Media Madness
Body image has been a controversial topic for decades. Body image is a person’s perception of the aesthetics or sexual attractiveness of their own body.
Women have been fighting an endless battle of being labeled as ‘too skinny’ or ‘too big’ and are still currently. Media plays a huge role in body image.
Americans encounter advertisements everyday. Women and girls compare themselves to these images everyday.
The whole beauty industry is built on, ‘You’re not okay the way you are. We’ll make you better.’
They spend billions of dollars a year convincing women that they need to look thinner, younger and sexier by promoting body ideals that can lead to depression, anger, and anxiety.
Advertising creates a disconnect between women.
According to the National Association of Anorexia Nervosa and Associated Disorders, at least 30 million people of all ages and genders suffer from eating disorders in the United States. Americans engage in increasing amounts of media usage.
Media affects women’s dissatisfaction and the ideal of being thin causing eating disorders to be in mostly young adults rather than children.
“Media sets the wrong standards for teens. It makes kids our age insecure,” said senior Jarquita Harris.
Not only does media affect women, but males as well. The standards the media sets to be muscular causes dissatisfaction in men. Young men are more affected than boys are.
Exposure during childhood and puberty lays a foundation for negative effects during early adulthood.
“Women, especially younger girls who don’t fit this mold that society has created have issues with their self. Younger girls grow up looking at society’s expectations as to how they are supposed to look because representation of ‘plus size’ are not equal,” said senior best soloist Steven Klenk.
According to the National Institute of Mental Health, 5-10 million adolescent girls and women struggle with eating disorders and borderline eating conditions. Each year, millions of people in the United States are affected by serious and sometimes life-threatening eating disorders. More than 90 percent of those afflicted are adolescent and young adult women.
“You can put forth your best self, which still can possibly not be good enough because naturally you compare yourself to others,” said senior Jakayla Williams.
Millions of people are unhappy with their bodies and media is one of the reasons why. Magazines and television can be to blame for portraying an ideal body image that causes people to question their looks and lose confidence within themselves.
