Society’s Views and Standards Harm Body Image and Can Lead to Unhealthy

Lifestyles
Karla Contreras
Society Today

Abstract
Body image and the media has remained a controversial topic throughout the
development of social networking sites. Body image is the mental picture one paint of their own
body. Body image is not only harmed through misinterpretation in the media but it is affected by
all of society and the unrealistic views. In a study, results were compared on how students are
affected by media representation, parental insight, and their surroundings. While the study found
that body image is not always affected by one’s own use of social media, the media and society’s
portrayal of it do not go unnoticed.

Introduction
Body image is the mental picture one
paints of their own body. With an increase
on the use of social media sites, many
questions have arose regarding the effect it
may have on body image. In this case, what
role do age, gender, race, sexuality, one’s
surroundings and the media play on body
image?
Media has influenced its audience to
have second thoughts about their physical
appearance, by creating expectations on an
ideal body shape and size or how to control
health. As research suggests, body image is
an issue due to unrealistic standards set by
society. The media only adds to setting an
objective on gaining popularity based on
likes, followers (on social networking sites),
or sales of magazines with over
sensualization of appearance.
In society, women are often at the
short end of the stick of unrealistic and toxic
expectations set for their bodies. Women are
targeted more often than males mostly due
to the fact that these expectations are for
women meeting men’s pleasure, but it
doesn’t exclude men from being targeted as
well (The Body Project: An Intimate History
of American Girls). While women are
pressured to have a thin yet curvy body, men
are expected to have a toned body, muscles
everywhere. This leads to the belief that
negative views on body image, whether it is
based on age, gender, or sexuality, can cause
the development of mental health issues and
lead to an unhealthy life.
Due to its complexity, media is able
to reach and affect a large audience. A
majority of teenagers’ social life revolves
around their follower count or content
quality. This social standard online follows
social media users in their day-to-day life.
What media causes is self-internalization,
which can often be linked to self-
objectification. For example, if an instagram
user comes across a post about eating
healthy meals, it will cause them to feel
pressured to try that meal; users are being
exposed to “healthy” ways to lead their life
and they can take that positively or make a
drastic change for their diet, potentially a

1
harmful change. A study found that
adolescents often found themselves
wondering how they looked and how it
might influence others to think about their
body. If adolescents are already worrying
about their physical appearance at such an
early age, it can lead to a few of them
developing eating disorders in their youth
but not carrying on into adulthood (“The
developmental effects of social media-ideal
internalization and self-objectification
processes on adolescents’ negative body-
feelings, dietary restraint, and binge
eating.”).
An eating disorder is a psychological
effect that is caused by unhealthy eating
habits (“Utilization of The Mirror Interview
to Explore the Influences of Parents and
Objectification on the Body and Disordered
Eating Behaviors.”), they can develop in an
attempt to change physical appearance so
that one’s mental image of their body is met,
no matter how drastic it may be. Eating
disorders vary drastically, anorexia nervosa
is a low intake of food in fear of gaining
weight, bulimia nervosa is frequent intakes
of food plus behaviors meant to prevent
weight gain, and binge eating is similar to
bulimia nervosa but without the behaviors to
prevent weight gain.
But why should we be worried? With
an increase in social media use, many more
adolescents are starting their multiple online
accounts at an earlier age. This makes them
prone to the multiple effects of social media.
If they are exposed early, they are able to
see and try to conform with the unrealistic
expectations set by celebrities or generally
older people. Unrealistic expectations, such
as photos edited to make stomachs look
flatter or muscles look bigger, are set when
celebrities post photo shoots, or any
photograph that is noticeably heavily
photoshopped and edited in order to achieve
beauty. These standards may lead to
unhealthy habits such as eating disorders,
mental health issues and a low self-esteem.
Study
In order to find out how students
from International Studies Learning Center
high school, ages 14-18, feel about
themselves and their physical appearance, a
survey was conducted focusing on
race/ethnicity, sexuality, gender, and past
experiences dealing with body image. ISLC
was chosen because it is in a low-income
community and the student majority are
minorities. Knowing that most of the
participants come from a minority group, I
asked if they felt represented on the media
and why they felt that way. An
overwhelming amount responded that they
did indeed feel that they were appropriately
being represented. One of the participants
was neutral, responding with “Yes I feel
represented. [But] I don’t care, I see more
Mexican/ Latinx in popular movies and
music.” Whether they care or not, it is clear
that they are noticing the changes, recently
feeling represented due to celebrities being
from a similar background and being able to
attract a big audience on social media.
Leaning towards an even more
personal question, participants were asked if
their family and cultural background affects
their views on body image. While a majority
of the responses denied family and
background affecting their view of
themselves, the few that were affected by
2
them responded negatively. A participant
shared that in order to deal with the opinions
of others on their body, they would start
developing work out routines or change the
way they ate in order to see a change in their
body and satisfy their family’s expectations.
Family are the toughest to deal with because
they are constantly around and their
opinions are often the harshest, which is
why I wanted to see their role on body
image.
If neither social media nor family
influenced views on body image I asked
participants to explain who or what did
influence them. Although they were given
the option to include anything, a majority
still felt that their parents and siblings were
the biggest contributors to how they felt
about their physical appearance. It was still
obvious that media plays a huge role
because of its popularity and “goal” to attain
the most followers, likes, or shares. Whether
there are celebrities on magazines or on
social media sites, these students still felt
pressured by their looks and tried to
conform to them
The bar chart above represents the
race/ ethnicity of 80 participants, students
from International Studies Learning Center
High School and residents of South Gate.
It is noticeable that the majority of
participants are Hispanic or Latino at 91%
of the sample size. Then the minorities were
African Americans and White both at 3%
with Asian at 1%.
Based on the results it can be
inferred that the majority of people in South
Gate and students at International Studies
Learning Center High School are Hispanic
or Latino.
A main focus of this study was to see
how minorities’ body image is affected by
the media or society, and it was found that
when it came to home traditions, it seemed
that in a Hispanic or Latino household, some
nicknames set by parents are a bit too harsh
on the participants, often targeting physical
appearances. For example in a personal
interview on April 14 2017 with Stephanie
Zamora, she shared that her parents and
most family members often refer to her as
“gordita”, Spanish for a chubby girl. This
took a toll on Zamora’s self esteem at an
early age, dealing with obesity. She began
feeling extremely insecure and attempted to
hide her body, ashamed of being noticed by
others. Zamora explained that she did not
feel comfortable being seen that often
because of her body and it caused her to not
care so much about the way she led her life;
going straight to sleep after school, not
socialising with her friends as often, and the
list goes on. She also found an “escape” in
wearing make-up, feeling the need to
manipulate her appearance in order to feel
beautiful and have less focus on her body.
Eventually Zamora started focusing more on
her health rather than her physical
appearance and in the process taught her
parents how to address any health concerns
3
they have for her. She expressed how her
old nickname and posts she sees online do
not affect her anymore, but they still remind
her of how hard it was for her to be
confident and not hate how she looked.
Zamora’s experience is only one of
many and it is time we realize that parents
and traditions alike are likely to cause body
image issues to young children, possibly
scarring them for life. Constantly being
around parents causes children to think that
their views are correct and they should listen
to them, even if it pushes down their self-
esteem.
When participants were asked to
describe how they reacted to the media
targeting body image, about 52% of them
simply ignored it. But the second most
common response was trying to “meet
expectations set by society,” with around
15% of participants feeling that way.
The media is in fact beginning to
affect adolescents at an earlier age, and it is
taking a toll on them. Whether it be a post
about make-up routines, healthy lifestyles,
work out videos or anything of the likes, it
makes the audience over-think and try to be
like what they see. The owners of such posts
may not be aware of the message they are
sending out but the audience will interpret it
differently and decide how they react to it.
The participants were from
International Studies Learning Center, asked
“Do you feel social media has an influence
on your views of body image? If so, how do
you deal with it?” A total of 80 responses
were collected.
The pie chart illustrates the different
ways people deal with the effects social
media has on body image and opinions on
body image.
A surprising 51.85% of participants
(+3.7% that stick to their own belief) who
choose to ignore any effects social media
may try to impose on them, there is also a
majority of those who are not as great at
avoiding them, assuming they all answered
honestly. Only about 11% of the participants
are able to think positively and not be
affected or influenced by social media’s
expectations. The remaining 33% of
participants that are affected by social
media, negatively deal with those effects by
either attempting to meet the expectations;
eating more, working out, overthinking or
wish to be like images on social media.
There is clear evidence that most of
the participants can be confident or have the
willpower to not let social media into their
heads quickly, yet many others are not
capable of doing the same and find their
own ways of getting rid of those effects
social media creates for them, either
changing their appearance or disconnecting
completely from social media. There is also
an unknown factor of who these students are
inclined to follow on social media sites,
which controls what type of posts pop up for
them. As well the owners of the posts or
4
accounts not being entirely aware that their
content is being seen as a way of shaming
others’ looks. Not once did any participant
mention getting any professional help on
dealing with social media’s impact which
can imply that there may be some dangerous
routes their own methods can take.
As the survey results suggest, many
students deal with media’s influence by
ignoring them altogether but it is not always
effective, as is may come back to them at an
older age. When conducting an experiment
known as The Mirror Interview, Esther
McBirney-Goc found that having
participants look at themselves while being
asked questions about their body image they
unconsciously reflect what they have been
told by others, but mostly what they heard
from parents. The participants were possibly
unaware they had issues with their body
image, but upon completing the interview
they thought back to how their parents
played a key role in their view of themselves
and how they were expected to appear to
others. McBirney’s experiment was able to
illustrate previous skepticism of parents’
role in their children’s feeling on body
image. The experiment cleared up the
confusion and confirmed that parents’ words
and opinions on their children’s body have a
negative impact and lower their self-esteem.
People being constantly surrounded
by these types of environments can lead
them to be feeling underrepresented,
misinterpreted or unsatisfied with
themselves. In fact in a study it was found
that 79% of their female participants were
“unpleased with their physical appearance”.
(“Self-esteem and Body Image Perception in
a Sample of University Students.”). These
participants were unpleased because they
were comparing the multiple ways the
female body was perceived and what a
“typical” body should be. This proved that
with being educated and exposed to the
interpretations of the female body in the
media, women’s self-esteem was lowered.
Solution
In order for us to prevent a growing
number of mental disorders or eating
disorders due to body image dissatisfaction,
we must empower everyone by representing
every body shape, every skin tone, every
bone structure, everyone. Positivity and
representation must happen correctly. No
more expectations targeted to minorities and
encouraging them to be more “idealistic”, no
more ideals at all. It will be tough to set
standards on what kind of content is posted
on social media but it is not impossible.
Though some may believe that it would not
be fair to restrict some content, it also isn’t
fair for people to be told what they should
look like in order to be accepted by society.
Restrictions on what content is
allowed on social media are already intact
but what should be focused on is the way
they are shared. Often times the pictures
shared are not the problems but instead their
captions are what target others.
Not only are restrictions needed but
resources should be shared by parents and
schools that can help adolescents find a way
to express how they are feeling. Body image
is a hard subject to cover in one-semester
long health course but if teachers put
themselves out there and offer their unbiased
help to their students, it will help for
objectification to no be internalized. Dealing
5
with the perception of body image in the
media is tough on students but if they are
taught that there are different ways in which
they can accept their body, instead of
conforming to society’s expectations, the
chance of developing eating disorders or
depression will decrease.
It seems unlikely that an issue this
broad will be solved by such simple actions
but it can work. In past efforts such as those
of singer Hailee Steinfeld, releasing a song
title “Love Myself” prompted many fans to
sing along and actually feel confident when
doing so. If more self love is promoted more
people will see everyone joining in and a
trend will spread. Social media easily makes
videos and photographs go viral so why not
try to make a self love theme go through the
same?
Conclusion
Body image is affected greatly by a
variety of factors such as age, gender,
sexuality, race, and the media’s
representation on these factors. In a Latino
community the greatest contributors to
problems with body image are the media,
parents, home traditions and gender.
Misinterpretations of how a person should
look is what leads to low self-esteem and the
development of unhealthy coping methods
in order to feel like society will accept them.
Parents play a role in how children’s image
of themselves, often times criticizing their
looks because they do not look like what
they expect, develops and how they deal
with it. Children are prone to pick up on
their parents behaviors and can lead to a
cycle of unhealthy habits. Parents can do so
much more for their children, they should be
encouraging them to accept themselves for
who they are, not to change because others
have different views. Body image should be
a sensitive subject to discuss and taken
seriously because we all play a role in the
way others view themselves.
Body image affects a few of its
users, leaving them to feel the need to
change their appearance or enhance it with
the same effects celebrities use, such as
photoshop. This also creates hate from
others, shaming those who use photoshop
poorly and claiming they try too hard.
Essentially criticism in the media will never
be escaped, whether you flaunt your natural
curves or manipulate your images, there will
always be the users who shame any attempt
at self love and acceptance.
While media and the authors of
harmful posts are often to blame for
spreading unrealistic expectations, the free
choice to join social media questions
whether or not body image issues, such as
body dysmorphia, are self-induced and can
be easily “fixed” by removing one’s self
from all the sites.
References
Brumberg, Joan Jacobs. The Body Project:
An Intimate History of American
Girls. Vintage. 1 September 1998.
Contreras, Karla. “The Influence of One’s
Surroundings and the Media on
Body Image”. Survey. 6 March
2017.
Dakanalis, Antonios, Guiseppe Carra,
Rachel Calogero, et al. “The
developmental effects of
social media-ideal internalization
and self-objectification processes on
6
 adolescents’ negative body-feelings,
dietary restraint, and binge eating.”
European Child & Adolescent
Psychiatry 24.8 (2015): 997-1010.
Academic Search Premier. 22 Nov.
2014. Web 19 Jan. 2017.
McBirney-Goc, Esther. “Utilization of The
Mirror Interview to Explore the
Influences of Parents and
Objectification on the Body and
Disordered Eating Behaviors.” The
New School Psychology Bulletin
13.2 (2016): 17-31. Academic Search
Premier. Web. 19 Jan. 2017.
Pop, Cristina. “Self-esteem and Body Image
Perception in a Sample of University
Students.” Eurasian Journal of
Educational Research, 64, 31-44.
Education Research Complete.
Web 19 Jan. 2017.
Robl, Kristie E., and Kate E. Mulgrew. “The
Effects of Concentrated and Realistic
Viewing Patterns of Music Video
Clips On Men’s Body Satisfaction
and Mood.” International Journal of
Men’s Health 15.3 (2016): 259-266.
Academic Search Premier. Web. 19
Jan. 2017.
Whyte, Cavel, Leonard S. Newman, and
David Voss. “A Confound-Free Test
of the Effects of Thin-Ideal Media
Images on Body Dissatisfaction.”
Journal of Social & Clinical
Psychology. 35.10 (2016): 822. Web.
19 Jan. 2017. Commented [1]: i luh u papi
Zamora, Stephanie. Personal interview. 14 Commented [2]: lol
April 2017.