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Taya Gordon
Sue Briggs
English 2010: 10:00-11:20
8 April 2016
What is the Media doing to our Body Image?
The society we live in today is a technological dependent world. Anywhere you go there
will be someone on their laptop or phone playing on the newest app, posting selfies on
Instagram, or updating their Facebook status. There is no escape from technology meaning there
is no escape from the media, it is everywhere. Media is entertaining and can relieve the
boringness from a humdrum day, but media can also pose a very significant threat. A threat that
can affect anyone and everyone anywhere they are. As everyone has seen beauty standards in the
media are a little twisted. Men are depicted that to be attractive they have to have big muscles
and a chiseled six-pack. Women are toothpick thin with their body proportions altered through
photo shop or can only be achieved by cosmetic surgery or other extreme body alterations. This
is unsettling that adolescents, men, and women all around the world are comparing themselves to
unrealistic body standards that negatively influence their body image.
Body Image and the Media
What is body image? Body image is how we perceive ourselves. It is our own
representation of ours physical appearance based on what we see around us. It is based on our
experience with others, and their opinions. Whether someones body image is negative or
positive it can affect every aspect of their life. A negative body image can lead to body

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dissatisfaction. Body dissatisfaction can lead to multiple negative affect in their life. Body
dissatisfaction can create negative moods, and a big decrease in self-esteem. The media shapes
what the ideal is. It tries to force a specific type of body should be the norm. For girls and
women, they should be thin to be considered attractive. For boys and men, they cant be too big
or to thin, they must be lean and muscular to uphold their masculinity.
Childhood, Adolescence, Body Image, and the Media
Children are exposed to media from a very young age. Although this exposure can be
beneficial in the sense that children and adolescence can be informed more on local and global
issues; this can be very concerning. Lois Berry, Shelly Spurr, and Keith Walker restate a fact
from Ambrosis study girls as young as five years of age showed greater preference to a thinner
figure (pg.18). It is alarming how early the media can affect the ideal body image of children.
This concern only grows larger as children become adolescence and they are exposed to more
unrealistic body standards. Spurr states a surprising statistic that adolescence spends 16-17 hours
a week watching television shows, and 20-40 hours a week watching movies and playing video
games. Also they spend about one-third of their day on message media (pg.18). That report was
from a decade ago, these numbers have only grown larger. We are a technological dependent
world, and parents cant always control what their adolescence is going to see in the media. The
bombardment of all of these unrealistic body standards has resulted in a huge decrease in body
satisfaction leading to eating disorders in female adolescence. Although male adolescence may
not be as willing to talk about their body anxiety, body dissatisfaction is also a threat, and they
are more likely to engage in body change strategies (Spurr pg. 19). Body dissatisfaction can
be the cause of low self-esteem, and sadly this low self-esteem has made young girls inflict selfharm. Media Smarts, a website based solely on teaching digital and media literacy states an

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alarming statistic that 25% of girls with low self-esteem inflict self-harm, and another 25%
reported disordered eating. Eating disorders are also becoming more popular among boys, some
as young as 10 are becoming obsessed with building a muscular physique (Media Smarts). They
do not want to be too skinny or too big, and will do what they prove necessary not to be ridiculed
about their size. These problems will not go away; they will only worsen, unless action is taken.
Adults, Body Image, and the Media

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However using pretty, thin models with perfect bodies are an effective sales tactic it is
harmful to the mental health of women. The way the ideal body is portrayed in the media sends
subliminal messages. William Kinnally and Kristen E. Van Vonderen, says that that media figures
are shown to be socially desirable and successful, while overweight actresses and models are
frequently ridiculed in media (pg. 42). The media has shifted towards a thin-ideal pertaining
to media showing noticeably thin characters and models. This thin-ideal media promotes that
being thin is an advantageous attribute, being thin is to be, beautiful, desirable, and successful
protagonists (Van Vonderen pg.43). Women who are heavily exposed to this are starting to
accept this as the norm, as something that is attainable, and something they should be. This
makes women start to measure their self-worth by
appearances and compare themselves to this body image.
This leads to major body dissatisfaction, low self-esteem,
and a twisted unhealthy body image. If this is severe
enough some women may use extreme measures to have
the perfect body. Women may go as extreme to spend
thousands of dollars to fix their bodies. Or they may develop eating disorders. Just in the United
States 20 million women suffer or have suffered from a clinical eating disorder sometime
throughout their life (Get the Facts on Eating Disorders).
This exposure to unrealistic bodies also greatly affects men. Karen Pallarito states that
20% to 40% of men were unhappy with an aspect of their body or appearance. 58% of gay men
and 29% of straight men felt pressured by social media to be attractive. This pressure could lead
men to get cosmetic surgery, Pallarito claims that 51% of gay men and 22% of straight men were
very interested in getting cosmetic surgery. Many advertisements are shifted toward men to get

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more built or shredded. They are shown that to be

attractive they need to lose weight while getting
ripped. The effects of this pressure are very serious,
and can lead to depression and eating disorders.
What Do We Need To Do?
To remedy this huge issue of body dissatisfaction thats creating twisted and unhealthy
body images we, as a society, need to educate children, others, and ourselves. We need to realize
that the bodies that are portrayed in the media are not what a normal body looks like. We need to
be less prejudice about weight and more accepting of every size and everybody. Most
importantly we need to learn to love and accept ourselves exactly how we are.

Educate and Inform

We must educate and inform everyone about how bodies are portrayed in the media.
Altered body proportions to make them perfect needs to be exposed, so children and others know
that the image they see or compare themselves to is not natural or achievable. We must start
teaching children at a young age that the bodies they see are not what they need to or should
have to look like. To do this we can show children and adolescence what a real healthy body
looks like. We can teach them healthy lifestyles. We need to teach them that when any type of
body dissatisfaction occurs there will always
be someone there to listen and help them.
Along with the education of what a healthy
body is we need to help people change their

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perspectives. Bodies in the media are there for entertainment or to sell something. We need to
recognize that these media bodies are a clever sales tactic and not there to enforce a norm we
should follow.
Be Accepting
For everyone to feel comfortable in their own skin we need to be more accepting of
everyone no matter the size or shape they may be. To combat the prejudice we experience in the
media we must end to what Denise Geelhart calls fat shaming, judging, and bullying of others.
Who has the right to judge or ridicule anothers weight and size? No one! Some people may say
they do it because they are concerned about their health, but it is bullying. Making someone feel
bad about their looks is not right, and who are they
to judge someone based solely off of their size. They
do not know if the person has a medical condition,
is taking medication, or is eating healthy and
exercising but still not seeing results (Geelhart). To
put this prejudice of bigger bodies to rest we must put an end to unjust judging and bullying.
Love Ourselves
The most important thing we can do to combat the pressure of changing ourselves based
on what the media thinks we should look like, is to love ourselves.
We need to learn to accept and love ourselves and bodies no matter
what we look like. It may take time, and it can be extremely hard,
but to be able to help anyone we must first help ourselves. Some
way to feel better about your appearance is to use cognitive

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behavioral therapy, says Robyn Abree. Cognitive behavioral therapy is where negative patterns
of thought about yourself and the world are changed into positive ones. It can be as simple as
saying something nice about you in the mirror. This can help retrain your brain to think
positively while looking at your reflection (Abree).
To Conclude
Unhealthy body image is something that cannot be taken lightly. It needs to be addressed
now before it worsens any farther. Having body dissatisfaction and an unhealthy body image can
create negative thoughts, moods, and even depression. Many men, women, and adolescence
develop eating disorders, and go to extreme lengths to change their body. In order to remedy this
situation we must change our thoughts and perspective about what we see in the media, by
realizing that what we see may not be real. We need to be informed and become educated about
any deception. We must stop the prejudice and learn to love and accept ourselves for exactly how
we are.

Works Cited
Abree, Robyn. "Better Body Image: Accepting Your Body at Any Size."WebMD. WebMD, 11
May 2014. Web. 04 Apr. 2016.
Geelhart, Denise. "It's Time to Stop Fat Shaming." The Huffington Post.
TheHuffingtonPost.com, n.d. Web. 04 Apr. 2016.
"MediaSmarts." MediaSmarts. N.p., n.d. Web. 01 Apr. 2016.

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Pallarito, Karen. "Many Men Have Body Image Issues, Too." Health News / Tips & Trends /
Celebrity Health. HealthDay News, 21 Mar. 2016. Web. 04 Apr. 2016.
"Prevalence vs. Funding." Get The Facts On Eating Disorders. N.p., n.d. Web. 04 Apr. 2016.
Spurr, Shelley, Lois Berry, and Keith Walker. "Exploring Adolescent Views Of Body Image: The
Influence Of Media." Issues In Comprehensive Pediatric Nursing 36.1/2 (2013): 1736. Academic Search Premier. Web. 1 Apr. 2016.
Van Vonderen, Kristen E., and William Kinnally. "Media Effects On Body Image: Examining
Media Exposure In The Broader Context Of Internal And Other Social
Factors." American Communication Journal 14.2 (2012): 41-57. Communication & Mass
Media Complete. Web. 28 Mar. 2016.