Body Image in Women

Jerrica Quinton
November 10, 2011
English 1010
Professor Eden

The Impact of Media Images and their Effects on Body Image in Women

Proposal: In our society, media has a big influence on how people act, live, and feel about them selves. The ideal image of what is considered “beautiful” is decided upon what the media provides us with. It is an ongoing struggle to follow our own beliefs and be our own person when there is so much influence in magazines, TV shows, and movies that are “examples” to teenagers and even adults. The unrealistic beauty that the media portrays today is blinding our generation. The media is brainwashing people to look a certain way and that not a single flaw is allowed. With the way the media and the entertainment world runs, society’s view of beauty is limited to perfectness.
If society weren’t seen as so picture perfect and “fake”, then maybe there would be fewer problems with self-esteem within women and there would be a more positive outcome. Three specific areas in which media is the most influential are modeling, sports, and the celebrity scene In modeling, models are pressured to have a certain thinness that makes the viewer observe beauty in an unhealthy way. Sports are very athletic, and seen as one healthy way to become skinny and fit, but in reality there are lots of problems with steroids, and eating disorders. In the Celebrity world, most who are seen on the red carpet are never as much as they seem; there is always some kind of unreal appearance to them.
Along with the image of looking skinny, more and more stores are holding smaller sizes, limiting larger girls to what they can wear. Girls are also more caught up with what they look like and care less about things such as education and career. I knew someone who went into Hollister to buy a shirt, and they didn’t carry an extra large. I remember when she finally fit into a large, she was finally so happy because of how much she loved that store.
Steroids and drugs... [continues]

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