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.
Most women these days would do anything to look pretty and attract the opposite sex. This story gives us the importance of body image to women and they get judged about it. Amber the “finger throated sickness one”. She gets teased because of her anorexic appearance. This is a mental illness common to the young woman.
There is even a scene where she strips down to her lingerie at work, where they were all women, in front of her mom. Her mom tells her to put her clothes on because of how she looks “Look at you, you look awful!” (Carmen, RWHC) Another part of the main myth, to be a certain way, was when her mom tells Ana the things a man likes. She tells her “A man wants a virgin” (Carmen, RWHC), and when Ana loses her virginity, she suspects of it and confronts her. She tells her that she was a slut “You’re not only fat, now you’re a puta.” (Carmen, RWHC) and then asks why she doesn’t value herself. Carmen seems like there are certain ways she believes a woman should be like.
In her essay, Barbie’s Body May be Perfect but Critics Remind Us It’s Plastic, Angela Cain analyzes how Barbie and other media icons affects women’s self image in our society. Barbie, one of the most popular fashion icons, has been shaping the way girls view their bodies since 1959. Barbie, and her unrealistic proportions, has been the idealistic body type. Women have struggled at great lengths to achieve the generally unattainable, to look like Barbie. Studies have shown that over 60 percent of women were unhappy with their bodies, as they have been raised comparing themselves with Barbie and other various models of the fashion industry.
There are a number of women who have eating disorders such as bulimia and anorexia trying to look like Miss USA when really it just might not be their body type. Women who starve themselves and call themselves fat on a regular basis. Well they would have nothing to compare themselves to if we as a society weren’t constantly flashing slim women on TV or in magazines. I wonder if there was a Mr. America pageant if men would start to doubt their body types and conform to what is socially accepted for a mans body. All in all I was shocked when I read this and think it is very sad that on national television there is a body type this is accepted.
“The construction of gender stereotyping of both males and females in the media is based on outdated and unfounded beliefs and therefore has had and continues to have a detrimental impact on society.” (Yes!) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CUyfD1F7k1I Women are subjected to many stereotypes in today’s society. Movies and television shows suggest that all women are airheads, whose sole purpose in life is to please men and rear children. Magazines and other advertisements push photographs of very slender, over groomed and “sexy women” into our minds. Men’s magazines write articles on how to seduce a girl into sleeping with them.
I know how we always want the next new makeup or hair product that’s going to make s look like the model in the commercial. Women can’t just run to the store in sweat pants because they value their appurtenance too much. Women don’t feel as confident when they don’t look nice, but men don’t really care either way. In the reading, “Do thin Models Warp Girls Body Image?” I agree with Nancy when she says thin models on the runway or on TV can cause very young girls to become anorexic or bulimic. Nancy says, “Girls are being bombarded with the message that they need to be super-skinny to be sexy.” (Hellmich 706) I believe that is very true when she says that but what young girls don’t realize is that you could be beautiful and sexy with any body type that you might have.
The slender, “beautiful” women are regarded as influential, successful, and erotic. This being said, it is very much so based on facts and reason, also known as logos, in the aspect that real life is often viewed this way. Throughout Elementary school up to High school, no one wanted to be best friends with “the fat kid”. As the world already knows, girls and women in general seem to stress over their physical appearance and have been especially concerned about weight for many years now. The emotional effect media has on a woman’s mindset, or ethos, could very well send her overboard into what is commonly known as an eating disorder.
A study published in the Journal of Communication found that high school girls as young as thirteen are affected by the media’s portrayal of ultra-thin models and celebrities. The article goes on to say if children grow up and see thin women in advertisements, on television, and in film, they accept this as reality despite evidence in the ‘real word’. This is called the cultivation theory. Ultra thin women depicted in the media are constantly influencing American female youth who are most prone to developing eating disorders as a result of repeated exposure to such images. This article is saying the reason for the increase in eating disorders is directly related to the
It isn’t fair for a girl to open a magazine and think that the images they see are how they should look. A girl shouldn’t open a magazine and see a pore-less woman with eyes bigger than her wrist and think this is what she should strive for. I remember when I was younger and opening a magazine and seeing these girls and wondering why I was a size 9 pants in grade 7 and these girls who were older than me were a fraction of my size. If I cried that I was too fat and put myself on diets at 11, someone else is, too. The average girl starts her first diet at the age of 9… the average girl is starting her first diet before she is even out of middle school.