Teenage Girls and Body Image Essay

Her research reviewed 21 studies of the media’s affect on more than 6,000 girls, 10 years or older. The results showed that the more the girls were exposed to the fashion magazines, the more they struggled to have a positive body image. (L2)

Through out society many teens and young women have been scrutinized for their bodies and appearance. Media is one of the leading contributor. Media has led to the sexualization and body image issues in teens and women. As the media idealizes women as a miniature size 0 with long blonde hair and blue eyes, it leads to the loss in self esteem. Every girl wants to look like Megan Fox, with her great body and good facial structure. Reality is we can't all look like that and it's what women, call "winning the genetic lottery".

Media has become a significant component within society. While media provides many pros, it supplies various cons as well. One very prominent fault that the significance of media has is its visual depiction of women. There is an abundance of media portraying women to have ideal bodies, and this undoubtedly has a negative effect on adolescent girls. Two of the many effects of media on females are depression and self esteem issues, as well as eating disorders. Unfortunately, body dissatisfaction caused by media is becoming more and more common.

In the article, “The Negative Effects of the Media on Body Image” by Esther Vargas, there were several issues discussed about the negative effects that media has on body image in society. Many girls

"Only 5% of women in the United States naturally posses the body type portrayed in the media."( ) Everyday young women and teens are surrounded by media, whether it's magazines, television, radio, or newspapers. The media has a big impact on our every day lives and can take a negative toll. Teens and young women look up to the women that they see and hear about in media. They see different haircuts, outfits, and different body types that influence them, and the people in charge of media know this. The media portrays dangerous and unrealistic ideals of women's bodies that can be life threatening for them. This could ultimately lead to eating disorders, depression, and or unnecessary cosmetic surgery.

Demi Lovato once said, “I’m not going to sacrifice my mental health to have the perfect body.” However, today we find that many individuals are doing the completely opposite. In Susan Bordo’s, “Globalization of Eating Disorders” essay, they fall into the media trap, the self-image trap, where they are concerned of what people may think about them. Americans nowadays have pageants, modeling, and media to thank for this absurd notion. Fit women, along with strong men give this motivation to others to want to be like them. Most people should be comfortable with their own bodies. Americans are mesmerized with media and enthralled by one’s body image, and ,as a result, face ramifications like eating disorders and anorexia.

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.

Eleven million women in the United States suffer from eating disorders- either self-induced semi-starvation (anorexia nervosa) or a cycle of bingeing and purging with laxatives, self-induced vomiting, or excessive exercise (bulimia nervosa) (Dunn, 1992). Many eating disorder specialists agree that chronic dieting is a direct consequence of the social pressure on American females to achieve a nearly impossible thinness. The media has been denounced for upholding and perhaps even creating the emaciated standard of beauty by which females are taught from childhood to judge the worth of their own bodies (Stephens & Hill, 1994). To explore the broader context of this controversial issue, this paper draws upon several aspects on how the media

A novel on the causes of eating disorders says, “Typically, media images often portray unrealistic images of both males and females. Those individuals portrayed often represent a statistical minority or are engaged in extraordinary (and potentially harmful) behaviors to achieve this ideal body type” (Selby). Pictures of models and celebrities observed in the media show practically unachievable physiques, but the world seems to define beauty and health based off their thin statures. On the contrary, these physiques are actually rather unhealthy. The UK National Centre For Eating Disorders says, “The ideal body size epitomized by ‘Gerri Halliwell’ ‘Posh Spice’ or ‘Ally Mcbeal’ is unrealistically thin, their body mass index (BMI) is on the borders of what a clinician would regard as anorexic” (Jade). When the people and bodies teens are idealizing are at the level of anorexia, it is no doubt that they will resort to extreme methods to achieve what is an extremely thin, abnormal size. Studies show that exposure to these body standards may lead to eating disorders. Pediatrics and Child Health says, “Body image was significantly more negative after viewing thin media images than after viewing images of either average size models, plus size models, or inanimate objects. This effect was found to be stronger in woman younger than 19 years of age” (Morris). After

(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.

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 female body image is highly influenced by the mass media and the media’s portrayal of women, ‘70% of college women say they feel worse about their own looks after reading women’s magazines’ (University of Massachusetts & Stanford University, 2006), the portrayal of women in the media has an unrealistic approach and brings out body dissatisfactions and this results in eating problems and disorders.

The media affects body image. Teens compare themselves to pictures and celebrities on the internet, and become more aware of how they fit in. On social media, people say mean things that they would never say to your face. Also, most commercials only use models to sell their products, which makes teens wish they looked like them.

“It doesn’t matter what you look like on the outside, its what’s on the inside that matters”. We hear sayings such as this all the time, yet we live in a society that contradicts this idea all day. There is no doubt that due to media, the way teens see themselves has changed. The media is setting unrealistic beauty standards, which influences everyone, and this is having a derogatory effect on adolescents. The effect of media on teenagers is appalling. These beauty standards are negatively affecting teenage girls as well as teenage boys. Also, due to the prominence of this issue, man aspects of media are also launching several efforts to fix this