Media and Body Image

Persuasive Essay # 116080

Communication > Mass Media
Psychology > Eating Disorders
Psychology > Social

An argument that body image is not shaped by attitudes in the media.

2,045 words () | 5 sources | APA | 2009 United States

Paper Summary:

The paper argues that the media does not present a too thin body image, rather it is the white culture that dictates the ideal, thin body images. The paper highlights how white culture stresses beauty is thinness while black culture emphasizes self-respect, being happy with oneself and accepting a larger body size. The paper asserts that the media's norms are changing with the introduction and focus on black culture.

From the Paper:

"Body image in the media is intended to represent a product and to sell that product. The media gurus choose thin models not as attesting to how women should look but rather as a tribute to how they want their product to appear to the audience. The idea of thinness is misconstrued on the idea that women's bodies are too thin and thus those too thin bodies present to the advertising world what their body should look like, but this is not true. Thinness is in the eye of the beholder, "When individuals evaluate their appearance, they can either concur or disagree with other evaluators. If dissensus occurs its direction can be either self enhancing or self-denigrating" (Levinson 1986; 330)."

Sample of Sources Used:

Ingrassia, Michele; Springen, Karen. (24 April 1995). The body of the beholder. Newsweek, Vol. 125 Issue 17, p66.
Levinson, Richard et al. (Dec. 1986). Social Location, Significant Others and Body Image Among Adolescents. Social Psychology Quarterly. Vol. 49, No. 4, pp330-337.
Lovejoy, Meg. (April 2001). Disturbances in the Social Body: Differences in Body Image And Eating Problems Among African American and White Women. Gender andSociety. Vol. 15. No. 2. pp239-261.
Milkie, Melissa. (December 2002). Contested Images of Femininity: An Analysis of Cultural Gatekeepers' Struggles with the 'Real Girl' Critique. Gender and Society. Vol. 16, No. 6. pp839-859.
Milkie, Melissa A. (June 1999). Social Comparisons, Reflected Appraisals, and Mass Media:The Impact of Pervasive Beauty Images on Black and White Girls' Self-Concepts. Social Psychology Quarterly. Vol. 62, No. 2. pp190-210.