These days, we know media and body image contribute to our everyday lives. We try so hard to impress ourselves and people around us. Those pictures in magazines and online don’t express what an actual person looks like. Girls and boys look at the photos and feel insecure; they try to find an effective way to be better. This search happens to cause eating disorders and low self esteem.
Most girls believe skipping a meal will make them skinnier. Seventy percent of 6-12 year olds want to be thin. People have such high standards of how the human body must look. This causes eating disorders such as anorexia and bulimia. Girls are more scared to gain weight than to lose a loved one. Today, most girls desire a flat stomach and thigh gap labeled “bikini bridge.” The average weight is 169 pounds while the weight of a model is 120 pounds. To be skinny with a thigh gap and flat stomach, girls tend to be even more underweight than models, depending on age. Up to twenty percent of people with serious eating disorders die. The mortality rate associated with anorexia is twelve times higher than the death rate.
At a certain age, people begin feeling a lack of control. They tend to feel inadequate and have perfectionistic tendencies. This develops into low self-esteem. Society tells people that they need to be thinner and more muscular to be loved and accepted in life. The media forces stress upon people to think lowly of themselves compared to a photoshopped image. Sixty-nine percent of girls in 5th through 12th grade reported that magazine pictures influenced their idea of a perfect body.
Later, large companies admitted to showing unrealistic, airbrushed images to the public. Cover Girl admitted to photoshopping to make eyelashes look thicker than they were in real life. Through digital manipulation and computer work, we desire to achieve an unattainable body image. Thanks to the wonders of digital manipulation, blemish-free, wrinkle-free and even pore-free skin is considered an “industry standard” that is openly endorsed and defended by magazine editors and media makers.
Media and body image have the impact that we try to be something no actual human is. It’s just a edit on a screen, computer work. This is a problem that has taken over the human mind and cause people to want to lose weight and to think lowly of themselves. However, the media should use real products and real people—they can be just as perfect as the ones on the screen.
Most girls believe skipping a meal will make them skinnier. Seventy percent of 6-12 year olds want to be thin. People have such high standards of how the human body must look. This causes eating disorders such as anorexia and bulimia. Girls are more scared to gain weight than to lose a loved one. Today, most girls desire a flat stomach and thigh gap labeled “bikini bridge.” The average weight is 169 pounds while the weight of a model is 120 pounds. To be skinny with a thigh gap and flat stomach, girls tend to be even more underweight than models, depending on age. Up to twenty percent of people with serious eating disorders die. The mortality rate associated with anorexia is twelve times higher than the death rate.
At a certain age, people begin feeling a lack of control. They tend to feel inadequate and have perfectionistic tendencies. This develops into low self-esteem. Society tells people that they need to be thinner and more muscular to be loved and accepted in life. The media forces stress upon people to think lowly of themselves compared to a photoshopped image. Sixty-nine percent of girls in 5th through 12th grade reported that magazine pictures influenced their idea of a perfect body.
Later, large companies admitted to showing unrealistic, airbrushed images to the public. Cover Girl admitted to photoshopping to make eyelashes look thicker than they were in real life. Through digital manipulation and computer work, we desire to achieve an unattainable body image. Thanks to the wonders of digital manipulation, blemish-free, wrinkle-free and even pore-free skin is considered an “industry standard” that is openly endorsed and defended by magazine editors and media makers.
Media and body image have the impact that we try to be something no actual human is. It’s just a edit on a screen, computer work. This is a problem that has taken over the human mind and cause people to want to lose weight and to think lowly of themselves. However, the media should use real products and real people—they can be just as perfect as the ones on the screen.
© 2016 Jessica P. All rights reserved.