Body Image Socially Influenced By Society And The Media
Anirudh 1
People have a different idea of the perfect body image, this is greatly influenced by society and the media. Emotions with which we perceive our body are an essential part of body image. Social expectations of color and general beliefs related to the ideal body image create issues and/or cause harm to a great number of people with low self-esteem and try to follow the standards set by the media and society to fit it. They subject themselves to gruelling, and unrealistic work-outs and diets which affect their health. The mixture of what you perceive and how you relate to it ranges from positive to negative. Depends on what you are being exposed to or exposing yourself to. Most of us form a perfect body image based on a lot of television, movies, models and magazines. People with a positive body image, are generally satisfied with what they see. Likewise, …show more content…
people who are dissatisfied with how they look at their body, have a negative body image. The study related to the body image has garnered great amounts of interest in the last 50 years with a monumental gain in the last 20. This being a common phenomenon in science and usually is happens when new means of measuring phenomenon are discovered. (Pruzinsky and Cash, 2002).
People with a body of any shape and size can be attractive or “beautiful”. That is no longer the situation anymore. Standards set by social media and the Anirudh 2 entertainment business drive many young people into succumbing to diets and exercises. In fact a few decades ago curvy women were considered more attractive than anorexic women. The steps taken by today’s youth to live up to these standards have proven to be fatal and have caused physical damage that could last a lifetime in some cases. One’s perception of their body varies from day to day, or even at different time during the day. We generally have a stable perception of our body, and how you look at yourself is usually different from how others look at you. The emotions related to how we feel about our body are an essential part of our body image. One may be overweight, yet may feel very attractive and good about themselves. However, someone who is looked at as attractive by others, may be dissatisfied by her own perception of her body image, and have negative emotions towards it.
Body image is not something that we are born with, it is something that is developed and acquired as we grow up. It is greatly influenced by what we learn and see and also by the information and know we receive and process on a daily basis, desired and undesired physical characteristics. The desired and undesired characteristics about one’s physical appearance is deeply rooted in our culture. Every society conceptualizes its own ideals of beauty, and they are relative to the Anirudh 3 time that we are in and are relayed forward through ,legends, media, family and stories. The more people are exposed to the perfect body image the more worse they feel about themselves and indulge in practices that could potentially harm them for life.
The influence on our body image begins as early as childhood and the main influence is our family.
During the initial phase of our life, we spend most of our time with our family, everything we learn or hear from them establishes our beliefs, values and attitudes. We shape our perceptions in the language that our family uses and its affects us a lot more than we realize. When family, relatives and friends tell a young boy that he is “big”, “strong”, or “active” they are indirectly stating the desired characteristics of a male. When do the same to a young girl and tell her that she is “beautiful”, “feminine” or “caring/nurturing” they are the characteristics expected and/or desired of how the look and are expected to behave. Praising people about their physical or behavioural characteristics reinforces desirable qualities. Family is often unaware of the enormous impression that they have on the child’s developmental skills and the ability to develop a sense of self. Clinical psychology and psychiatry have been dominating the study if body image in the recent years especially the issues
related
Anirudh 4 to eating disorders among young women, and these pursuits have come out with a lot of useful knowledge.(Cash & Pruzinsky, 2002a; Thompson 1996 and Thompson, 2004.)
Toys that children play with also play a major role and help shape a sense of what are the desired and undesired physical characteristics. The perfect example is the Barbie, primarily common with girls and G.I.Joe common with boys, which are some largest selling toys in the history. Any girl or boy who owns a Barbie or a G.I.Joe has an average of 5-7 of them. When the Barbie dolls and G.I.Joe first came out in the 50’s, it was typically uncommon for dolls to have breasts, during the 50’s dolls were made in the image of babies and/or young girls.
Media today bombards us hundreds of images from television, movie, music videos, internet, magazines and newspapers. Media is constantly criticized because they use images of attractive people, they don’t make an effort to represent reality. Anywhere we see in the media ( adverts, television, movies etc.) we can find young woman, with broad shoulders, long legs and big breasts, and they are also unbelievably thin! The only men in the media with their shirts off are the one that are muscular, young, lean and hairless! None of images that the media bombards us with reflect what we see every day. Only a small percentage of women can actually achieve the impossible proportion shown to us in the advertisements. Our Anirudh 5 body is defined by Genetics, for ex: how tall we can be or how our body is shaped etc. Regular Exercise and balanced diets will help you develop your body, however, genetics set limitation on what proportions can be achieved by one’s body. A person with narrow shoulders may have the best food and workout for hours in the gym, he will still not be able to achieve broad shoulders. The media doesn’t represent the average person like they are at all. The general aim of the multiple forms of advertising is to sell products and services with the use of the ideal image. Numerous clever strategies have been devised to part our money from us by the media. Typically these strategies take advantage of human needs to create an illusion into making us feel that we belong. For example, advertisements are always associated to “pretty” people, not only are they beautiful, they have it all, friends, a good life and even admirers sometimes. This forms a false image in our minds and makes creates a need within seem attractive so we can have a similar life. Realistically, it is difficult and mostly impossible to achieve the proportions or the lifestyle of the “beautiful” people, as they are nothing but unobtainable standards set by the media to sell.
Some of the media messages are sent subliminally, if the consumers could actually appreciate the advertisement for what it is, much of these ordeals could be avoided.
References
Cash, T. F, & Pruzinsky, T. (Eds.) (2002a). Body image: A handbook of theory, research, and clinical practice. New York: Guilford Press
Thompson, J. K. (Ed.) (1996). Body image, eating disorders, and obesity: An integrative guide for assessment and treatment. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
Thompson, J. K. (Ed.) (2004). Handbook of eating disorders and obesity. New York: Wiley.
People have a different idea of the perfect body image, this is greatly influenced by society and the media. Emotions with which we perceive our body are an essential part of body image. Social expectations of color and general beliefs related to the ideal body image create issues and/or cause harm to a great number of people with low self-esteem and try to follow the standards set by the media and society to fit it. They subject themselves to gruelling, and unrealistic work-outs and diets which affect their health. The mixture of what you perceive and how you relate to it ranges from positive to negative. Depends on what you are being exposed to or exposing yourself to. Most of us form a perfect body image based on a lot of television, movies, models and magazines. People with a positive body image, are generally satisfied with what they see. Likewise, …show more content…
people who are dissatisfied with how they look at their body, have a negative body image. The study related to the body image has garnered great amounts of interest in the last 50 years with a monumental gain in the last 20. This being a common phenomenon in science and usually is happens when new means of measuring phenomenon are discovered. (Pruzinsky and Cash, 2002).
People with a body of any shape and size can be attractive or “beautiful”. That is no longer the situation anymore. Standards set by social media and the Anirudh 2 entertainment business drive many young people into succumbing to diets and exercises. In fact a few decades ago curvy women were considered more attractive than anorexic women. The steps taken by today’s youth to live up to these standards have proven to be fatal and have caused physical damage that could last a lifetime in some cases. One’s perception of their body varies from day to day, or even at different time during the day. We generally have a stable perception of our body, and how you look at yourself is usually different from how others look at you. The emotions related to how we feel about our body are an essential part of our body image. One may be overweight, yet may feel very attractive and good about themselves. However, someone who is looked at as attractive by others, may be dissatisfied by her own perception of her body image, and have negative emotions towards it.
Body image is not something that we are born with, it is something that is developed and acquired as we grow up. It is greatly influenced by what we learn and see and also by the information and know we receive and process on a daily basis, desired and undesired physical characteristics. The desired and undesired characteristics about one’s physical appearance is deeply rooted in our culture. Every society conceptualizes its own ideals of beauty, and they are relative to the Anirudh 3 time that we are in and are relayed forward through ,legends, media, family and stories. The more people are exposed to the perfect body image the more worse they feel about themselves and indulge in practices that could potentially harm them for life.
The influence on our body image begins as early as childhood and the main influence is our family.
During the initial phase of our life, we spend most of our time with our family, everything we learn or hear from them establishes our beliefs, values and attitudes. We shape our perceptions in the language that our family uses and its affects us a lot more than we realize. When family, relatives and friends tell a young boy that he is “big”, “strong”, or “active” they are indirectly stating the desired characteristics of a male. When do the same to a young girl and tell her that she is “beautiful”, “feminine” or “caring/nurturing” they are the characteristics expected and/or desired of how the look and are expected to behave. Praising people about their physical or behavioural characteristics reinforces desirable qualities. Family is often unaware of the enormous impression that they have on the child’s developmental skills and the ability to develop a sense of self. Clinical psychology and psychiatry have been dominating the study if body image in the recent years especially the issues
related
Anirudh 4 to eating disorders among young women, and these pursuits have come out with a lot of useful knowledge.(Cash & Pruzinsky, 2002a; Thompson 1996 and Thompson, 2004.)
Toys that children play with also play a major role and help shape a sense of what are the desired and undesired physical characteristics. The perfect example is the Barbie, primarily common with girls and G.I.Joe common with boys, which are some largest selling toys in the history. Any girl or boy who owns a Barbie or a G.I.Joe has an average of 5-7 of them. When the Barbie dolls and G.I.Joe first came out in the 50’s, it was typically uncommon for dolls to have breasts, during the 50’s dolls were made in the image of babies and/or young girls.
Media today bombards us hundreds of images from television, movie, music videos, internet, magazines and newspapers. Media is constantly criticized because they use images of attractive people, they don’t make an effort to represent reality. Anywhere we see in the media ( adverts, television, movies etc.) we can find young woman, with broad shoulders, long legs and big breasts, and they are also unbelievably thin! The only men in the media with their shirts off are the one that are muscular, young, lean and hairless! None of images that the media bombards us with reflect what we see every day. Only a small percentage of women can actually achieve the impossible proportion shown to us in the advertisements. Our Anirudh 5 body is defined by Genetics, for ex: how tall we can be or how our body is shaped etc. Regular Exercise and balanced diets will help you develop your body, however, genetics set limitation on what proportions can be achieved by one’s body. A person with narrow shoulders may have the best food and workout for hours in the gym, he will still not be able to achieve broad shoulders. The media doesn’t represent the average person like they are at all. The general aim of the multiple forms of advertising is to sell products and services with the use of the ideal image. Numerous clever strategies have been devised to part our money from us by the media. Typically these strategies take advantage of human needs to create an illusion into making us feel that we belong. For example, advertisements are always associated to “pretty” people, not only are they beautiful, they have it all, friends, a good life and even admirers sometimes. This forms a false image in our minds and makes creates a need within seem attractive so we can have a similar life. Realistically, it is difficult and mostly impossible to achieve the proportions or the lifestyle of the “beautiful” people, as they are nothing but unobtainable standards set by the media to sell.
Some of the media messages are sent subliminally, if the consumers could actually appreciate the advertisement for what it is, much of these ordeals could be avoided.
References
Cash, T. F, & Pruzinsky, T. (Eds.) (2002a). Body image: A handbook of theory, research, and clinical practice. New York: Guilford Press
Thompson, J. K. (Ed.) (1996). Body image, eating disorders, and obesity: An integrative guide for assessment and treatment. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
Thompson, J. K. (Ed.) (2004). Handbook of eating disorders and obesity. New York: Wiley.