Lauren Christian Mrs. Loyd Composition 4 1 May 2017 A Positive Body Image Is there to much pressure on girls to have the perfect body? Media has a big effect on girls and the way they look. A family member commenting on weight can also have a big impact. Statistics show that, “one in five girls are criticized by family members for being ‘too big’ and 51% of the girls have been hurt by their parents talking about their size” (Telling It Like It Is). This supports the argument because many girls often feel down about the way they look or feel. Though, it may be hard for some to understand, even if you might not think that what you said was hurtful, it still might have been to her. Additionally, depression, anxiety, self-loathing and anger may occur. Poor body images can also cause social avoidance and affect the development of healthy social and romantic relations. This proves even further that there can be such a big impact. Even eating disorders are caused greatly by a person …show more content…
People support the argument that we should stop blaming the media because it is your fault for looking at a picture of a model and/or people who portray a size zero causing you to have a bad body image. Some believe this is true because pictures and articles can be avoided. You don’t have to see things about ideal bodies. Secondly, “Don’t compare yourself to others. You can’t get a sense of your body’s needs and abilities with someone else’s body as a reference point” (CHS Comet). Seeing someone who has an unhealthy weight and making them a goal can lead to an even worse body image. Despite this evidence, the argument that girls do have pressure to have the ‘perfect body, is still true because of family members commenting on their weight or looks, the need to have what is considered the ‘ideal body’, and developing social avoidance from anxiety, depression, and self
Have you ever look in the mirror and wondered, why am I so ugly compared to this girl on Instagram? Or wonder why your body doesn’t look like one of the Victoria Secret Models? If you have, you are comparing yourself and your body to someone else. Who either had surgery on themselves or has an eating disorder. While giving yourself negative comments.
Nowadays, society is obsessed with the way our body looks because it is now used as a way to portray what is on the inside. The ideal body image is socially designed as the ultimate goal that one can attain in order to fit-in and be acknowledged in today’s society. The image that society has on the “perfect body” that has been gathered through media, ads and culture, is something that most people have started to “idolize” and are setting
It is clear that society is responsible for cultivating a community in which beauty and thinness are interdependent. According to Lintott, “the average woman is preoccupied, if not obsessed, with thinness” (66). She argues that this comes directly from exposure to modern media, which “bombards us with images of impossibly thin models and exceedingly skinny actresses, among whom the rates of eating disorders are extremely high” (qtd. in Lintott 67).
This constant fixation on physical perfection has created unreasonable beauty standards for women, ones we cannot possibly achieve on our own. Such standards permeate all forms of popular media, particularly fashion magazines and advertisements. Women are bombarded with the notion that we must be thin in order to be desirable. These images project an
Social media plays a big role in how society portrays body image. “Alternatively, an increased number of Facebook friends may provide girls with greater opportunity to rapidly make multiple social comparisons, itself shown to be associated with body image concern”(Tiggemann and Slater 82). According to the survey that was taken by Marika Tiggemann and Amy Slater, the more Facebook friends the girls had, the more likely it was that they had body image concerns. They were able to compare themselves to the other girls that they were friends with, which led to them to have an increase in their drive for thinness. “Further, these comparisons are likely to be with somewhat idealised images, in that girls mostly post photographs in which they look good or are doing something ‘cool’ (and can be digitally altered)”(Tiggemann and Slater 82).
Often, they judge their self-worth by their ability to control their weight/shape (Grilo 6). It is no secret that eating disorders are alarmingly common. Especially now, in this culture, where large corporations are “investing” in this industry as a result of their market research which can then only mean one thing – eating
This was proven by the research which involved 245 girls ages 7 to 9 years old. Many attractive and thin women appear in the soap operas and music clips which results in an even wider exposure of the thin body image to girls who watches these videos. The beauty message provided by the soap operas creates an illusion that one needs to be attractive to be successful and happy. Girls who respond to this might feel pressured into being good-looking to achieve happiness. Therefore, these factors imply how more exposure of these will result in stronger internalisation of the thin ideal as supported by Borzekowski, Robinson and Killen (2000).
Body image has become such a big issue among society especially females mostly. According to Mariana Gozalo, states “Using Will’s sociological imagination, I thought about how there are girls who wish to look skinny because it is what is being idolized on TV and magazines and online ads. “Social media make us believe that there is a “ideal body” shape. In my opinion, there is no such a thing as the ideal body shape, because everyone is beautiful in their own individual way.
M., & Thompson, J. K. ,1996). This issue has been affecting our personal and external view of our body and how this days media represents what a perfect body according to Shelly Hitz is the image that media sells of “perfect body’’ that is thin and flawless (Hitz,Shelly). We are obsessed with a certain image that if we do not fit in this “standard body” we start to feel ugly, according to a survey made by Glamour Health in an average woman “97 percent admitted to having at least one “I hate my body” moment.” (Dreisbach, S,
In 2014 Penny Wright, Senator for South Australia spoke about the issues of negative body image and discussed people’s stories. Sarah was nine years old when she started looking at herself as overweight. She had problems at school which distracted her from her weight. Then she became depressed and tried to take her own life.
So when people look and see that they don’t look like they’re favorite super-model it can put a downer on their self-confidence. This causes many girls feeling that they aren’t good enough in society, society won’t accept them because they aren’t perfect and they start to not like their body. When for many females they can’t lose as much weight as their friend can just because of their genes and how they were born. “The lack of connection between the real and ideal perception of their own body and firm willingness to modify their own body and shape so as to standardize them to social concept of thinness…” (Dixit 1), being focused on unrealistic expectations can cause women to lose themselves and change their attitude on how they view their body, and not for the better.
The Perfect Body Teenagers’ views on weight and body image are shaped by society. Many feel as if it is necessary to meet the requirements of what society claims to be a perfect body. Teenagers experience the most controversy with having a perfect body. As a result, teenagers are more prone to becoming obsessed with fitting the perfect body standards leading to depression, hatred, and eating disorders. Images of what society illustrates to be the perfect body, results in depression amongst many teenagers.
The harmful effects of body shaming among teenagers include lowering their self-esteem and confidence, leads to their poor mental helath and causes weight gain. Firstly, body shaming lowers a teen’s self-esteem. It is common for young people to feel
Girls with a negative body image can become preoccupied with their weight and dieting. “They may harm themselves with alcohol or other drugs or participate in unsafe practices or
The media, such as television, magazines, the Internet, and movies have traditionally portrayed an unambiguous reflection of how society endorses a certain body image. The media depict girls and women as either thin or curvaceous, so they can display the viewer’s expectations and standards. Moreover, females who do not meet these seemingly stereotypical “body image standards,” often feel less self-assured about themselves and, therefore, try to uphold the perceived societal ideal by any means necessary. According to Tiggemann (2006), “First, women and girls’ own reports clearly indicate that they hold the media at least partly responsible for their negative feelings toward their bodies” (p. 524).