Media Affecting Young Girls
When you get home at night from a long day of school or work, you sit down and turn on the television and you cycle through the stations trying to find ¡§THE SHOW¡¨ to watch. As you cycle through you witness something that you may not realize effect millions of people around the world. The problem isn¡¦t having trouble finding something suited to your liking and the mood you are in¡Kbut the problem that I am going to describe effects guys and girls all over the world. It¡¦s not watching MTV¡¦s Real World or Grey¡¦s Anatomy, but it¡¦s the image that their characters portray.
How does the media portray the characters of your favorite television show? When you take a closer look at how the media portrays the famous you start to see a definite …show more content…
trend.
In this paper I will walk through five different articles that will open your eyes to the truth about how the mass media has a controlling effect and a lasting impression in the minds of many. Along with the misconception that thin or having the perfect body is to be expected because of the mass media.
Article #1
The influence of the media on eating disorders
When I think about how the media effect the way we perceive ourselves I think about how things were when my parents were just young kids. Who influenced the way people thought about themselves? The first woman that comes to my mind along with many others would be Marilyn Monroe. For her time she was the perfect woman. Beautiful facial features, great healthy body¡KPerfect! It started then. The mass media has kept a lasting image of a voluptuous beautifully curved woman in our heads until recent times where a thinner ¡§waif-like¡¨ look of Kate Moss in the late 80¡¦s (Blackwell science).
Times have changed from then. When you were to look at the perfect body from then compared to the perception of the perfect body now it is drastically different. Taller, thinner, and more of an unnatural figure that doesn¡¦t reflect the majority of the population. What does this new type of person make you think about yourself?
The physiologic norm is far from the ideal media image. Supermodels are a breed all their own. They are born with the bodies they have now without the extreme dietary methods that so many use to achieve the perfect body. But looking at this in the eyes of so many women don¡¦t set out to be anorexic, they begin this train of thought from the mass media telling them that their efforts to be perfect are right (Blackwell science).
The causes of extreme to light eating disorders have multiple factors. One such factor is the family influence. The family has influences on almost every aspect of a young person¡¦s development and growth and if there is pressure at home at that crucial period, which could cause a serious self esteem issue that could lead to eating disorders to say the least.
The next factor is the influence of peers. Peers shape the way individuals think because they spend so much time together and they have similar interest outlooks.
Lastly the influence of the media on how we perceive ourselves. Described from earlier the media is watched by millions and the body images of the most widely looked at celebrities are nearly impossible to achieve naturally without being born ¡§that certain way.¡¨ Everywhere we go the media is telling us that the extreme efforts that we are taking to become perfect is the right one.
The products that make the beautiful¡Kbeautiful is not the reason why they are attractive, but that is the idea in present times and I believe that is directly linked to the mass media and how they display personal image to whoever is watching.
Purchasing such products is thought to being steps to reaching the perfect body. These products are mostly directed at young girls trying to impose the idea if they use this expensive products they will become this perfect model and life will be perfect. Being at such a young age it makes them vulnerable to the influences of the media (Blackwell science). It¡¦s not just being an adolescent girl that is affected by the Medias perception. It can be your brother or sister that thinks she isn¡¦t pretty enough, is too fat, or starts to think that they are ashamed of themselves because of the way they look, and the primary reason is the media.
In conclusion, the article describes how young America is obsessed with the perfect personal image and many will do whatever it takes to get to that point, plastic surgery, extreme dieting, or falling into a eating disorder that is hard to come out of. If the media would just show the ¡§norm¡¨ more often and promote being healthier there would be less eating disorders caused from watching main stream television and the self ¡Vesteem of the viewers would
rise.
Article #2
Eating Disorders in Adolescent Girls: What Educators Should Know
¡§Eating disorders in adolescent girls¡¨ is an incite that shows the symptoms of eating disorders and talks about prevention strategies that educators, friends, and family can adopt when working around or with adolescents to prevent or help someone in time of need.
Around the world there are many social issues that are brought up regarding the social rights of males vs. females. Money and being looked over for a highly ranked position in place of a man, domestic violence and sexual harassment at work. But one gender issue that is not frequently discussed is valuing the importance of a woman¡¦s physical appearance (winter 2005). Mass media is showing that sexy stereotypes of how a female should look to succeed is resulting in serious identity confusion and laying enormous psychological pressure that is hard to overcome without the right guidance or foundation for change.
The marketing personal image of the female body and the ever-changing cultural pressures to be thin often are held responsible for more women showing symptoms of depression and anxiety, social withdrawals, distorted personal image, and eventually the development of sever eating pathologies (winter 2005).
Adolescence is a period in all of our lives which our physical and psychological development is at the highest and makes puberty turn into maturity. There is an issue that says that adolescence is a conflict between identity and role confusion. As the child starts to become more and more independent they start to show signs of individual identities with are not focused on the family but now by the peers and the media.
With all the pressures of being young and growing up and physically growing so quickly may intensify the focus on external appearance and drive for perfection, potentially leading to dissatisfaction and desperate weight loss attempts. Research shows that on average, females drive to be thinner, have a higher distress level, and lover life satisfaction then men experience. A sad statistic states that 50% of adolescent girls have dieted and would like to be thinner (winter 2005).
Eating disorders have moved up in the chain and have become the third leading chronic illness among younger females. What happens is that they start to base their happiness based on their physical appearance and not on how healthy they are; a horrible trend that needs to be addressed.
One disorder that I would like to discuss is bulimia. It¡¦s marked by binge eating and then force induced vomiting to control their calorie intake which is directly related to their weight. This presents several serious threats to your health including dehydration, hormonal imbalance, and damage to vital life organs (winter 2005).
Having an eating disorder can take some time to recognize the problem from a parents view and can take decades to overcome in some instances. The initial symptoms of eating disorders are much easier to overcome before the symptoms get worse and worse. With these facts it is imperative that parents, friends, and educators take a deeper look to the awareness of a potentially life ending cycle that even your children could be experiencing right now (winter 2005).
Article #3
Risk Factors for Body Dissatisfaction in Boys and Girls
This study in this article describes the bodily dissatisfaction based on a study of 531 individuals throughout the country and looks at different variables to see how they came up with their results. Body dissatisfaction is the negative evaluation of ones figure or body parts. It¡¦s an inability to correctly perceive the size of ones body and the influence of weight and shape in determining ones self worth and which are symptoms of eating disorders. It is related to emotional distress, appearance, and unnecessary cosmetic surgery (risk factors).
There have been studies that show that the dissatisfaction with the body size and shape is a common concern and approximately 60 percent of girls and 30 percent of boys report a desire to change their size or shape and 25% of girls report clinical levels of body dissatisfaction. (Risk factors).
Something that I haven¡¦t discussed much is how males perceive their bodies. When guys are growing up they see Abercrombie models, professional athletes and fellow peers that have grown faster or have larger body mass and more muscle and they start to judge themselves in a negative manner. Males instead of wanting to achieve weight loss are looking at gaining mass. And becoming more and more muscular to shadow what the individuals look like in the media. Unlike girls, boys at almost all ages are dissatisfied if they are overweight. Another prospective found that boys were most satisfied with their bodies when they were average weight. The complete opposite opposed to females (risk factors).
There are many factors in the world that make ones personal self image go up or down. Ranging from family to school to personal relationships with the opposite sex or closest peers. Any of these factors can make or break how one feels about their self worth or image to others. It¡¦s important to recognize that everyone has doubts and its how each person deals with them and the people around them to help work through them and have a positive outlook and help the ones that are down and need it and continue to keep the ones that feel good about themselves continuing that feeling.
Article # 4
To start of I believe the best type of peer review article would have to be on a personal level. This is very true for me and this topic I chose was for a good reason that I completely understand. I myself have a problem with personal image and have fallen into the trap of an eating disorder that I finally had to do something about. This is my story of perfection.
Ever since I was 4 yr old, and yes I remember it well, I have been conscious of how I looked. Mirrors and anything reflective I was completely into it. That is when the obsession started and ever since then it has grown into something that is very hard to get over and accept.
I am a perfectionist! It seems normal but its not. Every aspect of my life from the way I dress, my car, my toys, my relationships with my family and my girlfriend, they all have to be perfect! If they are not I get depressed and try to change them as soon as possible. The worst one is when I judge myself and try to make myself perfect.
I drive myself crazy trying to achieve what I see on TV and what I see from others that I know. To start I have grown up faster then all my friends. I got bigger and stronger first and I was more coordinated. Then as time went on everyone else caught back up and started to become bigger and stronger and transformed into something that I wasn¡¦t and it destroyed me. I got depressed and then started to look down on myself and tried to find ways to get back to how I was. I tried to work out more but I didn¡¦t push myself as hard as I should have, I tried eating better, and then I started to show symptoms of bulimia. I couldn¡¦t believe it! Something that I thought would never happen to me actually started and was affecting in more ways then I thought. My emotions were all over the board, I got sick a lot, I couldn¡¦t hold down food, and I didn¡¦t feel like I was ever good enough. I had to do something before it started to affect my life even more and before it hurt me. As bad as it hurt I confronted my parents about it and described my feelings to them and how I wanted to change the way I thought about myself. That¡¦s when my self image was at its lowest and I didn¡¦t know what else to do besides ask for help form the ones that loved me the most!
We ended up going to the doctors and I found out that I was lactose intolerant. That would make sense because when I binge ate I went for milk product like ice cream and chocolate. Then I other great news¡KI had an ulcer and it was causing me to produce blood randomly after purging my food. And to top it off my immune system had gotten so weak I had gotten chicken pox within 2 yrs for the third time and then got shingles. It¡¦s very rare to experience those things as many times as I did but it was due to my habits
My doctor and family kept me on track by putting my on a strict diet and giving me medicine for my ulcer. I went to see a specialist and talked to them to sort out my issues with myself and doing that helped me immensely. It has been almost a year since all of this and I am happier and healthier then I have been in a long time. My life can still be perfect and my personal image can follow the same! I hope that describing part of my problem makes you realize that this topic means a lot to me and plays a big role in my life. Article #5
Attitudes towards Appearance
Many studies and a lot of time and effort have gone into focus on the body image and eating disorders along with the identification of the risks of these conditions. Low self-esteem, disturbed eating patterns, and media images and messages, negative verbal comments targeted at appearance, and psychological risk factors are issues that have been brought up that are essential to the implementation of effective prevention and treatment programs.
This study goes into detail on the steps to procedures to chart the emotional characteristics of someone that fits the criteria of a potential eating disorder victim. The study/test is called the SATAQ-3. Sociocultural attitudes towards appearance questionnaire. The participants were given a series of questions that made them focus on the information about certain details in their lives that the experts can classify into different categories of self awareness. (Sataq-3)
Examples of the questions would be: Have you felt pressured from TV shows to look a certain way? I compare myself to ones in magazines? I¡¦ve felt pressure from a magazine or TV to have a perfect body? These are just a few of the questions that are apart of the 50+ that determine the level of the takers attitude about themselves.
The attitude of the general public is directly related to how the media perceives beauty and perfection and this test is a good way to make a positive determination if someone is in need of profession attention for an eating disorder or dissatisfaction.
The tried and true way to realize that you have a problem is to have someone there for you to help you though that hard time. But to really make a difference in your life you have to want change and really try for yourself and the ones that love you the most.
Eating disorders are a bad situation that happens to great people and the leading problem is the mass media! If they changed the outlook on how we should look to make it more realistic maybe the number of cases would go down, depression would sink, and the overall self image of us and the way we think about others would go up too!
Works cited page
SATAQ-3
-ebscohost.com 11/15/06
-development and validation, Kevin Thompson, Pat Van Den Berg, Megan Roehrig
Matt Mattison
Personal interview about bulimia and eating disorders -11/15/06
Influence of the media on eating disorders
-ebscohost.com
-S. Almond, Blackwell science ltd2000
-11/15/06
Eating disorders in girls
-ebscohost.com
-Mariana Vaschenko, winter 2005 -11/15/06
Risk factors for dissatisfied boys and girls Wiley Periodicals, Inc -Katherine Prenell, Sara Kate Bearman, and Eric Stice -ebscohost.com -11/15/06
*I will bring my works cited page to class on Monday before my presentation º
How does the media portray the characters of your favorite television show? When you take a closer look at how the media portrays the famous you start to see a definite …show more content…
trend.
In this paper I will walk through five different articles that will open your eyes to the truth about how the mass media has a controlling effect and a lasting impression in the minds of many. Along with the misconception that thin or having the perfect body is to be expected because of the mass media.
Article #1
The influence of the media on eating disorders
When I think about how the media effect the way we perceive ourselves I think about how things were when my parents were just young kids. Who influenced the way people thought about themselves? The first woman that comes to my mind along with many others would be Marilyn Monroe. For her time she was the perfect woman. Beautiful facial features, great healthy body¡KPerfect! It started then. The mass media has kept a lasting image of a voluptuous beautifully curved woman in our heads until recent times where a thinner ¡§waif-like¡¨ look of Kate Moss in the late 80¡¦s (Blackwell science).
Times have changed from then. When you were to look at the perfect body from then compared to the perception of the perfect body now it is drastically different. Taller, thinner, and more of an unnatural figure that doesn¡¦t reflect the majority of the population. What does this new type of person make you think about yourself?
The physiologic norm is far from the ideal media image. Supermodels are a breed all their own. They are born with the bodies they have now without the extreme dietary methods that so many use to achieve the perfect body. But looking at this in the eyes of so many women don¡¦t set out to be anorexic, they begin this train of thought from the mass media telling them that their efforts to be perfect are right (Blackwell science).
The causes of extreme to light eating disorders have multiple factors. One such factor is the family influence. The family has influences on almost every aspect of a young person¡¦s development and growth and if there is pressure at home at that crucial period, which could cause a serious self esteem issue that could lead to eating disorders to say the least.
The next factor is the influence of peers. Peers shape the way individuals think because they spend so much time together and they have similar interest outlooks.
Lastly the influence of the media on how we perceive ourselves. Described from earlier the media is watched by millions and the body images of the most widely looked at celebrities are nearly impossible to achieve naturally without being born ¡§that certain way.¡¨ Everywhere we go the media is telling us that the extreme efforts that we are taking to become perfect is the right one.
The products that make the beautiful¡Kbeautiful is not the reason why they are attractive, but that is the idea in present times and I believe that is directly linked to the mass media and how they display personal image to whoever is watching.
Purchasing such products is thought to being steps to reaching the perfect body. These products are mostly directed at young girls trying to impose the idea if they use this expensive products they will become this perfect model and life will be perfect. Being at such a young age it makes them vulnerable to the influences of the media (Blackwell science). It¡¦s not just being an adolescent girl that is affected by the Medias perception. It can be your brother or sister that thinks she isn¡¦t pretty enough, is too fat, or starts to think that they are ashamed of themselves because of the way they look, and the primary reason is the media.
In conclusion, the article describes how young America is obsessed with the perfect personal image and many will do whatever it takes to get to that point, plastic surgery, extreme dieting, or falling into a eating disorder that is hard to come out of. If the media would just show the ¡§norm¡¨ more often and promote being healthier there would be less eating disorders caused from watching main stream television and the self ¡Vesteem of the viewers would
rise.
Article #2
Eating Disorders in Adolescent Girls: What Educators Should Know
¡§Eating disorders in adolescent girls¡¨ is an incite that shows the symptoms of eating disorders and talks about prevention strategies that educators, friends, and family can adopt when working around or with adolescents to prevent or help someone in time of need.
Around the world there are many social issues that are brought up regarding the social rights of males vs. females. Money and being looked over for a highly ranked position in place of a man, domestic violence and sexual harassment at work. But one gender issue that is not frequently discussed is valuing the importance of a woman¡¦s physical appearance (winter 2005). Mass media is showing that sexy stereotypes of how a female should look to succeed is resulting in serious identity confusion and laying enormous psychological pressure that is hard to overcome without the right guidance or foundation for change.
The marketing personal image of the female body and the ever-changing cultural pressures to be thin often are held responsible for more women showing symptoms of depression and anxiety, social withdrawals, distorted personal image, and eventually the development of sever eating pathologies (winter 2005).
Adolescence is a period in all of our lives which our physical and psychological development is at the highest and makes puberty turn into maturity. There is an issue that says that adolescence is a conflict between identity and role confusion. As the child starts to become more and more independent they start to show signs of individual identities with are not focused on the family but now by the peers and the media.
With all the pressures of being young and growing up and physically growing so quickly may intensify the focus on external appearance and drive for perfection, potentially leading to dissatisfaction and desperate weight loss attempts. Research shows that on average, females drive to be thinner, have a higher distress level, and lover life satisfaction then men experience. A sad statistic states that 50% of adolescent girls have dieted and would like to be thinner (winter 2005).
Eating disorders have moved up in the chain and have become the third leading chronic illness among younger females. What happens is that they start to base their happiness based on their physical appearance and not on how healthy they are; a horrible trend that needs to be addressed.
One disorder that I would like to discuss is bulimia. It¡¦s marked by binge eating and then force induced vomiting to control their calorie intake which is directly related to their weight. This presents several serious threats to your health including dehydration, hormonal imbalance, and damage to vital life organs (winter 2005).
Having an eating disorder can take some time to recognize the problem from a parents view and can take decades to overcome in some instances. The initial symptoms of eating disorders are much easier to overcome before the symptoms get worse and worse. With these facts it is imperative that parents, friends, and educators take a deeper look to the awareness of a potentially life ending cycle that even your children could be experiencing right now (winter 2005).
Article #3
Risk Factors for Body Dissatisfaction in Boys and Girls
This study in this article describes the bodily dissatisfaction based on a study of 531 individuals throughout the country and looks at different variables to see how they came up with their results. Body dissatisfaction is the negative evaluation of ones figure or body parts. It¡¦s an inability to correctly perceive the size of ones body and the influence of weight and shape in determining ones self worth and which are symptoms of eating disorders. It is related to emotional distress, appearance, and unnecessary cosmetic surgery (risk factors).
There have been studies that show that the dissatisfaction with the body size and shape is a common concern and approximately 60 percent of girls and 30 percent of boys report a desire to change their size or shape and 25% of girls report clinical levels of body dissatisfaction. (Risk factors).
Something that I haven¡¦t discussed much is how males perceive their bodies. When guys are growing up they see Abercrombie models, professional athletes and fellow peers that have grown faster or have larger body mass and more muscle and they start to judge themselves in a negative manner. Males instead of wanting to achieve weight loss are looking at gaining mass. And becoming more and more muscular to shadow what the individuals look like in the media. Unlike girls, boys at almost all ages are dissatisfied if they are overweight. Another prospective found that boys were most satisfied with their bodies when they were average weight. The complete opposite opposed to females (risk factors).
There are many factors in the world that make ones personal self image go up or down. Ranging from family to school to personal relationships with the opposite sex or closest peers. Any of these factors can make or break how one feels about their self worth or image to others. It¡¦s important to recognize that everyone has doubts and its how each person deals with them and the people around them to help work through them and have a positive outlook and help the ones that are down and need it and continue to keep the ones that feel good about themselves continuing that feeling.
Article # 4
To start of I believe the best type of peer review article would have to be on a personal level. This is very true for me and this topic I chose was for a good reason that I completely understand. I myself have a problem with personal image and have fallen into the trap of an eating disorder that I finally had to do something about. This is my story of perfection.
Ever since I was 4 yr old, and yes I remember it well, I have been conscious of how I looked. Mirrors and anything reflective I was completely into it. That is when the obsession started and ever since then it has grown into something that is very hard to get over and accept.
I am a perfectionist! It seems normal but its not. Every aspect of my life from the way I dress, my car, my toys, my relationships with my family and my girlfriend, they all have to be perfect! If they are not I get depressed and try to change them as soon as possible. The worst one is when I judge myself and try to make myself perfect.
I drive myself crazy trying to achieve what I see on TV and what I see from others that I know. To start I have grown up faster then all my friends. I got bigger and stronger first and I was more coordinated. Then as time went on everyone else caught back up and started to become bigger and stronger and transformed into something that I wasn¡¦t and it destroyed me. I got depressed and then started to look down on myself and tried to find ways to get back to how I was. I tried to work out more but I didn¡¦t push myself as hard as I should have, I tried eating better, and then I started to show symptoms of bulimia. I couldn¡¦t believe it! Something that I thought would never happen to me actually started and was affecting in more ways then I thought. My emotions were all over the board, I got sick a lot, I couldn¡¦t hold down food, and I didn¡¦t feel like I was ever good enough. I had to do something before it started to affect my life even more and before it hurt me. As bad as it hurt I confronted my parents about it and described my feelings to them and how I wanted to change the way I thought about myself. That¡¦s when my self image was at its lowest and I didn¡¦t know what else to do besides ask for help form the ones that loved me the most!
We ended up going to the doctors and I found out that I was lactose intolerant. That would make sense because when I binge ate I went for milk product like ice cream and chocolate. Then I other great news¡KI had an ulcer and it was causing me to produce blood randomly after purging my food. And to top it off my immune system had gotten so weak I had gotten chicken pox within 2 yrs for the third time and then got shingles. It¡¦s very rare to experience those things as many times as I did but it was due to my habits
My doctor and family kept me on track by putting my on a strict diet and giving me medicine for my ulcer. I went to see a specialist and talked to them to sort out my issues with myself and doing that helped me immensely. It has been almost a year since all of this and I am happier and healthier then I have been in a long time. My life can still be perfect and my personal image can follow the same! I hope that describing part of my problem makes you realize that this topic means a lot to me and plays a big role in my life. Article #5
Attitudes towards Appearance
Many studies and a lot of time and effort have gone into focus on the body image and eating disorders along with the identification of the risks of these conditions. Low self-esteem, disturbed eating patterns, and media images and messages, negative verbal comments targeted at appearance, and psychological risk factors are issues that have been brought up that are essential to the implementation of effective prevention and treatment programs.
This study goes into detail on the steps to procedures to chart the emotional characteristics of someone that fits the criteria of a potential eating disorder victim. The study/test is called the SATAQ-3. Sociocultural attitudes towards appearance questionnaire. The participants were given a series of questions that made them focus on the information about certain details in their lives that the experts can classify into different categories of self awareness. (Sataq-3)
Examples of the questions would be: Have you felt pressured from TV shows to look a certain way? I compare myself to ones in magazines? I¡¦ve felt pressure from a magazine or TV to have a perfect body? These are just a few of the questions that are apart of the 50+ that determine the level of the takers attitude about themselves.
The attitude of the general public is directly related to how the media perceives beauty and perfection and this test is a good way to make a positive determination if someone is in need of profession attention for an eating disorder or dissatisfaction.
The tried and true way to realize that you have a problem is to have someone there for you to help you though that hard time. But to really make a difference in your life you have to want change and really try for yourself and the ones that love you the most.
Eating disorders are a bad situation that happens to great people and the leading problem is the mass media! If they changed the outlook on how we should look to make it more realistic maybe the number of cases would go down, depression would sink, and the overall self image of us and the way we think about others would go up too!
Works cited page
SATAQ-3
-ebscohost.com 11/15/06
-development and validation, Kevin Thompson, Pat Van Den Berg, Megan Roehrig
Matt Mattison
Personal interview about bulimia and eating disorders -11/15/06
Influence of the media on eating disorders
-ebscohost.com
-S. Almond, Blackwell science ltd2000
-11/15/06
Eating disorders in girls
-ebscohost.com
-Mariana Vaschenko, winter 2005 -11/15/06
Risk factors for dissatisfied boys and girls Wiley Periodicals, Inc -Katherine Prenell, Sara Kate Bearman, and Eric Stice -ebscohost.com -11/15/06
*I will bring my works cited page to class on Monday before my presentation º