The Effects of Media: How media influences peoples view of body image. Margaret Finley. St. Bonaventure University

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1 1 The Effects of Media: How media influences peoples view of body image Margaret Finley St. Bonaventure University

2 2 Abstract: The media is a big part of todays society and the effects that is has on us are ever present. One of the big things the media has pressed on us is, what the media sees as the perfect body. It is in this essay will address the phycological effects of the media stressing an unrealistic body image. In addition to understanding psychologically what the crave of wanting the perfect body is doing to us this essay will also put study s in conversation that first hand gets peoples reaction to what they see in the media. One of the studies discusses how the media modifies the pictures of models which only creates an even more falsified version of what the perfect body is. The other study discuses the differences between what the media says is the perfect body and what the actual average American women s body looks like. Both studies they show participants in the study what the media is showing as the perfect body and then show them the reality of how things really are. The studies are measuring body dissatisfaction in reaction to the different pictures. By being able to see that we have a higher body positivity in relation to the pictures that are not what the medias shows as the perfect body only amplifies the idea that once we are aware what the media is promoting we can see it is a unrealistic body image goal.

3 3 Introduction: In talking about body image and the issues that stem from this wanting of the perfect body one must look at where these ideas come from. The biggest factor for these issues is the way the media constructs its idea of what the perfect body should be and how consumers are going to see it. In a day and age where social media consumes society you are constantly seeing how the media is portraying what their idea of the perfect body is on a day to day basis. You can look towards the media in relation to the causes of these issues with how girls and women look at their bodies based upon what they see in the media. In Helga Dittmar s journal the cost of consumer culture and the cage within : the impact of the material good life and body perfect ideals on individuals identity and well-being she goes in depth to what the ideal of the perfect body is and it effect on individuals. In the study done by Shiela Reaves and Jacqueline Bush Hitchon, professors at the University of Wisconsin, and Sung-Yeon Park and Gi Woong Yun, professors at Bowling Green State University, they discuss how the media is affecting body issues. Their study You can never be too thin -or can you?: a plot study on the effects of digital manipulation of fashion models body size, leg length and skin color is an in-depth analysis of how the modification of models in media affect the perception of how people see themselves in comparison. The study that Ninoska DeBraganza and Heather Hausenblas conduct Media exposure of the ideal physique on women s body dissatisfaction and mood: the moderating effects of ethnicity takes the idea of how people react to models they see in fashion and how this effect their view of themselves. The study takes a variety of photos all of models who fit the standard of what the media sees as the perfect body and shows them to a group of women aged One of the big factors prevalent in this issue is the fact that the fashion industry lets models be underweight which leads to consumers seeing these models as the ideal perfect

4 4 body. On top of models being underweight you have the fact that the media industry uses photoshop to additionally distort the photos so what consumers are seeing is a completely unrealistic view of what the perfect body is. We must be more aware of what the media is showing us and how it is not what the standards of a perfect body is. The perfect body: By using Dittmar s analysis addresses how media plays an influence on what we believe is this perfect body, how women are to believe they are to be skinny and look like a model. Men too are stuck in this trap of wanting to more than what they see. They see muscular men in the media with well-toned body(s), with a V-shaped upper torso who have become so muscular that it is unattainable for the majority of men as the thin ideal is for women (Dittmar, 24). The thin ideal that women push for is the body size of glamorous models (who are) often as much as 20% underweight and it becomes clear just how extremely (this) ultra-thin body size is when we consider that 15% underweight is one of the criteria used to diagnose anorexia. (Dittmar, 24). When given that the great majority of individuals fall far short of the body perfect typically embodied by the idealized media models lead(s) many people to negative self-evaluation. (Dittmar, 25). No matter the person, male or female, they are exposed to unrealistic standards through the media which leads them to view themselves in comparison to what they are seeing. By compering one s self to the ultra-thin or buff beautiful looking models and what you see in the mirror not being close to what you the expectations you see in media can be detrimental to a person s self-esteem and self-worth. Exposure to ultra-thin models causes body dissatisfaction in women who have internalized the thin ideal as a personal value. (Dittmar, 28). Dittmar explains that by having the thin ideal as a personal value, women are to look at themselves as larger than their desired look and the identity deficit makes them feel

5 5 negative emotions about their body and weight. (Dittmar, 28). Dittmar also discuss that the thin ideal is particular to women but that men experience muscular ideal which has the same affect psychologically as the thin ideal. Both the thin ideal and the muscular ideal have the same affect in that it causes people to have a think ideal, feel bad sequence, by switching on an internal discrepancy where vulnerable individuals focus on the gap between their own body and the ideal body. (Dittmar, 28). Dittmar furthers this thinking by saying that individuals that have these tendencies go from wanting to be like what they see in the media to needing to be what they see. This is truly why we must be aware of what see in the media and how it is affecting us. Studies of the medias effect: The study that Reaves, Hitchon, Park, and Yun conducted is an analysis of people s reaction to the pictures that the media presents them. Their focus was on how society reacts to the photoshopped pictures that we are conditioned to believe is the realistic perfect body. How body dissatisfaction arises from comparing one s self the beautiful models in the magazines. This can even more be seen in present day with people comparing themselves to the models they see plastered all over every form of social media. The study also describes how it is often that you see that women are more likely to suffer from an eating disorder; it is due to the fact that women s magazines are more likely to be filled with models who have been photoshopped to look unrealistic and that the magazines will often contain way more weight loss articles to how these models and celebrities look the way they do (Reaves et al, 143). This too can be seen today in relation to social media in the fact that the advertisements seen on someone s social media accounts can be directly related to who they are so women are more likely to see models in workout clothing or other clothing whose photos have been edited to look a certain way. As the idea is if you want to look super thin and beautiful then you must wear these clothes. The

6 6 study also discusses the fact that those growing up in what they call the digital revolution are experiencing the extended ability of people using technology to create fake bodies and get it out to a broad audience. The problem with this is that it is an unreachable standard of beauty is now compounded by women trying to emulate [this] photo-fakery. (Reaves et al, 144). It is though that the biggest problem with the digital revolution is not how these pictures are all around us and constantly a present in everyday life but the fact that editing a photo is so easy. This point is even more amplified today when photo editing software is not just used by the big companies but that any joe on the street can use it and modify anything making these photo-fakery bodies are everywhere. In the study by Reaves et al they take a group of students from a midwestern university and they have them look at an array of photos in which have been edited and could be found in a published magazine. It is after they look at these photos that the students are then asked how they feel about themselves in comparison to the models that they just looked at. After that they are given another set of photos to look at and this collection of pictures are the same as the first set except they are not edited, and these pictures show exactly how the models look (Reaves et al,145). Now after looking at the pictures they are asked in relation to how the models look in these pictures how do you feel about yourself. After looking at the first set of pictures most of the students said it lowered the self-esteem in how they felt about their own bodies in relation to how the models looked (Reaves et al, 148). Though when all the students looked at the unedited pictures they felt better about themselves, this outright shows the problem whit edited photos (Reaves et al, 149). The pictures that everyone is comparing themselves too are fake and unrealistic even for the models. For the models bodies don t even look as they are being portrayed.

7 7 The study of DeBraganza and Hausenblas takes a variety of photos all of models who fit the standard of what the media sees as the ideal body and shows them to a group of women aged As the social norms of the ideal body are portrayed in the mass media by models and actors. These mass media ideals shape the standards toward which young women believe they must strive for true beauty. (DeBraganza et al, 702). After showing this to them the pictures of the ideal dictated by the American mass media (which) is a homogeneous Caucasian thin physique imposed on a heterogeneous audience (DeBraganza et al, 702) they show them women who bodies fit the true standard to how women look in all the same poses that the models were beforehand. In addition to this the group of young women they are showing the pictures to are composed of Caucasian and African American women. As women from different ethnic/racial backgrounds vary in the extent to which they are dissatisfied with their bodies (depending) on cultural and social group context. (DeBraganza et al, 702). The idea is to not only see how women feel towards what models and regular women look like but to also see how Caucasians relate towards Caucasian models and how African Americans relate towards Caucasian models in relation to how they can relate to what they see and how that affects them. After doing the study they found that: White women reported higher body dissatisfaction after viewing the model slides, but they reported lower body dissatisfaction after viewing the control slides. In comparison, the African American women showed no significant changes from the pretest to the posttest on body dissatisfaction after viewing either slide condition (709) The study when it comes to Caucasian women shows that more are dissatisfied with their own body when looking at models with the ideal body then they do looking at the control slides which were the ones with the normal sized women. In looking how African American women

8 8 reacted to this study you do not see a difference between the control and the model slides. This can be seen as the Caucasian models identified with the photos on the basis of similar skin color whereas the African American participants did not. (DeBraganza et al, 712). One of the African American participants says that the women were too skinny. Also, the women were white, so they don t represent Black beauty which is different from what is appealing to White women. (DeBraganza et al, 713). The study shows though how when you identify with what you see in the media weather that is based upon race, culture or social context reflects how you react to it. Literary comparison: In Dittmar analyzes discussing the idea of how people feel in relation to what they see in the media as the perfect body and psychologically how this affects us. As the disconnect that results from people finding themselves lacking when they compare themselves with idealized media models and this disconnect is the gap between how they see themselves (actual identity) and how they would ideally like to be (ideal identity). (Dittmar, 25). In understanding how what we see in the media can make you feel we can than understand what Reaves et al and DeBraganza et al in their studies are trying to prove. It is Reaves et al who discuss in their study the effects that photoshoped pictures have on consumers. In showing their subjects who took place in the study pictures that were manipulated to make the models thinner and more attractive and then showing the original and un altered version and how they reacted to them in measuring body satisfaction. They found that before even looking at the picture and in looking at the modified pictures they had similar body satisfaction, but it was considerably higher than when they showed the unaltered pictures of the models. As the body satisfaction want up when they viewed the unaltered pictures showing that the medias manipulation that they indorse causes body dissatisfaction of the consumers that view it. As the media is pushing an unrealistic view of

9 9 what a woman should look like. DeBraganza et al also looked at body dissatisfaction from the medias influence but looked at how women felt when looking at models and then when looking at women of the average size. As women felt a higher body dissatisfaction when looking at pictures of models, it is Dittmar that states these glamorous models are often 20% underweight and then when the women viewed pictures that represented the average real American woman (DeBraganza et al, 706) they had a considerably lower body dissatisfaction. Although different from Reaves et al s study DeBraganza et al still shows how what the media promotes as the perfect body has a negative effect in how people then in return view themselves. Conclusion: When talking about body image especially the issues of wanting the perfect body you can look towards the media stresses that perfect body stresses as a big problem. Through Dittmar s analysis of the phycological effects of how people react to media you can better understand what studies that show when they describe how people directly react to pictures that the media. The overall reaction found throughout the studies showed that when people looking at the pictures that the media promotes it lowers their self-esteem and makes them want to be like what they see in the media. All of the studies also showed that what the media is showing the public is not what the true average body image in society is. Whether it is the media is editing the images or using models who are underweight they are promoting a body image that is not realistic. If we are aware of what the media is showing us is fake, then there is a less chance of us wanting to be what we see as what we see in the media is a fabricated unrealistic idea of what the perfect body is.

10 10 References: DeBraganza, N., & Hausenblas, H. (2010). Media exposure of the ideal physique on women's body dissatisfaction and mood: the moderating effects of ethnicity. Journal of Black Studies, 40(4), Retrieved from Dittmar, H. (2007). The costs of consumer culture and the "cage within": the impact of the material "good life" and "body perfect" ideals on individuals' identity and well-being. Psychological Inquiry, 18(1), Retrieved from Reaves, S., Hitchon, J., Park, S., & Yun, G. (2004). "You can never be too thin" or can you?: A pilot study on the effects of digital manipulation of fashion models" body size, leg length and skin color. Race, Gender & Class, 11(2), Retrieved from

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