The Effects of Media on the Body-Image of Preadolescent Girls

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).

The media plays a major role in the way our society sets certain standards and forms opinions. No matter where we go, the media is everywhere. The message that the media illustrates today is that “thin is in”. When was the last time you flipped through a magazine or through the television channels without seeing some type of advertisement promoting a new diet or new product being promoted by a super thin model or actress? Young girls are the main targets for new products. It is common for young girls to be obsessed with what is “in”. The message that young girls are getting from the media is that having bones sticking out is the way to look. They then become preoccupied with their bodies and self image. “ The exposure to ideal images coincides with a period in their lives where self regard and self efficacy is in decline, where body image is at its most fragile due to physical changes of puberty and where tendency for social comparison is at its peak” (www.eating-disorders.org.uk/docs/media.doc). The media illustrates to young girls an “idealized” shape which leads to being beautiful, popular, successful, and loved but which is not realistic to have unless you have the “idealized” shape. Therefore, they believe that their lives will be perfect as long as they are thin and have the “idealized” shape. The two main sources of media that reach young girls are television and magazines.

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.,

The culture of media has now taken a large affect on young girls and their body images. Young girls are feeling dissatisfied with their bodies because of the way society views women. The media tells us what to look like, what clothes to wear, make-up, what cars to drive, and sometimes what to eat. Media is changing people constantly through advertising and by showing us the looks and fashions of celebrities. Advertising has negative effects on the formation of oneself as seen through the nature of the promotion of its’ products. This effect is particularly prevalent among young adolescent girls. Young girls feel the need to join dietary plans or result to eating disorders Advertising in society results in negative effects on girls through self-image that leads to harmful consequences. The media is the biggest factor contributing to girls’ dissatisfaction with their bodies, causing eating disorders.

(Heubeck 2006) For many young people, especially girls, the ideal continues to chase them as they grow into young women. Young girls begin to internalize the stereotypes and judge themselves by media’s impossible standards. The power that the media holds in impacting the lives of young girls is detrimental and eventually affects their body image, their satisfaction of their own body, and portrayal of their body as an object.

Due to young women being constantly indoctrinated by being told how to look and act, it is no surprise that effects on a young woman’s body-image are primarily psychological. Within the group of young women, adolescent girls are targeted when it comes to thin-ideals and negative body-images. Throughout many psychological studies, it has been noted that this is because a young girl’s body is going through many psychological and physiological changes that make them more vulnerable to a negative body-image. Bell and Dittmar describe why adolescent girls are more defenseless by saying, “ During adolescence, a primary psychological task faced is that of identity formation, and being socially accepted by one’s peers becomes

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

The world always believed that the media only effect n=body image in kids and while body dissatisfaction is more common among kids; it does affect adults. A study of 456 adolescents from both public and private school that ranged from 13 to 17 years old was done after giving the students an administrated physical and mental survey. The experiment showed that the average participate had already internalized the thin-ideal (Van Vonderen and William 48). It is almost impossible to escape the influence of the media and children are being exposed to these portrayals earlier and earlier in

The media is an important aspect of the current society and is ever present to the public. With the creation of new technology, there are more and more ways the media can be received and displayed for people to see everywhere they go. There are so many media sights nowadays such as Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook, as well as new magazines, commercials and other media publications made every day that allow people to connect to current events and new trends. Although today’s media has the potential to have a positive or negative impact on the lives of the people, there have been many controversial debates on the impact of the media on the body dissatisfaction of young girls and adolescents. Body dissatisfaction can be described as “the negative self-evaluation of one’s own appearance and to be more physically attractive, and is fairly common in young girls and adolescents. Approximately one hundred studies of media effects on body dissatisfaction have been conducted with the majority of these showing at least some evidence,” (Ferguson, Munoz, Contreras, Velasquez). Many psychological experts and specialists have explored the effect of the media on developing female girls and adolescent body image to conclude whether it has a significant or insignificant impact on the body image of female adolescents and young girls.

Social media plays an immense role in the way that stereotypes about attractiveness is conveyed in regards to body image. As Gerbner and Gross wrote in 1976, the cultivation theory states that high frequency viewers of television are more susceptible to media messages and the belief that they are real and valid. The subjection to social media can cause an idealistic view amongst young girls and women alike. Among the mechanisms of human agency none is more central or pervasive than beliefs of personal efficacy (Bandura, 1997). This belief that these body types are achievable can lead to females being dissatisfied within their own skin. The result of the discontent can potentially lead to eating disorders. Body dissatisfaction occurs when views of the body are negative and involves a perceived discrepancy between a person 's assessment of their actual and ideal body (Cash and Szymanski, 1995 and Grogan, 2008). It is estimated that approximately 50% of adolescent girls report being unhappy with their bodies (Bearman, Presnell, & Martinez, 2006). Surveys have revealed that the exposure to social media can cause body dissatisfaction, eating disorder symptoms’ and the concept that thin is “beautiful” amongst young girls and women (Botta 1999; Harrison and Hefner 2006; and Stice et al. 1994). With media influence, the question is the strength of the effect, studies indicate the effects are small in scale; they are likely to operate in accordance with particular differences in

They also used a variety of materials to gain information such as T.V., magazines, pictures, and questions. In conclusion of this study, appearance satisfaction, self-esteem, and imitation of others decreased dramatically. The study also concluded that more exposure to media, decreased the appearance satisfaction in girls. For testing of desire for thinness, girls, as young as 6, were shown young female silhouette drawings, ranging from skinny to large shapes and asked which body shape would they like to have. This test was done once a year for two years in order to see if they would have a higher or lower rating of their body image as they aged. The experiment showed after a year their desire for thinness had a negative increase, but their satisfaction for body image was still relatively high. This may have been because the desire of thinness is not yet associated with their body image until older. In order to determine whether this is true or not, they needed to have a larger sample group with a variety of

In a paper titled “The Effect of the Media on Body Satisfaction in Adolescent Girls”, by Helen Champion and Adrian Furnham, they talk about just that. Many theorists believe that the media may play a central role in creating and exacerbating this specific phenomenon (Champion & Furnham, p. 214). Young girls especially are seeing these images for models and think that this is what their bodies should look like. There were a few clinical studies done that say that small exposure to media images increases the likely hood of body dissatisfaction in girls (Champion & Furnham, p. 215). Girls are overestimating the size of their bodies and it seems to be greater when subjects had been shown and were asked to rate the images of fashion models, as opposed to neutral images of rooms (Champion & Furnham, p. 215). Studies are being done still today, to prove that when young girls are seeing these images that it effects their thoughts on their own bodies, it ways you can expect. The findings that are presented in this paper show that adolescent girls suffer from feeling fate and want to be thinner, whether it be socially or self-imposed or both. There are a lot of factors that go into how girls look at their body, but a big one that really isn’t changing is how the media presents

The media has a strong influence on how girls view themselves and their peers. The media- magazines, television shows, music videos, billboards, etc- sends the message that the only way to look good and be happy is to be skinny (Kirchheimer). Girls who have a healthy weight feel uncomfortable with how they look and feel that they are not skinny enough to be accepted by society’s standards. “…at age thirteen, 53% of American girls are ‘unhappy with their bodies.’ This grows up to 78% by the time girls reach seventeen,” says J.J. Brumberg. (qtd. in National Institute on Media and the Family). This statistic is overwhelming; it is upsetting that young girls can not be comfortable in their own skin. According to D. Hargreaves, many thin models have a weight that is mistaken as the best way to be beautiful and causes young girls to have a low self esteem (qtd. in National Institute on Media and the Family). In order to get to this “perfect” weight, many girls fall to eating disorders to attain their desired weight. Unfortunately, this method of losing weight is unhealthy and extremely dangerous to the human body. These different methods include “fasting, skipping meals, excessive exercise, laxative abuse, and self-induced vomiting” (Media Awareness Network). The fact that girls go to these extremes to get thin is scary and heartbreaking. This is why the media needs to send a more positive message about body image to young girls.

Countless studies have argued that media is one of the main sources of body dissatisfaction and negative body image. Media exposure is largely related to body image attitudes among female adolescents which can lead to poor body image and attempting to control their weight (Rodgers, 2017). On the other hand, the media consumption rate of 2- to 6-year-old girls has been associated with obesity as well as being overweight (Rodgers, 2017). It has been found that children as young as 2-years-old can spend up to as much as 6 hours a day exposed to television or some form of the mass media (Dohnt, 2006). This reveals that now children are consuming media at an earlier age and in higher amounts. Besides this, in the age range of 7- to 9-year-old girls, the relationship between media exposure and positive stereotypes related to thinness has been associated with celebration of the thin ideal and disordered eating habits (Rodgers, 2017). Girls themselves even agree that media influences them to be slimmer and agree even more with the

A girl stares at herself in the mirror, skin and bones. She obsesses about her appearance and monitors how much she eats to be accepted by society, but still feels unworthy. As teenagers develop, their bodies change. Media strongly affects these physical and emotional changes. Girls become uneasy as they learn that they cannot actually achieve the look that society views as perfect. Since media outlets consist of impractical body standards, adolescent girls are at a higher risk of undergoing detrimental changes to their body shape and developing a hostile self-image.