How Does Media Influence Body Image?

Historically, women have taken the caregiver roles while simultaneously fulfilling other societal roles such as keeping physical beauty, modesty and their potential for marriage. Nonetheless, the last one mentioned has lessened with the years because now marriage is not seen as a social or economic necessity since women are working outside their homes. According to Holly, J Blake (2015), Marie Howland, an Anglo Saxon female who lived in the late 1800s and early 1900s, she was an important figure in the women's rights movement. Mary Howland fought for domestic work to be respected, paid, and arranged for women; plus she wished for females to be economically independent in order to be able to marry for love not economic necessity. Unfortunately,
Women have been and are still seen to be valuable based on their attractiveness, according to their body, or should we say media influenced body image (American Psychological Association, 2010; Moffitt & Szymanski, 2011 as cited in Sue, & Sue, 2016, pp. 725-746). Society is constantly pressuring the idealized body image for women and this result in dissatisfaction, disorders in eating patterns and constant dieting (Fallon, Harris& Johnson, 2014; M.S. Hill & Fischer, 2008 as cited in Sue, & Sue, 2016, pp. 725-746). Forty two percent of women suffer from self-esteem issues compared to 24% of males; and little girls are beginning to sexualize their bodies as young as the age of two ( as in the TV show ”Toddlers with Tiaras”) in order to keep up with society’s expectations (Ackard, Fulkerson, & Neumark-Sztainer, 2007 as cited in Sue, & Sue, 2016, pp. 725-746). It is illogic to realize how this society has a preconception of what women should physically, psychologically, and cognitively be like; but they do not have such for men, and if there are such, they are not as remarkably noticeable as these