Are you worried that your child's expectations for their appearance are unrealistic? We live in a media-saturated world and do not control the message.
Teenagers and young adults are bombarded through a constant stream of social media, and peer pressure related to Body Image. Society tells us that we must be thinner or more muscular to be loved, or to be successful in life. Mass media provides people with a significantly influential image for people to learn the supposed ideas of the body and the value placed on being attractive. It has clearly been displayed that intelligence and IQ has been sidelined for the Body Image and the beauty you hold. Children and young adults engage in large amounts of Media use, from Instagram to magazines; each showing their own personal image of how the body should be portrayed. On a typical day 8 to 18 year olds are engaged in some sort of form of Media for about 7 hours. Most of this time is spent watching TV playing video games in going on social media.
Constant reinforcement of the so-called 'perfect' woman in the media directly impacts a girls body confidence. There are many sexually objectified images of girls and women in magazines, mainly in men's magazines, which fuel the expectations for every woman to look perfect; and Men expect everyone to naturally appear to look like that. Yet the second most common source of these types of pictures is found in adverts that are placed in teen magazines, which are directed at adolescent girls.
The media affects people in different ways. Research has shown that 40% of all 9 to 10 year olds have already been on a diet, and 70% of 6 to 12 year olds want to be thinner. The standards that are set for girls and women effect girls as young as 6, at that age they shouldn't have to worry about their appearance. In one study, 3 out of 4 women stated that they were overweight although only 1 out of 4 actually was. In its Pretty as a Picture research, UK think tank Credos recently asked young woman to compare for images of the same model, digitally modified to change her shape. The majority actually preferred either the naturally or lightly retouched images over the heavily airbrushed ones, so why do they continue to put heavily airbrushed and unrealistic pictures of women and girls in magazines? Children from a young age are exposed to toys like Barbie dolls, which promote these unrealistic expectations. If the Barbie doll was real. She would be about 7 foot 2 and 101 pounds with a waistline of 18 inches and a bust line of 38 to 40; she would have to walk on all fours, as she would be too weak to support herself because of her proportions. Her head would be the same circumference as her waist, her torso would not fit all of her organs; she would die of malnutrition. But she's what so many girls look up to.
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Media And Body Image (Speech)
AcakThis is something I did for my English exam, of where we had to write a speech of roughly 500 words on something controversial, and I chose the media and the effect it has on your body image.
