Confronted with these images, the reader is encouraged to sympathise with the author’s contention. Many of these unrealistic images are also the driving force behind the increasing demand to see realistic images of young women in the media. Stark’s contention is strengthened by anecdotes from affected girls, attempting to recreate the ‘perfect body’ on themselves, who constantly obsess with these glossy magazines. Including Erin Young’s story of her ‘own struggle with body image’, that almost led to anorexia, plays a big part in encouraging the reader to side with Stark’s opinion. These stories assist the reader in understanding the serious widespread nature of the issue.
The Media’s Influence on Teenage Body Image In today’s society, teenage girls are constantly being pushed and pulled into a million detrimental directions thanks to the media. With television, magazines, cell phones, and computers, women are constantly faced with advertisements and suggestions from the media. It is becoming impossible to avoid them, because they practically are everywhere we turn. Advertisements for make-up, hair products, and clothing are among the few that are the most influential to adolescent girls. They tend to feature flawless faces and very thin models.
This results in extreme and inaccurate views of the activities of young people, that often relies upon scare tactics and the over exaggeration of rare news stories in order to make such activities seem worse than they are. This leads to youth being constructed as folk devils, which occurs after the resulting moral panics. Examples of this include the mods and rockers of the 1960s. Although relatively few youths identified as either of these labels, as the media pushed the story of the 'war between mods and rockers' onto the public, this in turn led to more youths choosing to identify as a mod or rocker. This is known as the deviancy amplification spiral, in which the media makes a relatively small problem much worse, thus presenting young people as a problem group.
Society’s perception throughout history has put extremely unhealthy looking women in the media spotlight as the ideal image of beauty. “The desire to fit the cultural ideal of thinness drives many women to diet severely. In some vulnerable young women, this leads to bingeing and purging or self-starvation,” says Terence Wilson a psychologist at Rutgers University (Smolack). “The general public seems to have an unhealthy obsession with celebrities. The media is constantly bombarding us with images of celebrities with extremely thin bodies.
Females between the ages of 16 and 26 make up approximately 24 million women as of today (Population clock). This “chick” age bracket represent the group of people that popular media outlets market to that often feature women with bodies that are unattainable for the average woman. These media outlets also focus on what women can do to acquire and please men. The self-esteem of these young girls are also eroding due to the various forms of marketing and advertising tactics they employ because sexy sells. The many celebrities like Miley Cyrus and magazines who all try to portray their idea of a woman, alter and distort their perception of womanhood.
It is true that women are over sensitive to being called fat. Most women who think their fat are simply curvy and womanly. It is true that society has put such a spin on what a “beautiful” woman should look like. Orbach really says what a lot of women want to hear. In her short essay, Fat as a Feminist Issue, Susie Orbach clearly explains her view on the obesity issue with women in
Being heavier than “normal” becomes a criticism of character and leaves girls the most vulnerable. As stated earlier the media hold the power to shape the minds of the younger generations (Hogan, 2012). Current media, though, says one thing, but does not follow through with it, causing confusion for young
Also, Socs get editorials written about them in the newspaper for being a public disgrace one day and an asset to society the next. Greasers, on the other hand, are known as juvenile delinquents because of their appearance and behaviour. When Socs are the ones who usually start the fights. The Socs are always seen as the nice kids just buy the way that they dress but on the inside they are the ones that should be feared and are the true menaces of the society. To conclude, The Socs are more of a disgrace and menace to society than the
Therefore unlike the Daily Mail, which delights in demonising teenagers, The Observer encourages people to “try a little love instead”. Indeed if everyone tried a “little love” it would not only support teenagers but it would encourage them to behave and to well at school which would ultimately make them more successful. In conclusion the representation of teenagers in the media is completely unfair and wrong. I believe that we should all give teenagers more support and less criticism, including the Daily Mail. Being a teenager is a very difficult process as your body dramatically changes and you are subject to over-whelming hormones.
The ideals that are portrayed through the media are, to me, the most pressing issues today. Through television, radio, magazines, and newspapers, negative messages are being presented to the world's youth. Though some of these media outlets are intended to raise awareness of some problems, most have the opposite effect. Bad behavior, poor body image, drug and alcohol use, lack of morals, and violence is becoming "normal" in society. I have seen, first hand, that high school students are becoming desensitized to things that are truly horrible.