Unrealistic Body Image

The media is responsible for creating ideals about beauty and body image, it can influence self esteem and acceptance, but can cause major harm. The media tends to make people strive to achieve an unrealistic image of perfection, a stereotype of beauty, and have led to a decline in self acceptance. Teenagers learn what society deems beautiful mainly from the media, they are overwhelmed with photos, magazines, television and movies on what is considered the ideal body (“Body Image”). According to the article, “Recent studies have found that by the time a woman is seventeen years old, she has received more than 250,000 commercial messages through the media” (“Body Image”). The majority of the media today presents the perfect body to the public,
Young men and women across the nation will compare their body type to those seen on social media, television and advertisements. An unrealistic weight standard is set for children and young adults, which can cause fat shaming, eating disorders, and extreme dieting. Adolescent girls mostly want to lose weight and become thinner, while adolescent boys want to become stronger and bigger, with girls experiencing more dissatisfaction with their body than boys. The youth compares being overweight to being unappealing or careless; in a focus study, boys and men linked being fat as a weakness or a lack of self control, and blamed those who are overweight (Adams). Studies show that young women are more likely to have self esteem issues due to weight and will take more extreme measures to lose weight. Many young women believe that they are overweight and plan on losing weight or dieting, a study shows that 44% of young women believe they are overweight, while 60% are actively trying to lose weight (Morris). Adolescent girls mostly want to lose weight and become thinner, while adolescent boys want to become stronger and bigger, with girls experiencing more dissatisfaction with their body than