Answer A Question

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.