Self Objectification Theory

Throughout history the media has had a major effect on how women view themselves. There has always been a certain expectation or standard of how someone needs to look to be classified as attractive. Seeing that the media sets these expectations, society is led to believe that the models, actors, or singers that are seen in the magazines or on social media is how everyone should look like, which is not always obtainable. Back in the fifties the media advertised that being thin was not attractive and that women had to gain weight for men to even look at them, but now being thicker is now not as attractive and in order for people to be their best selves they have to lose weight and look thinner. The media has a huge influence on women today and
it is creating negative body image leading to dietary restraint, eating disorders, and women thinking negatively about themselves based on how they, and others, look. To begin, the use of photoshop in the media is a huge factor in creating these “perfect” bodies that women are supposed to have. In most cases the pictures published in magazines are altered in some way to fit the standards of an ideal body. Since these pictures of celebrities are slimmed down and made to look perfect it sets an unrealistic body standard for women everywhere. In a recent study it states, “For women, an earlier meta-analysis of 25 experimental studies found that they felt worse about their body after exposure to thin ideal images than other stimuli…”.(Dittmar) In addition to the photoshop most models are actually underweight and thin before the slimming down. In an article it explains, “Also, as stated by many researchers, the models of today are drastically thinner than the models of the past. As each year goes by, the front cover models and the A-List celebrities reach new levels in their thinness, even reaching a level thinner than the criteria for anorexia.”(Kovar) In the same article it is also pointed out that in reality shows there are these “average women” that are great examples of how our culture’s standards of attractiveness have gotten to an unhealthy level.”(Kovar) Since the standards of beauty are set so high all the women that are exposed to the media feel the need to live up to the standards and feel dissatisfied with their own bodies. “Not only do these women possess the scarily thin bodies, but they constantly discuss dieting, exercise to lose weight, and how they aren’t thin enough. It wasn’t bad enough that supermodels were bombarding our culture with negative body image references, but now these “reality shows” with “real people” are portraying the same message.”(Kovar) If these already thin women on television are talking about losing weight it doesn’t make other women feel good about themselves even if they are an average weight. Average sized women feel that they need to lose weight in order to be attractive because of all of the already skinny people saying that they are losing weight and going on diets.
In one study results show that, ”Consistent with objectification theory [17, 35], our results provide some evidence that through self objectification (via body surveillance), which may serve as a mechanism enabling individuals to evaluate their standing relative to the gendered beauty ideals [29, 38, 40, 43, 44, 63], women and men may come to recognize a discrepancy between their current and ideal physique [29–31, 34, 38, 63, 78] and, as a result, experience feelings of anxiety and shame about their body and appearance [18, 58].”(Dakanalis,Carrà,Calogero,Fida,Cleric,Zanett,Riva) These feelings of anxiety and shame about their body and appearance can lead to major eating disorders such as anorexia and bulimia. Anorexia is a perception disorder which makes men or women feel that they are overweight and it often leads to eating less and exercising excessively which can be life threatening.(Self Image/Media Influences) This thin body ideal does not help the women with this disorder because they feel the need to stop eating an over exercise to try and meet these body standards to make themselves look better according to the
media. Not only is the ideal body based on your size but it is also based on your skin and your hair. Photoshop also has a big role in editing a picture to make a model seem like they have flawless skin and the perfect hair which is practically unattainable. With photoshop they can erase birthmarks, stretch marks, acne, and freckles which almost every woman has somewhere on their bodies. Seeing these models without flaw in their skin or bodies is really discouraging to those that look up to these models and actresses. Also with photoshop they can enhance the look of a model's hair and make it look more shiny, voluminous, and essentially perfect. No one's hair can look that flawless no matter how hard they try, which sets yet another unrealistic expectation for women. However, there are counterclaims to this argument. For example, there has been an increase in plus sized models lately which could bring some diversity to the perfect body image which could be true, but even with the plus sized models there is still photoshop being used to slim down their bodies to make them more acceptable in the media. Another counter argument is that the media can't control how women view themselves. This is true to some extent, sure the media cannot control the thoughts of women but it is the fact of peer pressure and if women hear that being this is equal to being attractive enough times they are going to start to believe it. In conclusion the media can have a crippling effect on women’s body image and how they view themselves.
The media has a huge influence on women today and it is creating negative body image leading to dietary restraint, eating disorders, and women thinking negatively about themselves based on how they, and others, look. The elimination of photoshop could ultimately change body image and crush the idea of a perfect body. It could also help women to become more comfortable in their own skin by seeing all the models and actresses in their natural form. If the media does not stop putting out ideas of the perfect body and how thin is attractive then the percentage of women with eating disorders could increase overtime which isn't good for
anyone.