How Does Body Image Affect Society

A young woman looks at herself in the mirror and despises what she sees. Deluded by the commercials and magazines, she is convinced that she is fat and ugly. She is sure that she is overweight and will be for the rest of her life. She is sure that no man will ever find her beautiful, causing her to go on a diet. Another young woman with the same convictions starves herself even though she is beautifully slim. Another woman simply can’t stop eating even though she long to lose weight. These women have one thing in common, a body image problem. Many would ask what is wrong with a little body image issue? Aren’t most people discontent with some aspects of their body? The answer is yes, but a body image problem is a more dangerous thing than just discontentment. So what is body image? Body image is the idea of how people picture themselves and how they think other people picture them.
HOW SOCIETY PERCEIVES IT
However, when abused, the power of media can harm the general population. Images portrayed by the media tend to make people strive to become someone else's idea of what it is meant to be perfect. In the American society, women are taught how to be a certain body type. In the American society women are “suppose” to be slender. To be slime is generally associated with happiness, success and social acceptability and being overweight is linked to laziness, lack of power, and unattractiveness. In the American society, women are pressured to be thin since it is seen as beautiful. It is a way for them to be accepted in society. There is a huge pressure on women to be a particular shape and size; women are portrayed as abnormally slim in the