Imagine you are walking out of school after another long and hot school day in June. You have plans to go to the beach with your friends later. You turn on your phone and see someone tagged you in a photo on Instagram. You open your Instagram to look at the photo and see someone has photoshopped warts and pimples all over a photo of you. As you continue walking everyone is turning and laughing at you, calling you ugly, saying you should go have plastic surgery. When you get home you go online and you find all these nasty comments on your social media accounts about how gross you are and even more doctored photos of you. What would you do. Girls have this happen to them all the time. 10,000 girls every month google “Am I Ugly?” The media portrays an unhealthy and unrealistic image of beauty in society. Due to the media's overall effect on the view of beauty in our society, females self-confidence in their body is affecting productivity and overall achievements in their lives. The view of beauty is also affecting the amount of teens suffering from eating disorders and while some may say that peer pressure affects the self-image of beauty more than the media, the image of beauty the peers are comparing them to stems from the media. Even though this still is, and will continue to be a large problem, many people are making an effort to create a solution.
A significant side effect of the way media affects body image perception is, low body confidence is undermining productivity and achievements. I know that when I have to talk in class i’m fine if it’s from my seat. As soon as this escalates to standing in front of the class, I’m almost immediately focused more on how the class sees me then what I'm actually presenting. When it comes time to public speak everyone sees me as someone who exudes self-confidence and is confident in their work. On the inside though, a war is raging about my appearance and how I will be judged based on how I look, rather then the information I’m giving. A study done in 2007 by a dedicated New York University Ph.D student found, 1 in 3 (33%) girls are withdrawing from classroom discussion and 1 in 5 (20%) girls don’t show up to class at all because they don’t want to draw attention to their appearance. Although, this seems like it would be because of their classmates, the image of beauty that the peers are comparing them to stems from the media's view of what’s sexy and beautiful. Even the most strong-willed person succumbs to the influence the media has on them and other industries. 17% of women would not show up to a job interview if they were feeling fat or ugly. Most people think body image perception only affects adolescents, but many adults suffer from a distorted view of beauty. I concluded this, the media is inadvertently causing people to miss out on learning, extracurricular, and job opportunities.
There are significant health concerns surrounding the issue. Due to the media: there are many body image disorders vast numbers of teens suffer from. While not the only ones, we will be covering the effects of 4 major disorders. Starting with bodydysmorphiadisorder, a disorder in which an individual's perception of his or her own body is radically disconnected from the objective reality of that individual's appearance. Take looking in a funhouse mirror, think of it as if that was what you saw in your mind whenever you looked in a mirror, even if that's not the case. Next we will discuss anorexia nervosa, a body image disorder characterized by distorted perceptions of oneself as overweight and a pathological aversion to gaining weight. This disorder causes a distorted image of oneself. Coincidentally causing shame, anxiety, and depression which in turn causes the victim to have self-destructive behaviors including self-starvation and obsessive exercise routines. Continuing, muscledysmorphia is A body image disorder characterized by affected individuals’ perceptions of themselves as lacking adequate muscularity.This body image can produce intense shame, anxiety, and depression, which in turn can drive sufferers to compulsive, often self-destructive eating, exercise, and steroid-abusing regimens. Because its symptoms mirror those of anorexia nervosa, it is sometimes referred to as “reverse anorexia” or “bigorexia”. The next disorder is bulimia nervosa which is a body image disorder characterized by affected individual’s perceptions of themselves as overweight. People who suffer from this disorder often feel shame, depression, and undergo cycles of binging and purging. When someone binges in this sense of the word they quickly consume large amounts of food, where as when someone purges, they empty the stomach through self-induced vomiting or the ingestion of laxatives. Clearly, the damaging of what real beauty is, is a huge health risk.
With significant credit to the staff of LiveScience, who have looked at a study done by Texas A&M International University, peer pressure creates a larger and more catastrophic deception of an individual's beauty then the media does. The study is of 237 Hispanic girls, ages 10 to 17. The girls were asked to name their three favorite TV shows and to rate the attractiveness of the female actresses in those shows, to measure their exposure to the Hollywood beauty ideal. Also, the researchers evaluated the girl's' body weight and height, social media use and peer competition, or feelings of inferiority in response to other girls. Then the participants were also asked how they felt about their bodies, whether they had any symptoms of an eating disorder and how satisfied they were with their lives. These evaluations were repeated in 101 of the girls six months later. The researchers found “TV exposure and social media use did not predict eating disorder symptoms nor did these factors predict body dissatisfaction, the researchers said. Peer competition, meanwhile, seemed to significantly influence body dissatisfaction and, in the long term, predict eating disorder symptoms,” While this does show that the girls were less affected themselves by the media and more by their peers, the industry in charge of showing products and enticing consumers is a large part of the media, affecting the perceptions of the peers.
Contradictory to the staff of Life Science beliefs, the modeling and fashion industries are a large part of the problem. Models have to hold on to the physical appearance the media portrays as most favorable so that they can continue to get jobs. Coincidentally making it appear that because celebrities and models look like this that must be what beauty is. This is important to remember because, whilst it shows that peer pressure can be a major part of the negative body image problem, the image the peers are comparing the girls to stems from the media's idealized image and overall export of products and industries. The mind is suffering from extreme amounts of exposure from birth, reprogramming the natural view of beauty, (Russel, 2012). The modeling and fashion industries put vast amounts of emphasis on women being extremely thin, having large breasts and butts, as well as being youthful.There is also emphasis on tall, slender figures, femininity, white skin. The summarized version of the modelings definition of beauty is a thin white women with large assets and no wrinkles. In 2007 a dedicated New York University student with a Ph.D.found that out of all 667 models in the U.S. that year only 27 weren’t white. That is less than 4% of all the models. This is not completely reflective of our society. Whilst many people are acceptant of other races, we still have many problems in our society involving race. A lot of them thrive because of the media’s involvement, or a lot of them fall ill to things negatively associated with the race. The media is one of the vastest stem factors of body image problems, but peers and family members are fruits of the problems. Remember this the next time you compare someone to something you saw in a magazine or another form of media.
Clearly this is a complex debate, however, it is also clear that the media portrays an unhealthy and unrealistic image of beauty in society. Due to the media's overall effect on the view of beauty in our society, females self-confidence in their body is affecting productivity and overall achievements in their lives. The view of beauty is also affecting the amount of teens suffering from eating disorders and while some may say that peer pressure affects the self-image of beauty more than the media, the image of beauty the peers are comparing them to stems from the media. While this will not be an easy fix, there are generally three main of ways you can help. 1.Educate, there are six core themes to address that have a high impact on body image perceptions.
An individual's friends and family can have a major influence.
The influence teasing and bullying have on one’s self confidence.
When someone talks about their appearance an individual can start to question themselves.
The overall impact of media and modern society.
When people compare ,or compete with, each other based on how they look it can damage relationships and self-confidence.
Teach someone to look after their body and health, teach them to respect themselves.
2. Be a role model, set a good example. Don’t do the things you are trying to teach your friends, kids, and peers not to do. If you do something hypocritical, the people around you are less likely to listen to you. 3.Work together, there are other people trying to make a difference, let them help you. If we are going to fix this problem we need to work together as communities, as a government, as families, as people. Remember, even if we only make a difference with one person, it’s still making a difference, no matter how insignificant it may seem.