“Beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder.” In society today, the ideals of how individuals are expected to look are everywhere. Expectations of body image can be found all over, whether it be in a magazine with an ultra-thin model, the friend who is always obsessing over her weight, or the mother telling her child that he or she needs to lose weight. The media, peers, and family can have a significant influence on body image which can lead to multiple psychological, emotional, and physical problems. With the advancements made in technology, the media’s role in impacting how one perceives themselves has increased drastically. In today’s society, people value how others view them, such as the number of likes they receive on their Instagram posts. Overall, it can be seen that the media has a negative impact on one's body image as the body ideals being portrayed are misleading and unrealistic, which in turn results in unhealthy habits, as well as mental and eating disorders.
In most circumstances, the media presents an unrealistic body type for young adolescents to look up to. For instance, the most fashionable, sought-after magazines are saturated with beautiful, thin women who display the ideal body image that every young girl aspires to have.
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Starting from an early age, young children are already introduced to society’s perfect body ideals when playing with their Barbie dolls, and GI Joe figurines, and even when watching Disney princesses or superhero movies. According to an article written by Martin (2010), the ideal body image was first developed in the minds of young girls from playing with skinny dolls with an unnatural body proportions and unhealthy body mass index. The article notes that because of the figures of the dolls, may have influenced the young girls’ self-esteem, as well as the formation of their own ideal body image as they mature (Martin, 2010, para. 12). … However, this does not exclude young males. With the release of multiple action figures and superhero movies also comes an entirely new set of body ideals. With reference to the same article written by Martin (2010), the muscular body image of male dolls young boys play with, such as Batman and GI Joe, is the ideal body image that they would most likely normalize and presumably desire to imitate. Similar to females, young males' perception of ideal body image formed from playing with muscular action figures (Martin, 2010, para. 13) …
With the advancements made in modern technology, it has become increasingly possible to access any media platform effortlessly. Using this newfound technology, teenagers can easily comprehend what is expected of them in regard to appearance, as well as what is considered to be healthy and beautiful. However, the distinction between a healthy relationship with food, dieting, weight loss, exercise, and anorexia is becoming further and further blurred. According to an article published by the University of California, Berkeley, and written by Barcellos (2017), popular trends such as ‘thinspiration’ and ‘fitspiration’ Instagram pages have spread the message of promoting thinness, health, and wellness. In spite of this, the article indicated that these ‘thinspiration’ and ‘fitspiration’ pages glamorize the image of bony bodies and the restriction of food intake under the disguise of promoting a healthy diet and weight loss (Barcellos, 2017, para. 4). Pages that endorse this message may promote destructive habits and diets that can lead people towards unhealthy disordered eating and excessive exercise, which is disguised as dieting, health promotion, and wellness. Ultimately, eating disorders are often hard to catch, easy to ignore, and can leave long-lasting negative impacts on relationships with food and exercise.
Considering that the media’s negative impacts have now been acknowledged, it is clear that the media has a significant impact on the lives of adolescents. As discussed, the body ideals being portrayed on different media platforms are misleading and unrealistic, which can lead to the development of mental and eating disorders. Recalling how the media manipulates teenagers more than any other age group, it is important for teens to learn to sift out the truth from the lies and to stop trying to confine themselves to certain people and lifestyles. Ultimately, every individual should learn to ignore the media and remember that being themselves is better than conforming to what the media wants them to be.
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