Body Image
Lindsey Cole
Leslie Michael
English 103: Argument and Research: 9:00 AM
May 7, 2013
Essay 2: words
Self- Improvement or Destruction
When you look in the mirror what do you see? In America, ones self-perception, but more of the perceptions of others establish body image. The media plays a huge role on how a teen feels about their outer appearance. For most girls, being healthy means having the perfect body and being accepted by their peers. The American Academy of Pediatrics showed that the majority of girls, 59 percent, reported resentment with their body shape, and 66 percent expressed the desire to lose weight (Image). Standards and examples of how we should look are being tremendously imposed on our generation. People are looked down upon on and teased ruthlessly simply because they do not look like the way the media perceives as beautiful, a stop needs to put to this because more and more teens are taking extreme measures to get their desired look. Eating disorders and plastic surgery are just a few ways teens are changing their changing their looks. Body image and the media is a topic that should be discussed, improved, and resolved for the better.
Look at all the pictures, the spray tanned bodies that glow in the middle of winter, the women whose faces never age after twenty years, and the celebrities that can eat whatever they want, yet stay thin forever (Segrist). Any of this sound familiar? Pictures and articles of these models are seen every day and fill a great percentage of the magazines we read and the images seen on television. It is so easy to get caught up in the media because of the ‘perfection’ we see in it, but the question is does the beauty and body image in the media equal self-improvement or self- destruction? We are so cleverly manipulated and influenced by the media and establishments on both the right and left, that the truth has become hopelessly lost in semantics.
The media is not a solely to blame. Images of perfection are
Leslie Michael
English 103: Argument and Research: 9:00 AM
May 7, 2013
Essay 2: words
Self- Improvement or Destruction
When you look in the mirror what do you see? In America, ones self-perception, but more of the perceptions of others establish body image. The media plays a huge role on how a teen feels about their outer appearance. For most girls, being healthy means having the perfect body and being accepted by their peers. The American Academy of Pediatrics showed that the majority of girls, 59 percent, reported resentment with their body shape, and 66 percent expressed the desire to lose weight (Image). Standards and examples of how we should look are being tremendously imposed on our generation. People are looked down upon on and teased ruthlessly simply because they do not look like the way the media perceives as beautiful, a stop needs to put to this because more and more teens are taking extreme measures to get their desired look. Eating disorders and plastic surgery are just a few ways teens are changing their changing their looks. Body image and the media is a topic that should be discussed, improved, and resolved for the better.
Look at all the pictures, the spray tanned bodies that glow in the middle of winter, the women whose faces never age after twenty years, and the celebrities that can eat whatever they want, yet stay thin forever (Segrist). Any of this sound familiar? Pictures and articles of these models are seen every day and fill a great percentage of the magazines we read and the images seen on television. It is so easy to get caught up in the media because of the ‘perfection’ we see in it, but the question is does the beauty and body image in the media equal self-improvement or self- destruction? We are so cleverly manipulated and influenced by the media and establishments on both the right and left, that the truth has become hopelessly lost in semantics.
The media is not a solely to blame. Images of perfection are
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