Essay About Self-Image And Body Image

The Media and the Self-Image of Women
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The Media and the Self-Image of Women
Distorted and unattainable sexist mass images are the inevitable
consequences of a social system in which those who are thin and big
breasted benefit most. We as a society have created an environment so
image obsessed that those with power give approval for being thin and
disapproval for being fat, creating a generation of women so self conscious
about their body image, that it is affecting their health. In this essay I
plan to discuss the inexcusable methods in which the mass media encourages
young women to disfigure and mutilate their bodies.
When an obsessive media targets and forces young women to hate
their bodies it makes them more vulnerable to emulating media stereotypes
and prone to compulsive dieting. “Perfection looks like magic to those who
stand aside and do not know any better. The main problem with perfection
in a society so obsessed with perception is that it looks too easy.” States
Florance Brone a physiologist from Michigan. Media purveyors promote the
message that unrealistic thinness equals sexiness and popularity, which
equals beauty, success and all the “good” things in life. Yet, recent
interviews have revealed that even glamorous and successful supermodels are
afraid of getting fat and what it might do to their careers. In many cases
the media has constructed faulty images that suggest that the influence of
gender in terms of “human nature” compel people in the eyes of the media to
behave and act in certain stereotypical ways, in turn causing young
impressionable women to be wrongfully misled.
“Babies arent born hating their bodies but instead grow up to
learn that fat is bad; and thinness will bring you happiness.” states Sarah
Stephen in the 1998 article “Fat is Still a Feminist Issue” These images
are being taken to extremes throughout the fashion industry, often
displayed by the waif look of hollow cheeks and skeletal bodies. It has
been proven that media images do have a powerful effect on young women
today due to the extensive reinforcement on our everyday lives. Everywhere
we look we see unattainable images sworming around us, it seems as though
it is a fad we can not get away from.
Women are all too often described in terms of what they look like,