Body Image Impact On Society

Society’s Impact on Body Image
In today’s society people critique each other and their own body image on a daily basis. The definition of body dysmorphic disorder is the mental thought process in which a person critiques his or her own body figure and compares it to a societal norm. People compare themselves to other people and belittle themselves based on what the world is telling them looks good. Social media, newspapers, advertising, television and the internet are implying bodies should look a certain way and that all people are expected to look like these photo-shopped people, and that is wrong. Little is being done to show the world that these are unrealistic expectations, and that healthy is not a number or a size (Cash, 2004, p. 56). Society has destroyed body image by making people believe that everyone must look a certain way, giving social media the power to control physical expectations and using the human body as a sex tool to sell merchandise. Body image is how people views themselves and people are now letting the world choose how they see themselves. Society is creating a self-doubt in the minds of not only teenagers and children but adults. Today’s expectations for people are made up by big corporations or social media users. Women are expected to be small, with a big butt and boobs and a flawless face and
Many people are now confusing looking good with being healthy. People are starting to believe that to look good you have to be super thin, much like the models on T.V. or billboards. And as of lately even being big is being considered hot. Whether a person is big or thin, a person shouldn’t have to conform to society expectations. This is due impart by photo-shopped images because people are being lead to believe that they can reach an unattainable body. The following image created by Beth Stebener (2011) will show the difference between reality and photo-shopped