Media images of unrealistic body images have always been communicated through TV commercials, magazines, billboards, and many other advertisements. The latest method of advertisement and communication is social media. Social media was introduced in 2004. It allows users to create profiles, find lost friends and loved ones, and also share pictures and videos. In today 's world, social media is the main form of communication among young people. The latest controversy in social media is the negative effect that it is having on young women’s body image. Young women always feel the need to be accepted by their peers. They want to always appear to be beautiful with a model typed figure and perfect face but at what cost? These women are …show more content…
These are the women that are likely to go through extremes trying to achieve the “acceptable look”. These days there are so many things that a women can do to make herself more beautiful. Women with low self esteem are more likely to buy and wear more make up, to enhance the beauty in their face, extensions to enhance the length or thickness of their hair, and contact lens to change the color of their eyes. Unfortunately it doesn’t stop there. One of the current trends on social media is called the Kylie Jenner Challenge. Kylie Jenner is a television reality star with what are considered very full beautiful lips. This trend challenges teens to swell their lips to massive sizes using bottles or shot glasses. To complete the challenge the participants place their mouth in anything with a narrow opening, and suck as hard as they can until your lips swell to achieve what’s called the “bee-sting pout”. Young girls and women then take to facebook, instagram, and twitter to post their results, Many regretting their decision. This challenge causes extensive bruising and bleeding of the lips. There are also waist trainers to help form a smaller waist, some women even where padded panties to give the illusion of a bigger butt to resemble Kim Kardashian. These are just some of the things that support the
Social media has a big influence on this generation when it comes to “body image.” Many women, or “models,” will post pictures of themselves showing off their body with thousands of likes and many comments saying “body goals” or “I wish I looked like that.” This
Due to the increase in popularity of social media, today’s generation is bombarded with unrealistic standards when it comes to beauty. When young people today first turn on their cellphones, more often than not, they refer to a social media site. Whether it’s the ever-popular Instagram, where people can post pictures and followers can “like” to show their approval or post comments. Or, whether it’s Twitter, where people can post witty or inspiring or informational things for their followers to see and can be retweeted or favourited. Or they could click on the little blue Facebook icon, where all of the above can happen. These are some of the most popular social media outlets today because young people are
Body image dissatisfaction has always been prevalent, however, with social media now, the chances of insecurities are even higher. The media only compounds the problem, bombarding society with what they define as acceptable and beautiful. When females go out looking for acceptance, they will always fail because it’s impossible to please everyone. “All of this could feel overwhelming, and it would certainly be a lot easier if we really could purchase social acceptance and a positive
Throughout history, body image has been determined by various factors, one of them being the media. In the article “How Social Media Is a Toxic Mirror,” written by Rachel Simmons, she shares the story of a woman who admits to being afraid of leaving her apartment without putting on makeup. “I don’t get to choose how I’m going to leave my apartment today,” one young woman told me, “If I could, my body would look different. But I cant choose which picture makes my arms look thinner” (Simmons). One word: Fear. The woman fears the opinion of others. She second guesses herself before she steps foot outside her apartment building. It displays the lack of confidence she has towards herself as an individual and the control the media has over her. The author goes on to discuss how teenagers look up to social media by obsessing over how many likes
(Weiner 2) Claire Mysko an award winning author and expert on body image, leadership and media literacy explains: “While social media is not the cause of low self-esteem, it has all the right elements to contribute to it. Social media creates an environment where disordered thoughts and behaviors really thrive”. (Weiner 2) For most young women with constant use and easy accessibility social media can become an addiction and the ability to become outlet that can either build up / destroy women’s self-esteem. A recent survey of more than 1000 girls in the United States ages 8-17 sponsored by the dove self- esteem fund, showed that 7 in 10 girls surveyed believed that when it came to issues including beauty and body image they did not “measure up.” Only 10 percent found themselves to be “pretty enough.”(Sweeney 3) Among women over 18 looking at themselves in the mirror, research indicates the at least 80% are unhappy with that they see. (Fox 5) We are society literally obsessed with being beautiful. Unfortunately female dissatisfaction with appearance or a poor body image being at an early. The latest survey show that young girls are going on diets because they think they are fat and unattractive. (Fox 5) In one American survey 81 % of ten year old girls had already dieted at least once. (Fox 5) By 13 at least 50% of girls are
M. (2014). Social Media Effects on Young Women’s Body Image Concerns: Theoretical Perspectives and an Agenda for Research. Sex Roles, 71(11-12), 363-377.
“When all you see is a body type that only two percent of the population has, it’s difficult to remember what’s real and what’s reasonable to expect of yourself and everyone else.” This was stated by Arielle Cutler, who studied the recent effects social media has on the female body image. Not only has media made women feel insecure about their bodies but it pinpoints exactly what bothers them. It could be weight, skin problems, height, and even a clothing style. The media sends subliminal messages into a female’s brain that makes them think they need to reach the expectations of what they read on the internet and in magazines or what they see on television (TV). The pressure a female is put under to become the “ideal woman” is detrimental to their health, not only physically but also mentally. The images of beauty are unrealistic and are constantly changing, making it hard to keep up with the latest body trend.
Unrealistic female body image is a widely discussed subject. Our culture portrays women as thin and beautiful. Having these qualities supposedly allows her to be wealthy, as well as successful. Thin, beautiful women are portrayed in movies, on television and in magazines. These expectations only lead to a woman having a poor body image. (Ettarh, R. 2009) Glamorized images of young women can attribute to low self-esteem in teenage girls. They are exposed to peer pressure every day. They are rated by their peers according to how they are dressed and if they are stylish, as well as thin. Models are tall and thin. The majority of teenage girls do not fit that description. Their bodies are still developing and changing. Older women also
Many theories have been presented on how the media is the most pervasive source in shaping our perception of body image. As presented by the author Kasey L. Serdar in the Article, Female Body Image and the Mass Media: Perspectives on How Women Internalize the Ideal Beauty Standard, the media can consciously or unconsciously affect our vision of the ideal body through, mainly displaying women who meet the socialcultural standard of beauty, or by simply referring to the represented ideal body image as a reference point in constructing their objective body. This controlling source affects us to the extent of changing; our culture's perception by creating a society obsessed with appearance, our economy
There is no denying that social media: Instagram and Tumblr, has a significant influence on all of us. The current effects of social media have increased dramatically among young women aged between 15 and 25. As stated in the study by (Grabe, Ward, & Hyde, 2008) that the high exposure to social media portraying the thin-ideal body may be linked to body image disturbance in young women. They used a meta-analysis examined experimental and correlation studies testing the links between media exposure to young women's body dissatisfaction and the unconscious behavior towards having a thin ideal body. The results by (Grabe, Ward, & Hyde, 2008) support the claim that high exposure to social media images depicting the thin-ideal body is related to
Unfortunately for young women, they must live up to the ideals of what society expects. One way society implicates itself and its standards onto women is through social media. Social media affects women’s body image of themselves through unrealistic and phony pictures. Our textbook clarifies that “It is estimated that the average woman is exposed to thousands of advertisements a day…” (Shaw 222). Through advertisements, videos, and various other forms of social media that all have the underlying message of what society expects women to represent, which is an object of impossible attainment. Shaw states in the textbook, “Corporate powers, advertising, and the fashion, cosmetics, and entertainment industries all help create standards for us…” (Shaw 222). All of these aspects of social media confronting and condemning women’s body image, leads to unreasonable expectations for women to uphold.
In today’s society, the public is exposed to technology at even younger ages than ever before. Everywhere you go these days you see kids even as little as three holding their parent’s phones or even their own, watching videos or playing games. But as said in the article Does Social media impact on body image by Philippa Roxby, as kids start becoming teenagers their technological uses advance and they start to rely on social media sites for new sources of communication, and their main channel to the outside world. Based on studies conducted by psychologists they have come up with a conclusion that social media has a direct relationship to body image concerns. I believe that in today’s society we should focus on promoting self-confidence as most of the adolescents have a very low assurance of their own bodies. Although a study conducted in the article The Upside of Selfies: Social media isn’t all bad for kids by Kelly Wallace says that a survey which resulted in 52% of the teens saying that social media positively influences them. Even though social media platforms have some beneficial aspects such as they make people want to go on diets, exercise, and eating healthy, the teenagers don’t really look/understand the negative aspects of it. The impacts that are carried with social media are mostly negative such as fancying teenagers to lose confidence in themselves and has become a toxic mirror to them. The visual platforms impact
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%
We live in a technological world and a society that is ruled by social media because anywhere and anytime that we are, we have our laptops, iphones, or ipads. We are constanly chasing and running from all different directions in order to catch up on what’s going on in social media such to find out how many “likes” and how many “followers does Kim Kardashian has?.” With that being said, our society have redefined beauty based on how much “likes” a person received on their Instagram pictures, a number on a scale, a premanufactured clothing size, an hourglass shape, slender thighs, or victoria’s secrect models. The society’s standards of beauty are unrealistic and impossible to achieve. As a result, unrealistic beauty standards affect girls
Today’s technology creates platforms that make accessing media, images, social groups and more, tremendously easy. While the efficiency that come with technology has many benefits, many psychologists are concerned about the impact it could have on adolescent and young adult’s body image and self-perception. There are immense amounts of studies on the impacts of the traditional media, television and magazines, however, the social media platform has vastly grown and research is limited to a few specific social media platforms. The traditional media enforces unrealistic body standards, that women feel obligated to follow, to fit in with society (Brown, Tiggemann, 2016). While it is known that traditional media has impacts on body image, there has not been as much research toward celebrity, peers and other effects on women from social media usage.