Jill Stark’s opinion article, appearing in The Age 19th Jan 2008, outlines in a concerned and direct fashion, that most stereotypes seen in glossy magazines have a negative and dangerous impact. She contends that there is a growing trend for woman to produce magazines, promoting healthy and realistic figures, empowering the female. The headline ‘Sick of impossible princesses, real girls fight back’, indicates to readers how fed up the author is with these unrealistic stereotypes. Stark informs the reader that the traditional content of glossy magazines, with “extreme dieting tips and air-brushed waifs in micro bikinis”, is being questioned by ‘real girls’ who are “fed up with images of emaciated models and a celebrity culture pushing them to be thin, sexy and silent.”. Confronted with these images, the reader is encouraged to sympathise with the author’s contention.
When comparing Julia Roberts' cover to Blake Shelton's it becomes apparent how there is a double-standard when it comes to how the media portrays men and women. Other ads and magazines, as well as other forms of media, have shown throughout the history to repeat the same unrealistic beauty standard, focusing on perfection rather than realistic women and their true selves. Further, it demonstrates how women are not allowed to be sexy once they reach a certain age, while men become sexier with age and often are praised for signs of aging, such as grey hair. Magazines such as these can lead to self-esteem issues in women, particularly young girls who look at forms of media to get a sense of societal expectations. In order to fix this issue, magazines need to be cognizant of how their images and portrayals of women and men can impact people's images of themselves and others.
Everyone perceives beauty in different ways, shapes, and forms. Obesity and overeating in women can be linked to sex/gender roles as well as societies expectations on what the ideal woman should be or look like. The essay entitled Fat is a Feminist Issue by author and therapist Susie Orbach; touches on an issue that many women have problems dealing with today that can be linked to a direct effect from society. Hence obesity and overeating, which is believed to be a social disease, according to Orbach. She believes that being overweight was indeed a feminist issue.
Eating disorders are becoming more common today in society and it is quite unsettling how young women arrive to that point where they get sick trying to fit in. Sharlene Hesse-Biber’s book The Cult of Thinness really elaborates on different reasons why young women specifically join the cult so
It is a known cultural difference that men usually dominate the world. There are many times when women are abused that they do not file charges against their assailants. Some of the governing assumptions that strengthen the mainstream explanation of the intimate abuse that many women face are as follows: First, men batter women because they are privileged, physically, financially, and socially; it is under the assumption in this belief that we need not understand the violence behind men’s violence beyond that point of the patriarchal explanation. Second, women stay in abusive relationships because of patriarchy. Third, the criminal justice system is sexist.
A patriarchy is defined as a system of society or government in which men hold the power and women are largely excluded from it. Such systems currently exist in several forms and areas around the world; however, the most common place for these patriarchies is in our literature. Men are distorted by patriarchy both in being socially labeled as aggressive but, also shamed as they look into the mirror and see themselves. Shakespeare uses polarizing examples of feminism in Hamlet. He depicts women as completely sexual creatures and also devalues women in the eyes of men.
There is always a low self-image body against women by media. The media is too much interested in about how the women would look in thin body. There are so many advertisements where the women’s body is very thin. Women begin to believe that they can never add up to the shown models in advertisements. This can lead to many eating disorders such as anorexia nervosa, over eating and bulimia.
Who decides what is beautiful and what is not. I feel that the media has a lot to do with how women, in the United States anyway. With all the magazines showing thin, almost anorexic women on magazine covers young women feel that that is what they should look like. So then these young women starve themselves and/or binge and purge themselves. Some even die because of trying to fix a certain mold of what is beautiful.
We also used the medias covers, which speak by themselves. Results, limitations According to some experts, it appears that teenage girls relate to icons such as models to build their style and personal life. The young generation’s obsession of being ultra thin results in the constant exposure to size-zero and the idea that it is the only synonym of beauty. Once this status is put into their mind, these girls have a potentially high risk of eating disorders. Recommendations The situation about eating disorders has become critical and it is primordial that the WHO establishes new rules and laws to the fashion industry.
Consistently, women are diminished by advertisers to pretty body parts used to sell products, a practice that perpetuates the glorification of this unreasonable ideal of beauty. Women’s bodies have not only become a huge money-maker for advertisers, businesses have picked up on women’s insecurities about their bodies and have capilatized on these insecurities. On one hand, advertisers heavily market weight-reduction programs and present young anorexic models as the paradigm of ideal beauty; on the other hand, the media floods the airwaves and magazine pages with ads for junk food. In 1996, the diet industry (as in diet foods, diet programs, diet drugs) took in over $40 billion dollars, and that number is still climbing (Facts and Figures 1). Young women seem to be especially affected by our culture’s obsession with weight and beauty.