Preview

Skinny: The Thin Ideal In Mass Media

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
770 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Skinny: The Thin Ideal In Mass Media
“Numerous correlation and experimental studies have linked exposure to the thin ideal in mass media to body dissection ,internalization of the thin ideal , and disordered eating among women ” (Proud to be me .org) As a child we are lead to believe that being thin is beautiful and perfect . That any form of otherness was no longer seen as attractive. In the media thin women are paraded in short clothing , television reporters with shiny teeth model in tight dresses , and mothers remind their daughters to not eat as much so that they could be more attractive to males. As a child I believed that being skinny was beautiful ; that being thin was an important factor in attractiveness . Now I believe that any size and creed can be beautiful …show more content…
There was a picture taken of an plus sized model . The model went under the name Tess Munster and she was just everything that I believed an model shouldn’t be . She had tattoos , piercings , and more importantly to me at the time , she was a larger woman . That capsized every notion I had. I began to question myself . “How could this plus sized woman be so confident with her body” . “Wasn’t she at all ashamed of the way she looked ”. After that I began my search , looking at her pictures , taking in the way she just oozed confidence . That confidence hadn’t come from being skinny or just being merely pretty . Tess was confident in who she was an person and that came off in the way she presented herself . While watching one of her interviews Tess stated that she had in fact been told countless times that she didn’t fit the beauty standard of others . That being plus sized did not fit the mold of society , and because of that she changed her outlook on life . Being confident and loving herself was more important than being skinny . Not to sound overly cliche or shallow but that was just ground breaking for me . without knowing it , just like moses woman had lead me to freedom with just her photo and a simple two minute interview .
Now I believe that I am a much better person . I am no longer as obsessed as I was before with being skinny . I am more so focused on being healthy mentally as well as physically . Loving who

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Satisfactory Essays

    In the article Distorted Images: Western Cultures are Exporting Their Dangerous Obsession with Thinness, author Susan McClelland addresses the negative effect that western culture, especially western media, has had upon women in other parts of the world and how it relates to body image, thinness, racial features and even skin color. She interviewed several women who felt pressure to change their appearance to fit into the portrayed standards of Americanized beauty; white and thin. Experts say “cultures that used to regard bulk as a sign of wealth and success are now succumbing to a narrow western standard of beauty” (pg. 431) There is an increase of eating disorders in areas that have never had that problem until recently.…

    • 399 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    I would like to start of by thanking you for requesting that I analyze Susan Bordo's “Never Just Pictures” and recommend on whether it should or shouldn't be published in The Shorthorn. In short, Susan Bordo is an English professor of women studies who focuses on the media's negative portrayal of beauty through body image. Based on my analysis of this article, I recommend that you publish the article in The Shorthorn because I consider it to be interesting, controversial, and nuanced.…

    • 777 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In “Reaching the Slender Body” Susan Bordo deeply analyzes the cultural, psychological, and gender factors that influence body image in the modern era, including the underlying manifestation of power over the self and changing cultural attitudes. There is no denying that humans prefer ascetic beauty just as bees are attracted to vibrant flowers which is why some people believe a warped version of the good life is to achieve societal standards of beauty which in turn is subliminally achieving virtues. The cost is often times one’s physical and mental health as well as an obsessive condemnation of everything that is “imperfect” of a person. In reality, gender norms and societal perceptions change what is “the idea body type” therefore achieving it is like chasing the wind. In today’s culture “slimness” is translated by some as being the tangible…

    • 633 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Thompson addresses how “thin-ideal-internalization,” the internalization of society’s definition of attractiveness (not just thinness), gravely affects women in Western culture. Thompson explains how this glorification of an ideal body image is unhealthy and unachievable for most women. This definition of a desirable body, Thomas illustrates, is encouraged by social reinforcement or approval of this definition by family, peers, and media. Despite these body types serving as a distorted reality, Thompson elaborates on how women engage in extreme dieting in attempt to satisfy media’s perception of a desirable body. Thompson continues by showing how these attempts to attain the nearly unattainable result in eating disorders such as…

    • 1145 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Jones and Buckingham found people with low self-esteem are more likely to compare themselves to idealised images portrayed in the media. Garner et al (1980) noted that the winners of Miss America and the centrefolds in Playboy magazine have consistently been below the average female weight and have become significantly more so since 1959. Thus the slender female perceived as being the cultural ideal might be one cause of the fear of being fat. A study by Becker of adolescent Fijian girls found that after the introduction of television to the island, these girls stated a desire to lose weight and to b like the women they saw on Western television; this lead to a significant increase in eating disorders over five years. Other research has shown that instructional intervention prior to media exposure to idealised female imaged prevents the adverse effects of media influences (Yamamiya et al). This suggests that the media can and does have an effect on the development of disordered eating and AN, but these effects can be avoided. In Groesz et al’s (2002) meta-analysis of 25 studies, they concluded that body dissatisfaction increased with media images of thin women.…

    • 659 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Throughout the decades of time, society has been continuously determining the perception of what it is to be "beautiful." The American standard of beauty is often reflected upon advertisements that convey an unrealistic expectation for most everyday women. Whereas, teenagers have grown to interpret advertisements as a model for how they should appear physically. Marilyn Monroe was perceived as the epitome of beauty in the 1950s. The well-known sex symbol was recognized because of her curvaceous build. But for instance, Twiggy, a popular model in the midst of the 1960s, later set a misconstrued standard to what was beautiful. With the rising of her stardom, the glamorization of being thin was beginning to take a turn on a more positive note. That is until the famous 90s heroin chic model, Kate Moss, hit the scene taking the modeling industry by storm in an unhealthy manner with her campaign "Nothing tastes as good as skinny feels." As time continues to inevitably move forward in American culture, as will the image and conception of what beauty truly is in the eyes of our society.…

    • 1245 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    It creates an effect where women immediately go thru the comparison process on their own body image. “ In a recent meta-analysis, Groesz, Levine, and Murnen (2002) used 43 effect sizes from 25 studies, finding an overall effect size (d) of -.30, indicating that exposure to thin images had an adverse effect on body satisfaction when compared to exposure to control images” ( “Body Image, University of South Florida”1). The comparison is more likely to be with the “ideal” attractive women. It leads to creating a low self-rating of its own appearance. The body image dissatisfaction causes the women to change their minds on losing weight, change their eating habits and change their belief of their own body image. Obviously this is caused by the television shows, television commercials and…

    • 1762 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Best Essays

    Bessenoff, Gayle R. "Can The Media Affect Us? Social Comparison, Self-Discrepancy, And The Thin Ideal." Psychology of Women Quarterly: 239-51. Print.…

    • 258 Words
    • 1 Page
    Best Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Every girl has seen a woman in the media stick thin, sun kissed, envy of the way she looks “perfect”. Women that are put on television, a magazine or advertisements is ultimately fake with Photoshop, makeup and plastic surgery. This is a dangerous perception of beauty which has resulted in a decline in self-acceptance. Many girls any age struggle with their image believing that they are not thin enough, their hair is not long enough, or even they believe that they are ugly. I believe that the social stereotype of beauty should go back to the 50’s.…

    • 423 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    In an article written by Colleen Thompson and Dr. Lauren Muhlheim, it is emphasized that more than just a few individuals in society struggle with the same issue of not being able to fit the ‘ideal figure’: “In North America, men and women are given the message at a very young age that in order to be happy and successful, they must be thin and fit... Thousands of teenage girls are starving themselves trying to attain what the fashion industry considers to be the “ideal” figure.” An individual person with an eating disorder could be singled out and their specific case could be thought has a person problem but with applied sociological imagination, society would realize that it's the obsession for the fair skin and thin body, creating a widespread public issue, that has indirectly affected thousands of boys and girls in the United States alone. Cultural structures such as the media are not the only structures in society that have an influence on what constitutes the idea body size and figure. The sociological approach to what can be considered as the “ideal figure” is respected because it can explain how social and cultural values affect the individual's attitudes towards eating. Furthermore, a sociological approach is useful for understanding eating behavior because it can explain why eating disorders appear in…

    • 475 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    According to these critiques the combination of two trends,the technology enabled media saturation of the american public and the promotion by this media of highly unattainable body types (Gerald Wagner ). “While mass media has been subject to the strongest social critique about factors leading to eating disorders and body dysmorphic disorders. Clinical researchers have begun to document the consequences of relentless exposure to such imagery of different stereotypes of body images. The american…

    • 928 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Attempts to attain such beauty, body shape and weight has adverse physical, emotional and mental concerns. Examples, losing weight to be as thin as a model is unhealthy and affects physical and strength development. Women who cannot attain the ideal image suffer social and personal victimization which has a negative emotional and mental effect. Example, fat girls have low esteem issues and suicidal behavior due to social victimization. Cultural ideals of thinness dictate women and girls eating behavior with a highly unbalanced diet to maintain an extremely thin figure. Eating disorders arise when the person develops a diet plan that does not favor normal nutritional requirements of the body. Example, anorexia nervosa an eating disorder characterized by extremely low weight is catalyzed by media biasing of the image of a…

    • 1212 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The popular media (television, movies, magazines, etc.) have, since World War II, increasingly held up a thinner and thinner body image as the ideal for women.…

    • 729 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Media Eating Disorders

    • 1935 Words
    • 8 Pages

    We are constantly surrounded and influenced by the media no matter where we go. With all of the great improvements the media has provided to our lives, it is hard to recognize how much the media has negatively impacted us as well. Media advertises body images that are deemed to be “perfect” which pressures individuals to change their appearance to meet the standards of society’s view of “perfection.” Not everyone can achieve self-satisfaction with his or her appearance. Body image is the mental image of one’s own body based on self-esteem. Since the media does not provide a realistic standard of beauty, it does not help self-esteem and can even worsen one’s body image. According to the National Eating Disorders Association (NEDA), in the United States, 20 million women and 10 million men will suffer from a clinically significant eating disorder at some time in their life. Out of those men and women, low confidence and self-esteem are already a problem especially since research has shown that those individuals are the most influenced by the media and society. Exposure to the media can strongly contribute to the development of an eating disorder.…

    • 1935 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Media and Body Image

    • 1083 Words
    • 5 Pages

    First, the media portrays that beauty is a necessity for all women. Unfortunately, the media pushes an unnatural body type, making natural beauty impossible to accept. The average American woman is 5 '4" tall and weighs 140 pounds. Where as, the average American model is 5 '11" tall and weighs 117 pounds. Society is being brainwashed by the media. In fact, studies show that more than sixty percent of women do not like what they see in the mirror (Murphy). Also, at young ages girls are impacted by the physical appearance of Barbie. Many people do not understand that looking like Barbie is physically impossible. Moreover, the models women see in magazines are completely flawless, and have incredible bodies. The majority of society could never look as good as the models they see. To summarize, women are discouraged with their bodies because the media only show beautiful women.…

    • 1083 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays