As noted in an article by Samantha A. Goldstein entitled, “Teen Body Image, the Media, and Supplements: an Unhealthy Mix,” on average, “a person residing in the United States observes nearly 3,000 advertisements in newspapers, billboards, magazines, and television every day” (par 2). This statistic confirms that the media’s influence on our everyday personal decisions is truly inescapable. So what exactly does the media want teenage girls to look like? What is the epitome of the perfect body? For women, an ideal of thinness is worldwide.
Certain magazines, like Seventeen, talk about being body positive, but show slim models in their pages (Benowitz-Fredericks et al, 2012). How is an adolescent girl going through changes supposed to make heads or tails of what they are reading? In addition, many television networks talk about going against body ideals, but have only thin actresses on the network. Even within the music industry there are songs about being body positive, yet they come from singers who are relatively slim. Being heavier than “normal” becomes a criticism of character and leaves girls the most vulnerable.
Jennifer a MComm 110 Dec. 9, 2011 Body Image in the Media Beauty and body image in the media concentrates on how thin women should be. Researchers suggests that media advertising negatively impacts women’s body image. Advertisements on young, beautiful, skinny people make the average person feel as if they can never add up to what they see. The average people are negatively affected by advertisements and constant exposure of thin models. From hairstyles to body shape to shoes on our feet, advertising tries to persuade us that to look our best, we must have the body that society now considers ideal.
A womans reproductive role in society relegates her to caretaker, mother, nurturer stature in the household, wife, and sex object. In defining this women not only have to meet this standard in their physical appearance but also have to be just “sexy” enough to attract a man. This makes women appear as a commodity or good rather than human. The discussion of how media influences these social stigmas is presented, from magazines, to commercials, to latest fashion industry trends. You even see it in social media from the “What's trending” sections.
For example in women’s magazines there are articles like ‘Summer Diets’ and ‘ Slim Down For Summer’ causing great pressure on women to have the ‘beach body’ the media send out to the public. Models who are already skinny get photo shopped even thinner for articles like this, which is sending out an even worse message to all their readers. For men, the magazines highlight muscle gain, muscularity, and are gradually coming to include weight loss articles as well. And these influences are particularly important in teenagers; who experience huge social pressure, which is often based on how they look. For a growing proportion of children and teenagers, that concern can grow into an obsession that can become an eating disorder.
It is collectively an insight of how social media can be so sickening to young adults, while it covers both genders, it it generally focused on women seeing as “it is women’s bodies, rather than any other attributes, which appear to make them worthy of being represented” (206). That quote alone just show how much the female body is of importance in succeeding in this world, and just how fragile it can become due to eating disorders. Media is very negative when it comes to girls of all ages loving themselves, by simply telling them their bodies aren’t beautiful. Which is what Maggie Wykes and Barrie Gunter were trying to bring light on that media reinforce vivid images of femininity, that it has been :”within history of cultural constructions of femininity” (207). It is a cultural phenomenon that media effects those drastically that it has been given a name: body shaming.
According to the Center on Alcohol Marketing and Youth at Georgetown University, alcohol companies spend nearly $2 billion every year on advertising in the United States. Between 2001 and 2007, there were more than 2 million television ads and 20,000 magazine ads for alcoholic products. This heavy advertising effort leads to significant youth exposure (Center for Alcohol Marketing and Youth of Georgetown University; 2002.). I believe that certain advertisements seem to somewhat express that young people should value alcohol. In an article by The Gale Group Inc. entitled “Alcohol Advertising Targets Teens and Glorifies Drinking” they argue that alcohol producing companies that make it a goal to not target teens have been doing the exact opposite.
In the article, “Controlling your reality” Paige Pfleger states “Reality television can also preserve old fashioned notions about sexual stereotyping. Women are encouraged to fulfill roles as “the slut” and are simultaneously devalued by doing so” sadly these are the types of stereotypes young girls and women grow up with (3). Little girls are told to act a certain way only for society to reject and humiliate them for it. In The Hunger Games Collins makes a point by sexually objectifying Glimmer, a career tribute, because she looks like the stereotype of sexy. In the novel Collins writes, “The girl tribute from District 1, looking provocative in a see-through gold gown…With that flowing blonde hair, emerald green eyes, her body tall and lush… she’s sexy all the way”(125).Collins makes it clear that society has a very specific image of what sexy should look like.
X10/25/2010 Lust and sex appeal are two emotions that dominate the advertisement world. Everyone wants to be perceived as sexy, fun, and attractive by our peers. In order to appeal to these emotions we take part in these materialistic things. Advertisements in Shape magazine have grabbed the attention and captured the desires of their female audience. Shape magazine provides women with the latest information about diet, fitness, healthy living, and beauty products.
The focus of this research was to see what caused girls to be so pressured into being really thin or why some girls were anorexic. In my research, I learned the media plays a big part in why girls go to the extreme to be thin. Major points I learned is that the media targets teen girls with photo-shopped images of models. There are positive effects of media, I think otherwise. When girls see these “models” they feel no matter how it takes to get there, they have to be like these models.