Body Image Distortion Among Women In The Media

Body Image Distortion Among Women In The Media American society, most commonly women within the United States, have a rather unhealthy obsession with their personal looks, the physical strive and determination to be acceptingly beautiful, and the idea of looking as flawless as humanly possible. The common perception of beauty is falsely created for women to believe that the ultimate perfect image is obtainable. However, it is indeed an impossible standard for most women in American society today. This idea of impossible perfection is mostly driven by the beauty industry who work to sell their products to those women who are insecure about their image. The media alone is at war with body image. Women in todays society are viewed as being digitally transformed, airbrushed, surgically improved, or suffering from various different eating disorders. These are just a few of the many different difficulties facing women in American society today due to the largely exaggerated media influence. Teenaged girls especially learn what society considers an ideal physical appearance generally from the media and the images that they are crowded with in magazines, movies, television, and also in music which in turn manipulates what is truly fashionable and attractive. Recent studies have found that by the time a women is seventeen years old, she has received overs 250,000 commercial messages through the media. (Body Image and Advertising, 2000) Women tend to see multiple different images throughout their lives which impacts the ways they think of themselves and their own self-worth within American society. Today, models weigh about 23 percent less than the average woman. (Weighty Matters, 2007) According to the National Eating Disorders Association, the average American model is 5 feet, 11 inches tall and weighs 117 pounds. The average American woman is 5 feet, 4 inches tall and weighs 140 pounds. (Body Image: Loving Your Body, n.d.) All too often, American society associates being thin with hardworking, beautiful, strong, and self-disciplined. On the other hand however, being fat is usually associated with being lazy, ugly, weak and lacking willpower. (Body Image: Loving Your Body, n.d.) Similarly to this idea, a life-sized Barbie doll would measure a thirty-eight-inch bust, eighteen-inch waist, and thirty-four-inch hips. (Ojeda, 2003, p.14) The average American woman measures a thirty-seven-inch bust, a twenty-nine-inch waist, and forty-inch hips. (McDowell, 2006, p.48) What is the media trying to teach women within the American society? Some critics in the American society believe that the unrealistic ideas of physical looks and personal flaws may cause young children to face insecurities and lead to poor health choices later on in life. What most people dont realize is that every image of a model or actress in a fashion or beauty magazine has been touched up using the latest computer enhanced technology to remove flaws that are most commonly faced by women including pimples, bumps, stretch marks, wrinkles, and various other different imperfections. Advertisements emphasize thinness as a standard for female beauty, and the bodies seen in the media are frequently not typically normal, healthy women. In fact, 69 percent of girls in one study said that magazine models influence their idea of the perfect body shape, and the acceptance of this impractical body type forms an obtainability that is rather unrealistic for virtually all women in society today. (Body Image and Advertising: A Thin Ideal, 2008) This concept pushes forth the idea of vast concern for the rise in eating disorders and other topic related areas. Many Americans attribute eating disorders to society as a whole. Hollywood and the media demand an impossible standard of thinness, and young people feel that in order to be attractive to those around them, they have to look like celebrities in the spotlight which is what many media outlets are influencing generation after generation with. With approximately six billion people in the world, and ten million of them suffering with some type of disordered eating, the media obviously doesnt cause everyone to develop anorexia, bulimia, or compulsive overeating. Current statistics have indicated that approximately one in every one hundred teenage girls may develop an eating disorder. (Re: What Are the Causes of Eating Disorders, Pitso, 2008) Diet advertisements are also another source of problems. Whether it be on television, in health journals, magazines, newspapers, and other media sources, society is continuously influenced with the concept that losing weight will make an individual more confident and reliable to stick to a specific diet plan. Often times, many Americans are persuaded with the idea that by sticking with a certain diet plan, individual success is a guarantee however, it has been proven through various different general studies and statistics that most diet plans do not indeed show results or in many cases do not even work. As long as society continues to buy into diet companies and their fabricated claims by purchasing these products, the more the diet industry will keep pushing forth their mottos on American consumers. With a distorted view of foods role in life, some teenagers mistakenly expect that losing weight will make everything in an individuals life better and more sufficient. People naturally have different shapes and body types. There are a numerous variations in height, skin tone, eye color, hair color, height, weight and other physical features which make up the incredibly large diversity of America. The millions of messages about thinness, dieting and beauty tell ordinary people that they are always in need of adjustments, that that the female body is an object to be perfected. Researchers report that womens magazines have ten and one-half times more ads and articles promoting weight loss than mens magazines do, and over three-quarters of the covers of womens magazines include at least one message about how to change bodily appearance, whether it be for dieting, exercising or cosmetic surgery. (Beauty and Body Image in the Media, 2010) Even the average woman is said to fit into anywhere between sizes ten and above, whereas the average model fits into a size two or three. Knowing that todays ideal body is another passing trend does not lessen the desire teenage girls and younger adult woman have to adhere to the current ideal and be considered attractive. However, it is important to remember that the current standard of extreme thinness is unrealistic and impossible for most women to achieve. (Ojeda, 2003, p.16) In 2003, Teen Magazine reported that approximately 90 percent of women are dissatisfied with their appearance in some shape or form. (Womens Body Image in Canada and the Facts, 2008-2010) Rather than striving for the ideal image, keeping the body healthy by exercising regularly on a routine basis and eating nutritious food is beneficial in more ways than one and create strong and fit lifestyle habits for the majority of women in American society today. Naturally, feeling healthy can boost your self-esteem and your body image. (Ojeda, 2003, p.16) In todays society, the problem that we, as Americans, are faced with is rather complicated and as a result, there are no real easy solutions. Many individuals tend to lean towards a more active approach mostly by watching out for themselves and being conscious of what is going on in the media however, taking appropriate responsibility for ones self and limiting the exposure of the vast media will propose a healthier lifestyle. Distorted and unattainable images are the inevitable consequences of a social system that face many downfalls. As a society, Americans have created an environment so obsessed with the bodily image that those with power give approval for being thin and disapproval of being fat, creating a generation of individuals so self-conscious about their bodies that it in turn most often, negatively affects their health. Everywhere an individual looks, this situation seems to be a fab that one cannot get away from, the concept it simply too overpowering. Todays pretty faces represent a new kind of people, female figures and displays in stores are revealed with a large amount of sex appeal. With a stressed importance on the ideas of absolute beauty and flawlessness, television commercials, magazines, billboards, and various other mass media sources across the country are just a small, insignificant consideration and excuse of just how warped American societys view is of beauty and real body image. According to the narrow minded society in which Americans live, there just doesnt seem to be a limit on how beautiful an individual can become, especially for women. Most of us are aware of our societys emphasis on the importance of appearance, and we know what the socially sanctioned standards of beauty are. But not all of us accept or internalise these standards: strong-minded individuals who reject current standards are more likely to have a positive body-image. (Mirror, Mirror, 1997)

Child Abuse for Human Sexuality Class Essay

This was a very sad documentary. It’s sad that a child ever goes through something like that. It’s sad that because of abuse from someone else, they feel they need to abuse others. It’s sad that they don’t know how to love or let others love them. I wish that things were different in this world. I know it happens a lot though. I’ve seen and heard about several cases like this and even met some of the children; because my aunt worked for Head Start (they work with CPS), and because a couple of my ex-boyfriends were in situations like this. One of their adopted parents was a foster parent to several children who came from abusive parents. Also I live three houses down from a family with quite a few foster children. I’ve also had a few friends that were abused when they were little and then adopted. One of these friends had to go through a lot of therapy and counseling for some of the emotional scaring. This helped, but would never make him forget what had happened to him. He was not a very trusting or loving person toward anyone, and could be very aggressive and abusive if provoked even by the smallest thing. Self-esteem is one of the most important things a child can have and get from their caregivers, and it is also a very hard thing to change from negative to positive. When parents are abusive the child almost definitely will have a negative self-esteem. This causes life long problems for any child. This world is a scary place and to think that some children are born into families where they can’t feel safe makes it a sad place too. I wish things were different, but since they aren’t we just have to hope that we can help as many people as possible and get children out of these situations as soon as possible.

Educational circles Essay

Lifelong education is a concept not to vague in today’s educational circles. It has been used in many different forms to promote a person’s pursuance to knowledge. It is claimed that life is education, practically speaking when you live you encounter deterrents or resistance in forms of challenges. It is normal for a person to face this situation, in here you will see that ones failure and challenges arise man’s normal tendency is to adapt and move on. Therefore learning and educating himself on the situation he/she has just experienced (Smith M. 1996). The issue that can be seen in pursuing further education is Man’s ability to absorb and effectively comprehending knowledge at a certain age. Man’s psyche changes as it progress deep into the application of his/her field or application. When the application stage of man kicks in he or she finds it difficult to learn new things because his/her paradigm is already stuck on its present state. That’s why preparation to a lifelong education is vital. It features a lot of difference between specializing. Specializing is done when man pursues and therefore encloses himself to a specific study. Not only that, he or she will be engrossed in its application, one reason for this is the field maybe his or her source of income. Examples are doctors, engineers, or architects who pursue to improve knowledge in their respective fields. The difference between lifelong learning and specialization is on it’s the width of its spectrum. A person pursuing a lifelong learning is more open he or she views mistakes as an opportunity of learning. A person pursuing specialization is not close minded but more coherent in their studies, and they usually have a rigid paradigm. The importance of differentiating lifelong learning and specialization is important. Creating standard studies on this topic will give students and educators a point of reference. This point of reference will assist our education system on integrating this to a learner’s life. Show them the advantages and disadvantages of pursuing one side to the other. Or even provide an evolvement study to at some proportion integrate the two different sides together. Reference: Smith M. (1996). Lifelong learning. http://www. infed. org/lifelonglearning/b-life. htm

Protectionism Vs. Free Trade - 1869 Words

Protectionism vs Free Trade The model of a country’s trade regulations, rules, and openness to trade can generally be classified under two ordeals, which are protectionism and free trade. A country that chooses to have a closed barrier of entry for imports and generally refuses to take part in the world trading system is said to be practicing protectionism, which is when a country doesn’t open their economy for the world (Hill, 2015). On the other hand, a country that welcomes foreign firms and more open trade is side to be free trading and openly participates in the world trading system and the growing notions of the globalism. Both these economic trade philosophies are seen in countries around the globe, and each has their set of†¦show more content†¦Nations that don’t trade heavily participate in massive importing often have to resort to increasingly their own economic productivity in order to provide the essentials needed for that country’s ci tizens and operations (Protectionism, 2017). Often times tariffs, trade quotas, and a lot of bureaucratic regulations are in place to discourage foreign investors and excessive imports. increased Increasing economic productivity often means growth of the private sector as mentioned because of the insource more products and services, which indicates more employment and economic expansion (Protectionism, 2017). In terms of more specific business factors, these countries often have more internal talent and can utilize it more effectively, and therefore foster and manage innovation and organizational processes in a more efficient manner. Countries that adopt protectionism typically experience trade surpluses and have extensive financial reserves, and are very productive, powerhouses for innovation, and are valuable players in the international trade business. They also have lower unemployment levels and typically are much more self-sufficient, relying less on the mercy of more unstable economic practices such as inflation to prop their economy (Hill, 2015). On the surface, it would appear thatShow MoreRelatedFree Trade vs Protectionism3918 Words   |  16 PagesOne of the greatest international economic debates of all time has been the issue of free trade versus protectionism. Proponents of free trade believe in opening the global market, with as few restrictions on trade as possible. Proponents of protectionism believe in concentrating on the welfare of the domestic economy by limiting the open-market policy of the United States. 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