Tatiana Pacheco-John
English 1100
Professor Dilbeck
Women all over are concerned about
the way they look. There is no doubt that woman would do anything to be
prettier or skinnier. This doubt in how we appear to other people is caused by
many things but looking deep into it, there are magazines, movies, television,
and advertisements that could be the cause to women’s diminishing body image.
The media has views on the way a woman should look, act, and live. Although it
may all seem to be a little problem, the media has affected many women to where
they must live in a world of constant comparison.
Body image is a complicated aspect
of the self-concept that concerns an individual’s perceptions and feelings
about their body and physical appearance (Cash and Pruzinsky, 2002). In the
past one hundred years the image of women has changed tremendously. Women were
once considered beautiful if they had a curvier body. In many recent studies
women have reported to have loss self-esteem and self-worth when looking at magazines
and seeing the many articles that recommend others on how to save money on
healthy foods, or get the best body by summer. The media is continuously
programming women that they must be a size two, tall, blonde, blue eyed, and
Caucasian. The little things we do not notice in these models are that they are
usually underweight, suffering from disorders, and have been demoralized for
the chance in the spotlight. Yet women who look at these magazines idolize the
women that are portrayed to them and see them as “perfect”. In all actuality though, only a very small
percentage of women in Western countries meet the criteria the media uses to
“define beautiful” (Dittmar and Howard, 2004; Thompson and Stice, 2001). Society
is still unsure on how these images actually affect women’s satisfaction with
their physical appearance.
The
media has created an image in which we must obtain and if we do not obtain it,
it will be impossible to feel like you’re fitting in. It is proven that women
are constantly comparing themselves to their peers in order to make the
judgment if they are better or worse. The mass media has created this image
that women always seem to fall short of. The media has a way of persuading
women to buy their product in order for them to meet the ideal standard that
they are supposed to meet. Women who
believe they are going to achieve beauty buy the product and end up with
disappointment due to the fact they don’t look the way they were promised by
the silly advertisements. Tiggerman and McGill (2004) found that women
participants’ brief exposure to media images of females led to increased levels
of body dissatisfaction and weight anxiety (Serdar, 2005)
From the young age of nine, young
girls are starting to worry if they are fat or if they are considered beautiful
to society. Body image is an important factor in a young girl’s life. Girls in
mid-adolescence frequently report being dissatisfied with weight, fearing
further weight gain, and being preoccupied with weight loss (Streigal-Moore and
Franko, 2002).The obsession with the body at such a young age can cause future
dissatisfactions with oneself and can lead to health problems such as depression, anxiety, and low self-esteem. The
effects of negative body image can later lead to more serious issues. Numerous
studies have verifies that one’s subjective evaluation of their own appearance
can have a powerful impact on a person’s development and psychosocial
experiences (Butters And Cash, 1987). There is also no doubt that distorted
body image can also lead to disordered eating and dieting such as anorexia and
bulimia. The estimates of disordered eating are about 10% of American girls
ages 15 to 29 could be considered anorexic or bulimic. With the increasing
number of females reporting disturbed body image and engaging in dieting
behavior, there has been a significant level of concern about the increasing
incidence of eating disorders (Serdar, 2005). The successes of diets are little
to none. The reason being is that women believe that a pill or powder will work
in order to burn the fat away. The media produces millions of diet ads a year and
make women believe that we must meet a certain standard and obtain it. The one
thing they do not know is that they are creating a world of people who compare
themselves to each other every day.
Body
image is the one of the most important thing to a person. Every day we clearly
judge people on looks and the way they present themselves but as we can see
media has a large influence on our community. We give in to the impact of the
way the media wants us to feel. America gives in to the influence and we end up
with the media controlling our society but most of all, controlling women.
Women are given such large expectations that they eventually give in to the
wants of the media. Our appearance and how we feel we look have a large impact
on our lives so much that we go through so much trouble to be happy with it.
Works Cited
Butters, J. W., and T. F. Cash. Cognitive-Behavorial
Treatment of Womens Body Image Dissatisfaction. N.p.: n.p., n.d. 889-97.
Print.
Cash, T. F., and T. Pruzinsky. Body Image: A Handbook of
Theory, Research, and Clinical Practice. New York: Guilford, n.d.
Print.
Dittmar, H., and S. Howard. The Impact of Models Body Size
on Advertising Effectiveness and Women's Body-focused Anxiety in Professions
That Do and Do Not Emphasize the Cultural Ideal of Thinness. N.p.: n.p.,
2004. N. pag. Print.
Franko, D. Body Image Issues among Girls and Women. By
R. Striegel-Moore. N.p.: Guilford, n.d. 183-91. Print.
Orbach, Susie. "Losing Bodies." N.p., n.d. Web.
Serdar, Kasey L. "Female Body Image and the Mass Media:
Perspectives on How Women Internalize the Ideal Beauty Standard." N.p.,
n.d. Web.
Thompson, J. K., and E. Stice. Thin Ideal Internalization:
Mounting Evidence for a New Risk Factor for Body Image Disturbance and Eating
Pathology. N.p.: n.p., 2001. Print.
