Skinny: The Stereotypes Of Young Girls

Even though media vaunts an iridescent image of what every girl should look like, the simple fact is just, it is impossible. It is because the pictures in the media are not true—they all have gone through lots of Photoshop. Only 5 percent of women have the body type seen in almost all advertisements. Besides, most of fashion models are thinner than 98 percent of American women. However, women still continue to do whatever they can in order to fit into that idea of ‘perfection’. Eating disorders have harassed who want to feel like they are ‘beautiful’, for years. Women are willing to do anything even though it can cause harm to their own self due to low self-esteem. Do you want your sister, friends or girl friends always feel depressed and doing harm to themselves, as they feel dissatisfied about their

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.

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.

Why does the media use Photoshop? The internet, magazines, television, and advertisements in any public or private places uses Photoshop to create an illusion of what a perfect girl or person is. The photoshop the media is used to erases cellulite of the models and cuts parts of their body to make them thinner. But some people may say they might not like seeing someone fat or a more realistic picture because it would make them feel bad. The problem in that is these younger or naive girls are being affected and feeling bad about these unrealistic pictures of these super skinny models. Using photoshop is creating illusions of these models that look anorexic and if the media used something more realistic they would realize they are normal and not need to drastically lose weight, go tanning or whiten their teeth. Ashley Brown said “Photoshop has the power to manipulate appearances beyond recognition.” She writes in an scholar article how Photoshop can change appearances in a

Today’s society is a consumers’ society in which trying to obtain perfection is one of the fastest selling businesses (DeLaMater Pg. 12). Mass media, advertising, and fashion industries are being accused of feeding off females dissatisfaction with their bodies by portraying unhealthy thin role models in order to sell their products. This unachievable physique and lifestyle has led today’s adolescence down a dark path of such extreme eating disorders as anorexia and bulimia. Although it may sound nice to be societies perception of thin, there are consequences to these eating disorders such as cardiac failure that lead to horrifying defects or even death.

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%

Model’s work so hard to have the perfect body for magazines and other things but it is not enough for people they have to photoshop everything that is natural for a girl and it makes girls self conscious about themselves. The interest in this topic is that this is a serious problem,girls should be proud of there body but people think that if a girl is fat then that girl does not care and if a girl is too skinny that girl is trying too hard. In the 1840’s people were fat because it showed that that person was wealthy and could eat a lot, and if a person is skinny you could not afford to eat. But by the 1920’s dieting and calorie counting were apart of daily life. There is way too much pressure on girls to have the perfect body because girls think they are not as pretty as the girls in magazines, society is also the problem because society thinks if a girl is not skinny that girl is not pretty, they always try to change girls because nothing is

Girls, and women, feel as though they have this rigid criteria they must fit into regarding their body image due to the influence of the media.

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

As defined by Merriam-Webster, the definition of Photoshop is as follows: “to alter (a digital image) with Photoshop software or other image-editing software especially in a way that distorts reality (as for deliberately deceptive purposes)”. Even the definition states that Photoshop distorts reality, yet girls still think that models have the ideal body image. The real reality is that models set an unattainable and unrealistic way for girls to look like. In “No Model For Girls” by Fiona Bawdon, the author explores how models and Photoshop can negatively affect adolescent girls body image. The author states that, “magazine images are routinely airbrushed: thighs slimmed, wrinkles smoothed and blemishes removed” (29). How are adolescent girls not supposed to feel self-conscious and compare themselves to models when, in with a touch of Photoshop, models can look skinnier, have a flawless face, and appear more beautiful? Another startling statistic that was in the same study conducted by Marium Javaid and Iftikhar Ahmad, was that “actresses and models had 10-15% less body fat whereas the average body fat for healthy women is 22-26%” (30). This displays just how extremely thin and unrealistic these models are. The body fat for a healthy woman is 22-26%, yet girls still see themselves as fat and continue to try and lose weight. This trend is growing more popular in today’s society, however, girls need to understand the importance of not comparing their own bodies to other people. It is an unnecessary and potentially harmful comparison to

As you’re walking down a street you may notice a young group of girls or women walking and they see a huge billboard of a beautiful model. They might stop and stare at her and then discuss about her perfect her body is. Not knowing in the next five minutes they’ll be comparing their bodies to the model and feeling bad about themselves wishing that they had her body. Not to mention, that the photo may be photoshopped to make it seem as her body is perfect, or she had plastic surgery to fit the idea of having the perfect body. The fact that the media thinks they’re encouraging young girls and women to embrace their beauty, they’re influencing them that they have to have a perfect body in order to get attention. The media has put a lot of pressure on young girls and women to look perfect and second guess their bodies, when plastic surgery is never the answer to build their self-esteem up.

Self-esteem plays a big part of body image. People have to feel good about themselves and be comfortable in their own skin to be happy. In today's world, it feels almost impossible to be happy, this generation is all about the media which makes having self-esteem 10x harder. Millions of pictures are posted of expectations of how women should look. In an article written by Pavica Sheldon, she states that ”The average American woman is 5’4 and 140 pounds, whereas the average female model portrayed in the media is 5’11 and 120 pounds”. Women are placed into a box telling them they have to look a certain way and if they don't they're simply not good enough. Besides being put into a category women numerously get called nasty names like slut or whore if they show too much. Piggy and fatty if they're overweight. Or “stick” if she's too skinny. Nothing is ever good enough is what it feels like. For example, Kylie Jenner, if you grew up watching “Keeping up with the Kardashians” you know how she looked before all the plastic surgery she got done, she now looks completely different. An account wrote, “What are they giving Kylie?” and someone quoted the tweet and said plastic. So even if women try to fix their imperfections they still get shamed down for it by calling them fake.

To stop the negative impact of Photoshop on teenagers, photographers should only use Photoshop for the good of photography and not to give false images of the social norm. In opposition, many would state that Photoshop provides beauty and promotes financial in marketing. The primary objective is to get money for false looks. American culture is highly obsessed with beauty. Everywhere you go there are advertisements and misleading images. Whether it’s for models or food alterations are used to sell the image. Models appearances on these photos are admired and sought after from the society. Jessica Walker stated in an interview “I do not think Photoshop is bad I use it to make my photos better, but I don’t like what people use it for...The user and its intentions are bad not the program itself”(Walker). The issue is defined as the images being presented giving a false perception. These photos have been tampered with by professionals, in which they think that their model is what society wants to see. Both genders are being affected by the medias view of body image. However, women and teenagers changed the most. Teenage girls have continuously been presented with images that they are supposed to look like, which is unrealistic images. Photoshop causes some teens to have self-esteem issues and many other disorders.

Over the years a debate over who is to blame over the decline in how girls perceive themselves has arisen. With Photoshop being the societal norm concerning the media, it has become difficult for many to understand where the line between real and near impossible standards lies. Youths see an image edited to “perfection” and strive to reach the standards that they imagine due to the images displayed on magazines, television and social media. From Disney to magazines like Vogue the mass media bombards audiences with fake beauty that they, as normal people, will never be able to achieve. The mass media is responsible for causing the rise in the number of people with a poor body image, eating disorders, and cosmetic surgeries.

With the media being a very popular way of communication and self expression in today’s culture, it influences the way of younger generations to be more involved in today’s technology, and to allow them to influence the world by the press of a button. But one of the topics that is very controversial is that in today’s society is the high expectations of what they think a girl has to look like, from girls not having stretch marks or scars, to magazines and photographers using photoshop to convince readers that the model looks like that. With all of these being factors that there is pressure is high for many girls around the world, this has to resolved.