How Media Affects Women Body Image
How media affects women’s body image
Mass media is designed to reach large audiences through the use of technology. Its purpose is meant to give information we need to function as a society. Mass media is everywhere; there is no escaping from it. From the moment you wake until you fall asleep you are confronted with media. Almost every home in America has at least one television, access to the internet, and cell phones. Someone cannot drive down the highway without seeing billboard signs. Checking out at the grocery store can be tricky if trying to avoid magazines. The media portrays what is considered to be normal for how a female acts and looks, and therefore affects what women in society feel they should look and act like. The media's portrayal of body image affects women negatively through using stereotypes, encouraging thinness, and promoting unnecessary products. Of course there are extremely thin people, but it’s usually unhealthy and not terribly normal.
One figure which is constant in every form of media is the woman. Not just any woman, but a woman who possesses a “perfect” body. She has a tiny waist, slender legs, flawless skin, perfectly sized and placed eyes, lips and nose, and dressed in the latest fashion or next to nothing at all. Her hair is soft, shiny and perfectly styled. She eats McDonalds, KFC, Hungry Jacks, whole tubs of ice cream, and does not gain a kilo. Does anybody really know this woman? No, she is a photoshoped person.
The media uses stereotypes to portray what a "normal" body should look like. The media refers to thin and big breasted women as being beautiful and bigger women not as beautiful; this is a stereotype. This is why most models are extremely thin. Clothing companies choose thin people to model their clothing because they think that the clothes they have made will look better on a thin person. This is also why you never see a ‘Male’ mannequin who has a sunken chest and a pot belly. The idea is to make you think you’ll
Mass media is designed to reach large audiences through the use of technology. Its purpose is meant to give information we need to function as a society. Mass media is everywhere; there is no escaping from it. From the moment you wake until you fall asleep you are confronted with media. Almost every home in America has at least one television, access to the internet, and cell phones. Someone cannot drive down the highway without seeing billboard signs. Checking out at the grocery store can be tricky if trying to avoid magazines. The media portrays what is considered to be normal for how a female acts and looks, and therefore affects what women in society feel they should look and act like. The media's portrayal of body image affects women negatively through using stereotypes, encouraging thinness, and promoting unnecessary products. Of course there are extremely thin people, but it’s usually unhealthy and not terribly normal.
One figure which is constant in every form of media is the woman. Not just any woman, but a woman who possesses a “perfect” body. She has a tiny waist, slender legs, flawless skin, perfectly sized and placed eyes, lips and nose, and dressed in the latest fashion or next to nothing at all. Her hair is soft, shiny and perfectly styled. She eats McDonalds, KFC, Hungry Jacks, whole tubs of ice cream, and does not gain a kilo. Does anybody really know this woman? No, she is a photoshoped person.
The media uses stereotypes to portray what a "normal" body should look like. The media refers to thin and big breasted women as being beautiful and bigger women not as beautiful; this is a stereotype. This is why most models are extremely thin. Clothing companies choose thin people to model their clothing because they think that the clothes they have made will look better on a thin person. This is also why you never see a ‘Male’ mannequin who has a sunken chest and a pot belly. The idea is to make you think you’ll