Preview

Perfect Body Image

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
1019 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Perfect Body Image
“Until now he had not been aware of the tyrannizing influence acquired by one idea over his mind, and of the lengths which he might find in his heart to go for the sake of giving himself peace” (Hawthorne qtd. in James and Merickel 508). Many people like Aylmer in this story would not think they would let one idea take them over. However, this has happened to a lot of people. The main goals most people are trying to reach are finding love, being rich and living happily-ever-after. Perfection is also among these goals especially when it comes to women. The mainstream media tries to shape how people think and view the world, as well as themselves, by fabricating the idea of a fairytale and influencing society to conform to that idea through …show more content…
Followers are the new friends, the number of retweets someone gets is the new form of being famous, and posting photos and videos is the new way to keep a memory. Social media does portray the fairytale life and happily-ever-after but, it mainly portrays perfection. The perfect body image has changed quite a bit in the past few years and is constantly changing. There are many social media accounts on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook whose content is primarily devoted to portraying the “perfect” girl. The ideal body image of 2016 is now a beautiful woman who is average height, has a big bust and back-side, has a small waist, who is athletic and in good shape. Although being in shape is not a bad thing to strive for, many body images contradict that. For example, many runway models are under weight and are not healthy, however some girls view that as the perfect body image. Calvin Klein models are typically tall men who have marbled abs and the perfect jaw line. Many boys believe they must look like this in order to be valued in a girl’s eyes. Perfection has taken over the minds of many young people not only because of social media but mainstream media as well. Young girls and boys look up to people who are telling them to be a certain way and that something different is not worthy or accepted. Many people go about achieving perfection in unhealthy
Continue Reading
View Writing Issues

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Susan Bordo Never Just Pictures Analysis
    • 777 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Susan Bordo Never Just Pictures Analysis

    Bordo's article is very relevant because social media is a powerful source of influence. There is a slight distinction on how the media portrayed beauty in “Never Just Pictures” and how it does it now, but at the end, its making people put their body under a lot of pressure and restrictions to fit these beauty standards. In fact, in the article beauty is all about being hyper-thin to the point you either look like a junkie or dead. Nowadays beauty is seen as having a fit, hourglass body. Even though our perception of beauty is “better”, the way many girls achieve it is still the same; they develop eating disorder to get thin and then they restrain and force their bodies to mold themselves into what society has told them is considered…

    • 777 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Powerful Essays

    Media's Influence On Body Image In Teenage Girls
    • 1894 Words
    • 8 Pages

    Media's Influence On Body Image In Teenage Girls

    Many things can affect one’s body perception such as peers and family but most importantly the influences within the media can have the biggest affect on how one sees themselves. In some ways people can control the social factors that negatively affect their body perception. However, the mass media is every where and can be hard to avoid. Past research indicates that by the time a girl turns 6 she is already dissatisfied with her body image (Hayes & Tantleff,2010). The social standards of today emphasizes the need for women to be thin and blemish free, setting a physical expectation of beauty that is beyond impossible to reach ( Tiggemann, 2003). It is said that media is the most influential…

    • 1894 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Powerful Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Body Image
    • 866 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Body Image

    This assignment the writer had to pick a commercial or advertisement that appealed to adolescents. The commercial that was chosen was a Calvin Kline Jeans commercial.…

    • 866 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Powerful Essays

    Social Media's Negative Effects On Body Image
    • 1737 Words
    • 7 Pages

    Social Media's Negative Effects On Body Image

    In America, it is extremely hard for anyone to feel confident with themselves because they are always being bombarded with images and ideas of these beautiful, perfect people plastered wherever you go. Having to see this all of the time can really put a strain on people when they look in the mirror and don't see the same thing(The Influences 15).Although, the media doesn't directly cause eating disorders or body issues. It puts the idea that there is something wrong with your body if you do not match the images you are staring at on a screen, magazine, etc. "They exert powerful influences on values, attitudes, and practices for body image, diet, and activity”(The Influences 54). The media has an enormous image of conforming young minds by telling them what is pretty, desirable, or how to look. Cultures are judging people based off appearance rather than intelligence or character(The Influences 9).Author Wen-ying Sylvia Chou of the U.S. National Institutes of Health states that we should change the face of social media. Instead of breeding vicious comments and cyber-bullying, we should create a supportive…

    • 1737 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
    Read More
  • Powerful Essays

    Judith Ortiz Cofer's The Story Of My Body
    • 1363 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Judith Ortiz Cofer's The Story Of My Body

    During the teen years, girl’s bodies are changing at a fast rate. I was beginning to compare myself to the celebrities. According to a body image study published by Common Sense Media, Children, Teens, Media and Body Image, "teens who are active online worry a lot about how they are perceived." Another study by Keep it Real Campaign found that eighty percent of ten-year old American girls have been on a diet. Online teens are getting like votes on Instagram or Facebook, if the teen feels there is not enough votes, it's not good enough and deletes the picture. Teens are wanting feedback on how to improve their online image. Victoria’s Secret tries to sell a certain body, as most of their models are tall and thin. I am tall but thick because of the muscle I have gained through…

    • 1363 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Jacob Silverman's Argument On Using Social Media
    • 1742 Words
    • 7 Pages

    Jacob Silverman's Argument On Using Social Media

    When teenage girls are bored, they tend to spend time on social media admiring images of beautiful women, causing them to feel self- conscious about the way they look. With the impression of social media being a time consumer, an article by Kelly Wallace argues, “Girls, on average, spend about 40 minutes more on social networks than boys, with girls spending about an hour and a half a day on social media and boys a little under an hour” (Wallace). With girls spending that much time on different social media platforms, like Instagram, Twitter and Facebook, it is easy for teenage girls, ages 12 to 19, to become timid about their bodies. When those girls become insecure, they turn to dieting, starving themselves, and start to suffer from Anorexia…

    • 1742 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Body Image
    • 718 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Body Image

    Mirror, mirror on the wall, who’s the prettiest and skinniest of them all? The average woman sees 400 to 600 advertisements per day, and by the time she is 17 years old, she has received over 250,000 commercial messages through the media (Body Image and Advertising). By the mid-1950s, television had become an established part of the furniture in the majority of American homes (Petley). The media has a powerful influence on teenager’s body image through print, electronic, and television advertisements.…

    • 718 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Powerful Essays

    Identity and Belonging Context
    • 1164 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Identity and Belonging Context

    The concept of beauty is thought to define us. It is an important factor in the challenging journey towards finding the knowledge of oneself. It either distorts our perception of ourselves or helps us accept the person we really are. Beauty is superficially defined as being aesthetically pleasing but in actuality it is much more. Beauty is, according to Aristotle at least, truth. It is unchanging, invisible and cannot grow old. Many factors influence what we perceive holds beauty and this in turn influences how we see ourselves and our knowledge of self. The media in today’s society provides us with a bleak outlook on what is acceptable and ideal. It dictates the way we should act, look and even think. Role models used to be shapely and unique including the likes of Marilyn Monroe. In today’s day and age however, where ‘beautiful’ is all bones and sunken features, women like this would be considered ‘plus size’. We define ourselves and others with labels. ‘Fat’, ‘emo’, ‘anxious’ and ‘ordinary’ are used seemingly interchangeably with a person’s name. Social media also allows this to go a step further, providing a way to create a ‘second’ identity and present ourselves in a way that doesn’t represent truth in our ‘beauty’. This is the challenge however. Social media allowing us to do this destroys the truth in beauty, or at least one of its basic principles.…

    • 1164 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Powerful Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Debord: The Stereotypes Of Social Media
    • 635 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Debord: The Stereotypes Of Social Media

    Especially in today’s technological world, the media can be seen almost anywhere that we go. From billboards on the highway, to the streets of downtown Toronto, to the televisions of our own home. The power of the media comes from its omnipresence in society. Due to its strong presence, the messages that the media produces often become the beliefs of its consumers. For example, one of the greatest phenomena within recent decades is the desire to be fit and healthy. The media began to preach the message that being skinny is what people find attractive and cited several studies to confirm their claim. Magazines started to use thin female models as the standard for what is considered beautiful. The media even altered some of the photographs in advertisements to create the ‘perfect body’ for both sexes. These messages sparked a huge movement, which saw the rise of multiple well known commercial gyms such as Goodlife Fitness. Many people started to follow online personas that gave advice on how to burn fat quickly and shared a plethora of fad diets that many people lived by. This is still relevant to today’s society, as millions of people are following numerous fitness models and pages across all social media platforms. They are trying their best to achieve the so-called ‘perfect body’, which is truly a fake reality created by the representations from the…

    • 635 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Better Essays

    Negative Body Image
    • 1867 Words
    • 8 Pages

    Negative Body Image

    A study showed that women experience an average of 13 negative thoughts about their body each day, while 97% of women admit to having at least one “I hate my body” moment each day (raderprograms). Teens today are faced with many pressures: how they dress, who their friends are, who they are going to date, and most importantly, what they look like. In today’s society, body image is more than just the mental picture a person has of what their body looks like. For many, body image is also a reflection of how they feel about themselves and their lives. People with a negative body image believe that if they do not look right, other things, such as their personality, intelligence, social skills, or capabilities, also are not right. They think that if they fix their bodies, all their other problems will disappear. This can result in unhealthy weight management practices and an unhealthy relationship with food. People excessively diet and exercise out of fear of gaining weight. The media today portrays stick thin women with beautiful faces and size 0 bodies, but the truth is, the majority of runway models meet the Body Mass Index (BMI) criteria to be considered anorexic (raderprograms). When influenced by role models like these, teenagers start to feel inferior if they do not look the same. In turn, when put under the pressure of women in the media, teenagers will most likely develop a negative body image, eating or mood disorder, or other unhealthy addictions if they feel their bodies do not “measure up” to those of women portrayed.…

    • 1867 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Better Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Stereotypes Of Teenage Girls
    • 608 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Stereotypes Of Teenage Girls

    According to an article written by Caroline Knorr on Common Sense Media, a parenting advice website, “Thirty-five percent are worried about people tagging them in unattractive photos. Twenty-seven percent feel stressed about how they look in posted photos. Twenty-two percent felt bad about themselves if their photos were ignored” (Knorr). These statistics represent girls, ages thirteen to nineteen and how they feel about themselves online. The problem of self-image is not due to girls being mean to each other; it’s the media influencing their idea of what physical beauty really is. An increasing number of girls now feel bad when they open up social media and see these models. Lately girls have learned how to shape their own social media to create a new sense of physical beauty. Trend’s called #nofilter and #uglyselfie and #nomakeup was created to help girls who are a part of social media feel more comfortable and content about themselves. With over one hundred and ninety-five million pictures uploaded under these three hashtags combined, many of the pictures being teen girls, it seems that social media users are making an effort to shift away from model status to real-life status. Teen girls on social media are bettering their relationship with themselves and others through…

    • 608 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Better Essays

    Body Image
    • 945 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Body Image

    The nonfiction article, "Here's to Looking at You: Is Body Image Being Taken Too Seriously?" by Annie Rispin, is about the struggles of body image of both women and men in college and how current media plays a large part in the issue. Rispin suggests that the pressure college students have to look affects them, especially in our culture of cell phones and media.…

    • 945 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Better Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Body Image
    • 712 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Body Image

    Did you know that 80% of women say that the images if women in television and in movies, fashion magazines, and advertising makes them feel insecure? Body Images is a growing problem among our society today. Some people believe that Body Image is something that come purely from the mind. they day its not influenced by media. Others believe that Body Image is something that can be influenced easily by media and magazines. They say society is influenced by the pressure to be skinny. I believe that media has a negative affect on body image. Media does things like show advertisements, that says "Skinny is beautiful", they encourage eating disorders because fashion models have eating disorders to become skinny, and the media can also influence females views using popular television series and movies.…

    • 712 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Powerful Essays

    Prefect Body Image
    • 2017 Words
    • 9 Pages

    Prefect Body Image

    Is a size small the ideal body size or should I start a new diet to fit into an extra small? What size is the target if I'm looking no to be so skinny but not too fat as well, is there a middle ground? Well how do I know which size is best? Small, large, petite, and plus can easily be translated into terms such as skinny, fat, stubby, or lanky simple adjectives that would make anyone self-conscious about their body size. We become obsessed with having the prefect body image because the mass media’s use of modeling ultimately convinces us to believe that the “not so norm” is the “norm”. Unfortunately, a great proportion of society becomes so influenced by these body images that the ideas of surgery, photo editing, eating disorders, and use harmful dietary supplements are disregarded when considering the factors…

    • 2017 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Powerful Essays
    Read More
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Body Image Informative Speech
    • 500 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Body Image Informative Speech

    Over twenty million people suffer from some type of eating disorder. Of all the mental illnesses eating disorders have the highest rate, thanks to low self-esteem and social media.(Wandschneider) The reason why I’m telling you this is because you will meet someone with some type of problem and this is something that isn’t going away. Today I’m going to tell you about social media and its influences on body image. I choose this topic because it seems like a situation that’s always there.…

    • 500 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
    Read More

Related Topics