Self Objectification Theory

Throughout history the media has had a major effect on how women view themselves. There has always been a certain expectation or standard of how someone needs to look to be classified as attractive. Seeing that the media sets these expectations, society is led to believe that the models, actors, or singers that are seen in the magazines or on social media is how everyone should look like, which is not always obtainable. Back in the fifties the media advertised that being thin was not attractive and that women had to gain weight for men to even look at them, but now being thicker is now not as attractive and in order for people to be their best selves they have to lose weight and look thinner. The media has a huge influence on women today and
In one study results show that, ”Consistent with objectification theory [17, 35], our results provide some evidence that through self objectification (via body surveillance), which may serve as a mechanism enabling individuals to evaluate their standing relative to the gendered beauty ideals [29, 38, 40, 43, 44, 63], women and men may come to recognize a discrepancy between their current and ideal physique [29–31, 34, 38, 63, 78] and, as a result, experience feelings of anxiety and shame about their body and appearance [18, 58].”(Dakanalis,Carrà,Calogero,Fida,Cleric,Zanett,Riva) These feelings of anxiety and shame about their body and appearance can lead to major eating disorders such as anorexia and bulimia. Anorexia is a perception disorder which makes men or women feel that they are overweight and it often leads to eating less and exercising excessively which can be life threatening.(Self Image/Media Influences) This thin body ideal does not help the women with this disorder because they feel the need to stop eating an over exercise to try and meet these body standards to make themselves look better according to the
The media has a huge influence on women today and it is creating negative body image leading to dietary restraint, eating disorders, and women thinking negatively about themselves based on how they, and others, look. The elimination of photoshop could ultimately change body image and crush the idea of a perfect body. It could also help women to become more comfortable in their own skin by seeing all the models and actresses in their natural form. If the media does not stop putting out ideas of the perfect body and how thin is attractive then the percentage of women with eating disorders could increase overtime which isn't good for