How the media has affected young women to be thin
For many women, the media has a personal and profound effect on how they view their bodies. Whether the media realizes it or not, they hold the power to build a woman up or to break her down, because there is clearly a trademark being developed by the media on how women should think, look and feel. Most women need to take into consideration that these ideals set up by the media are destroying the naturalness and originality women possess.
In colonial times, ideals were a lot different then they are now. Women with tiny waists and large breasts came to be valued. It was desirable for an upper-class man to be able to span a woman’s waist with his hands . If women were too frail to work. Much emphasis was placed on the female as being fragile, which then made a woman a more attractive candidate for marriage. The ideal wealthy woman of the time was sickly and prone to headaches, and even fainting. Women of significant financial means would go as far as having ribs removed to further decrease their waist size. Despite being painful and causing health problems, such as shortness of breath (which could lead to pneumonia) and dislocated visceral organs, corsets became the height of fashion. And as time went on, and fashion kept changing, in the 1960s women of the decade idealized thin and boyish bodies like that of the emaciated supermodel Twiggy.
The current media culture is complicated, confusing and dishonest in my opinion. Women are constantly told they can and should have it all, then why is the media portraying unnatural female “role models”? According to the sources I have provided, females portray a symptom of depression because they are so vulnerable to what they see in magazines or on television. They want to feel “sexy”, “skinny”, basically just great about themselves. So given all this information, we ask ourselves, Is the media responsible for this type of crisis? Yes! If the media would focus primarily on how women actually are, instead of presenting false ideals and images then perhaps there would not be such an upset among the female gender. If a woman becomes depressed and hard on herself because she feels as if she failed to reach this body image she has pictured in her mind, other areas in her life can be vastly impacted. Like developing a serious eating disorder, or poor self-esteem, intimacy with her partner, choice of clothing, or even drug addiction. Some people think that it does not go this far, however, I know for a fact it does. I had a friend who suffered from a serious eating disorder. It took over her entire world and destroyed her. It was then she became hopeless and felt helpless, when she let her parents and friends seek help the help she needed.
A study done by Tiggermann and Slater (2003) found that women who viewed music videos that contained thin models or dancers experienced increased levels of negative mood and body image disturbance. Music videos seem to send a particularly direct message that women should live up to the sociocultural ideal. The women portrayed in the media are almost always direct representations of what our culture considers beautiful. Also most of music television is an geared to adolescent and college females, who read such material on a regular basis (Kristy Brown 1997). Magazines and advertisements are marketed to help women "better themselves" by providing information and products that are supposed to make them look and feel better.
Eating disorders have been glamorized on such things as the Friends poster “Cute anorexic chicks”, an example of damage done by the media.The level of eating disorders like anorexia and bulimia increase rapidly each year. It is also estimated that around 5 percent of women have an eating disorder like anorexia or bulimia or binge eat ing. About 15 percent of all young women have significantly distorted eating attitudes that can lead to an eating disorder according to “The Lolita Effect” by Gigi Durham.
According to the articles I have provided, and the book “The Lolita Effect”, because of the media, women tend to really emphasize on how they are generally evaluated sexually. Most of the time, it is believed that women have problems sexually due to how they feel about their bodies because of the media’s projection of images into their minds and lives. Women feel as if their bodies are not up to part with this idea of “perfection” they have in their minds, then their partners are not going to be sexually attracted to them. They develop a sense of disapproval with themselves and form a social avoidance in order to avoid “humiliation” or failure of themselves.
Media activist Jean Kilbourne concludes that, "Women are sold to the diet industry by the magazines we read and the television programs we watch, almost all of which make us feel anxious about our weight."
According to Dr. Irina Webster, twenty years ago, the average model weighed 8 percent less than average woman. However, today’s models weight 23 percent less. According to Prevention magazine, a "healthy weight" for a woman who is 5'9" is 129-169 pounds. An average 5'9" model's weight is somewhere around 110-115 lbs. Advertisers believe that skinny models sell products, and make everything from clothes to jewelry look better. When the Australian magazine New Woman included a picture of a more heavy set woman, a lot of women noticed and were really grateful. They praised this move. However, many advertisers complained and the magazine went back to portraying bone-thin models. Showing women who are stick skinny, presents an ideal look difficult to achieve and maintain. It is estimated that the United States diet industry alone is worth $100 billion a year (Kirsty Brown 1997).
What most women and men don't realize is that every image of a model or actress in a fashion magazine has been touched-up or airbrushed using the latest computer technology to remove any imperfections. Women have to realize, that computers cover up the bulges, pimples, stretch marks, cellulite, the wrinkles, etc. Elizabeth Hurley for Details magazine, even admitted that her breasts were electronically enlarged for the cover of Cosmopolitan magazine. In the advertising industry, there are about 100-300 professional photographs taken for each published image you see. They are taken from the best angle in perfect lighting with the clothes
pinned just perfectly. Each models hair and makeup is always professionally done and is constantly touched up by a makeup artist and hair stylist that’s on standby.
"The media create this wonderful illusion-but the amount of airbrushing that goes into those beauty magazines, the hours of hair and makeup! It's impossible to live up to, because it's not real."
- Actress Jennifer Aniston for Vanity Fair, May 2001
The media’s objectification of women is seen through a camera lens of a white male eye (Kirsty Brown 1997). Have you noticed that the cover of women and even men’s magazines are always female? These female stars that are posing on the front cover of these magazines, or of mainstream movies and TV shows always look sexy and often behave in this submissive or helpless way that many men find attractive or just appealing. The camera is focused on women who act this way. A way that pleases men. Women learn to compare themselves to other women, and to compete with them for male attention. The medias gaze is essentially a male gaze.
The mass media is a powerful tool. Their influence in shaping American women's sense of ourselves and our futures is more than significant. Clearly, the problem is complicated and there are no easy solutions. Parents and health care providers have a responsibility to talk with children about media messages and healthy life styles. Parents can limit exposure to television and talk with children about the messages portrayed on TV shows and in advertising.A strong cultural identity is thought to be protective against eating disorders, and families can use this to their advantage by teaching children about the history of their ethnic or religious group.
“We hope that by issuing health guidelines to designers, the American fashion industry is finally beginning to acknowledge the dangers of extreme thinness in female fashion models, as well as the negative impact on perceived body image among those who look up to these models. There is still much more the American fashion industry can do to ensure the protection of young women and men who model; for example, models should be required to pass a physical examination before walking the runway to make certain they are in proper health form, while designers should include models of various weights and body types in runway shows and fashion magazines to show that different body types can look good in a variety of fashions.”
Diane Salvatore, editor-in-chief of Ladies’ Home Journal:
SOURCES
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_DWDbB00nk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0bXeSkqgl4Y&feature=PlayList&p=D3949CFE4FCC79FA&playnext_from=PL&playnext=1&index=6
http://www.unh.edu/sociology/media/pdfs-journal2009/Mathe2009.pdf
FROM FASHION TO FITNESS ? A SOCIOCULTURAL ANALYSIS OF THE REPRESENTATION OF THINNESS WITHIN THE MASS MEDIA-(PDF) by Kristy Brown
Book
The Lolita Effect: The Media Sexualization of Young Girls and What We Can Do About It
Gigi Durham
