to advertise the various techniques that eliminate body discontents such as dieting pills and exercising machines, and exploits female magazine reader’s insecurities. Whether magazine advertisements aid in the gradual depletion of body image or fail to impact it at all will be the purpose of this investigation, supplemented by a literature review and organized by a theoretical framework, to support a firm analysis.

These sexualized ads can provide a constant reminder for these young girls on what they ‘should’ look like. This image that is placed in a young girl’s head can leave lasting impressions on self-esteem. These self-esteem issues are becoming more widespread due to the reach of the ads targeting them. Since most American families have access to TV and the internet, this sexual content is constantly pushed towards them often without them even realizing. Along with the hyper-sexualization, the ads can also give these young girls examples of body types that may be physically unobtainable for

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

The message is being sent loud and clear that the body you were born with isn’t beautiful enough. Roder states that, “The average American encounters 3,000 advertisements every day, and spends a total of two years watching TV commercials in their lifetime.” These ads hunt down our self confidence like wolves, shining the light on six foot tall supermodels weighing only 120 pounds . According to the National Center for Health Statistics, the average weight for an American woman is 166.2 pounds, a number that many women see as overweight (False advertising, photoshopping mars our body image). The drastic difference between the reality of teenage bodies and media portrayals only adds to the escalating insecurity among American children. Teens who are insecure about their bodies are more likely to buy beauty and bodybuilding products, new clothes, and diet aids, spending anywhere between $40 and $100 billion (Beverly and Geraldine). For the past few years, much of the media has had its eye concentrated solely on women, this has changed since the 1990s. Young teenage boys have also been victims of unrealistic male physiques, such as the famous series of Calvin Klein underwear ads. (Ballaro, Wagner) Not only do we allow media images to tear

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 all…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

Therefore, the commendation of such look and shape commercializes unhealthy body image and procreates eating disorders. Unfortunately, at present the commercialism of a perfect body is encountered by almost everyone on everyday basis. The public is bombarded daily with images of glamorously thin women in commercials, on billboards, in movies in magazines and etc?According to Melanie Katzman, a consultant psychologist from New York, the media has actively defined the thin ideal as success and treats the body as a commodity. (Rhona MacDonald, 2001) It is evident that the persistent advocating of the media and the society produced a constant pursuit of thinness, which became a new religion. A study conducted by Harvard researchers has revealed the effect of media and magazines on adolescent girls in high schools. The children were exposed to fashion magazines and television commercials, and a while after were given self-rating surveys. The study found that sixty-nine percent of the girls said that magazine pictures

Because money is the primary concern, “corporations play on the insecurities of teens by making them believe that to be really ‘in’ they must have their product” (Berg 239). The idea of being alienated from peers is enough to motivate an impressionable young girl to purchase an advertised product solely to attempt fitting in with others. There has been a dramatic increase in eating disorders and distorted body image since the rise of media. “So great is the pressure to achieve a certain look, the percentage of girls in the United States who are ‘happy with the way I am’ drops from 60 percent in elementary school to 29 percent during high school because of the pressure to achieve a certain look” (Berg 268). Young girls and women are made to believe that “these beauty standards are actually empowering” (Douglas 214). By focusing heavily on looks as a determinant of self-worth, females have begun to believe that the words “sexy” and “strong” are synonymous. Sadly, few women are seeking strength and empowerment through focusing their energy in more positive places. The qualities that make a person good on the inside, such as intelligence and kindness, have been put on the back