Media And Body Image Research Paper

In today’s highly developed information technology era, a variety of information is full of our world. The influence of the media on women’s body image has gradually expanded. Body image refers to people’s perception and evaluation of their bodies, including how individuals perceive their bodies, and how they perceive others to evaluate their bodies. A positive body image is very important for everyone; it can let people feel comfortable and confident in their body. Writing in the Women’s Studies Encyclopedia, Freedman argues, “women tend to distort body image in the negative direction, just as depressed people in both sexes do… men tend to distort body image in a more positive direction, just as nondepressed people do” (Freedman, 1999). The
Media created a large number of perfect female images; however, they are impossible to exist. This phenomenon tends to make women dissatisfied with their appearance, and more serious even lead to depression. “Experiments have demonstrated the detrimental effects media have on adolescent females’ body image” (Kerr, 2010). Researchers found that reading a magazine model is led to a decrease of women’s physical satisfaction and self-esteem, it revealing that women are susceptible to influences of the media and then leading to dissatisfaction and exclusion of themselves. Sinton and Birch also found that, “even in girls as young as eleven years of age, awareness of media messages are associated with higher body dissatisfaction scores” (Sinton and Birch, 2006). These studies have proved that the media for the female body image has a great negative impact; these destructive cultural effects affect women’s mental health and even lead to depression. In addition, from the statistics on media effects, it proves that “following the viewing of images of female fashion models, seven out of ten women felt more depressed and angrier than prior to viewing the images” (Rader Programs, 2014). Thus, the media have a great influence on the women’s body