Pop Culture

Pop Culture
A body is our physical structure. It is our flesh and bone. It represents our very being. We have utterly no control over which body we are born into, yet despite this fact, our body has the power to shape the people we become and even the way we perceive ourselves. Body image, as defined by Merriam Webster, is “a subjective picture of one's own physical appearance established both by self-observation and by noting the reactions of others.” In Western culture, thinness has become highly valued and millions of people, especially women, are fixated on the thin body (The Body and the Reproduction of Femininity, Bordo, 309). In short, to gain social admiration and respect, women have come to understand that their bodies must represent the thin ideal. This idea has been promoted and further advanced by popular culture (The Body and the Reproduction of Femininity, Bordo, 309). Cultural outlets such as films, television, magazines, music, advertisements and so forth have continued to reinforce the idea that to be happy and beautiful, one must be skinny (The Body and the Reproduction of Femininity, Bordo, 309). This reinforcement is of no surprise considering that thinness is a multi-million dollar industry. From weight-loss pills to exercise gear to reality shows for weight-loss, thinness is a lucrative business and pop culture outlets have major incentive to retain the thin ideal. Unfortunately, the media’s unattainable “perfect” body results in millions of women developing low self-esteem, depression, eating disorders, and so forth (The Body and the Reproduction of Femininity, Bordo, 309-310). Popular culture affects what we believe – in this case, our beliefs surrounding gender roles, beauty ideals, and sexual dynamics – and, in turn, what we believe about ourselves, thus shaping our identity. Media has created an unattainable idea of beauty and bodily perfection, which leads to the dissatisfaction most women feel about their body shapes. From a very young age, girls are taught by our society that in order to be “beautiful,” we most look a certain way and be a certain size – a size that, biologically speaking, is simply not a reality for the majority. When a young girl is born, she is born into a culture that will rear her a certain way. She will wear pink, she will be dressed in dresses, and she will be treated differently from a boy. All these actions are a result of our culture. They are cultural forces at work. When she is older, popular culture will play a large role in her life. She will watch princess movies, play with tea sets and kitchen tools, and she will be given dolls. Again, these are cultural forces at work. Her femininity, that is, is culturally fabricated. And what exactly does femininity entail? Let us look at the Barbie doll, a figure that represents an unrealistic, but socially acceptable, image of femininity. Young girls look at Barbie and they admire and treasure her. She is “perfection.” However, most normal-weight-individuals can never be Barbie, and if young girls are embedded with the idea that Barbie is the ideal, then “using such models as standards for comparison, discontent is a logical outcome.” (Distorting Reality for Children: Body Size Proportions of Barbie and Ken Dolls, Brownell, 296). Although Barbie is a toy, and most children may not consciously compare their bodies to her, Barbie delivers a strong and powerful message that will later be reinforced by magazines, films, television shows, and so forth, and that message is that the ideal female body is tall, large-breasted, and impossibly thin. Moreover, once young girls become young and adult women, most of the negative effect pop culture plays on them comes via magazines and television. The average television viewer watches 400-600 advertisements a day, and most of these advertisements use sexuality to sell their products (Pop Culture’s Effect on Body Image, Hoover). And of course, what is sexuality in our culture? Thin women with large breasts. The women that see these advertisements and television shows and read these magazines are exposed to weight loss products, make-up, lingerie all modeled and promoted by stick-thin models and celebrities. Furthermore, the ultimate message to women is that they must hide their natural selves and create cultural robots that represent this unattainable level of thinness and femininity. Media has had such a large effect that girls are starting to diet at an age as young as nine, and by the time young girls reach thirteen, 80% of them will have attempted to lose weight (Pop Culture’s Effect on Body Image, Hoover). All in all, our society has created an impossible standard for women. Popular culture infiltrates our society with images and messages that say you can never be too thin. In our society, to be thin is to be beautiful, and to be anything less is to be less valuable. Thus, outward appearance has become a window to one’s inner worthiness and to not be the right size or the right weight says one is lazy and negligent and therefore unimportant. This sort of logic is vile and disturbing, yet it is the world we live in, and popular culture makes use of the current social order to prey on women’s vulnerabilities and make millions. As a result, women spend countless hours judging themselves based on this unrealistic idea of perfection. There are millions of women in this country suffering from body image disorders and from a compulsive need to look “perfect.” They lose themselves and their identity is altered. Their bodies are not their own, and yet they play into the game because the promised rewards are acceptance, companionship, love, admiration, and happiness.