Media Influence On Women's Body Image

Contrary to what you see in the media, we are not all meant to look the same. Media has an undeniable effect on all people; women are especially vulnerable to the subversive messages often presented. Only 5 percent of women have the “ideal” body that is shown in the majority of advertisements. Girls don't just simply decide to hate their bodies, we teach them to.
The ideal body is a socially constructed concept which can be defined in many ways, all by different people. Regardless of which definition is used, it cannot be quantified and so it cannot be accurately compared. Body image is “the picture of our our own body which we form in our mind that is to say, the way in which the body appears to ourselves.” (Hogg, 752) The media, especially advertisements, have a large influence on women's body image. It’s a lot easier to sell people things when you’re secretly telling them that there’s something wrong with them and your product can fix them. Triggering women’s insecurities by selling them unattainable beauty is the golden rule to effective advertising. Essentially we are trapped in this never ending spiral of being told were not good enough. In result we should buy certain foods, certain clothing, certain brands to achieve this “perfect persona”. “The more you subtract, the more you add.” says an add that ran in several women’s and teen magazines in 1997 (Kilbourne 136). Surprisingly though, it is an ad for clothing, not for a diet product. On the surface it is a statement about minimalism in fashion. However, the fact that the girl in the ad is very young and extremely thin reinforces another message, a message that an adolescent girl constantly gets from advertising and
throughout the popular culture, the message that she should be diminished herself, she should be less than she is. Girls are told you can never be too rich or too thin. This mass misconception sells a substantial amount of products. Women are preconditioned to believe that “thin is in” and if they do not resemble the bodies represented in the advertisements they see everyday then they are the one’s who are wrong. The obsession with obtaining this social expectation starts early. According to Jean Kilbourne in her book “Deadly Persuasion” some studies have found that from forty to eighty percent of fourth grade girls are dieting. Today at least one third of twelve to thirteen year old girls are actively trying to lose weight, by dieting, vomiting, using laxatives, or taking diet pills. One survey found that 63 percent of high school girls were on diets, compared with only 16 percent of men. And a survey in Massachusetts found that the single largest group of high school students considering suicide are girls who feel like they are overweight. We have essentially been mislead into this very narrow and incorrect idea of what “healthy” is for the sake of selling products.
A 1999 study done at the University of Michigan found that, beginning in preschool, girls are told to be quiet much more often than boys (Kilbourne 139). Although boys were much noisier than girls the girls were told to speak softly or to use a “nicer” voice about three times more often. As a result of this research has shown that these girls grow up into women who are afraid to speak up for themselves or to use their voices to protect themselves from various dangers. A poor sense of self, a lack of ability to manage difficult emotions or a low self-worth in a variety of life spheres can increase the risk of negative body image. Predominantly, there is the greater risk a child may focus on their body as one aspect that they dislike, over which they believe they can exert some control and change, or as a focus point of their negative view of themselves due to its tangible and visible nature.
Research is starting to demonstrate that negative attitudes towards physical appearance by parents, older siblings and caregivers have a direct impact on children’s views

Media has an undeniable effect on all people; women are especially vulnerable to the subversive messages often
presented.