Body Image in Popular Culture

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The worldly depictions of the human body are put to an extreme view because of how the media has affected the way people think about themselves. Wherever you go you will hear someone saying: “You are too skinny,” or “You are too fat.” These statements can have an influence on your self-confidence and cause you to try and “perfect” your body size. Even though the bodies we see are photo-shopped to look better, people still want to look the way they see others looking. Our imperfections are just what make us the way we are. A woman can have a little extra weight on her and still be beautiful. A man can have smaller shoulders or arms and still look fine. A person should choose to be healthy rather than what society wants us to look like and what media portrays to us what we should look like. First, we should achieve health and then later work toward the muscles or curves we want without harming our body and taking away from our inner beauty. Being healthy should be more important than the figure a person has. Magazines in western cultures can depict a body image to look the model’s best. Vogue magazine banned super-skinny models from their pages and does not accept anyone less than 16 years of age. Magazines such as Elle, Vogue, Bazaar, Fashion and Cosmopolitan show off a woman’s curves added on to a beautiful smile and unblemished skin. Women are shown as having very thin figures, with a small waist and perfect skin, and men are shown as having obvious muscles without having them be too large and a set of abs. Women, as well as men are greatly affected by the way models look in magazines because of how they are presented. Women view themselves as not up to par, or ugly, or fat, and even men feel small, fat or insecure. Because models are also icons of how a person is supposed to look, women may starve themselves or binge eat, and men may work out excessively to gain

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