Body Image and Media

BODY IMAGE & THE MEDIA

Views on How Body Image & Media Can Affect Developmental Tasks of Adolescents and Young Adults with Disabilities

The images displayed in the media and advertisements regarding the perfect body are misleading. The models and actors used to advertise products all have perfect bodies, and this leads many people to believe that they should also have such types of bodies (Grabe, Ward, & Hyde, 2008). For normal individuals without any disabilities, the images are hurting to a person's self-image, and they end up yearning to get a small petite body. For people with disabilities, this is even worse because the media portrays disability as negative and evil. Adolescents with disabilities have a hard time fitting into society, and they have bodily changes taking place that limit their capabilities. An adolescent with a disability would love to have acceptance from their peers, but this is hard because his or her agemates are not willing to socialize with them. This leads to them having a negative self-image that they are not perfect. A disability does not mean inability but in our current society and based on the images portrayed in the media most people shy away from individuals with a disability. This can be hurting to an adolescent who only wants to socialize and spend time with their agemates.

It is vital that young adults and adolescents develop knowing they have a disability and accepting themselves they are, but this is made hard because most people are not willing to participate or share anything with a disabled person. During the developmental phase, young adults will be searching for love, and most of them cannot find an individual willing to go out on a date with them because of their disability. The media has played a huge role in this in that most of the images portrayed in the media of disabled people are negative, and that is what most people believe. It might be true that a disabled person would need a lot of assistance, but this should not be the only thing that others see of the person. A teenager who does not experience adolescence as required would have a hard time moving to the next stage in life. A majority of teens with disability do not have friends, or they are unable to maintain friendships, not because they are bad only because the few they have tend to drift away. This causes the teenager to develop negative images of themselves. The negative feelings would result in tendencies to keep to themselves and lack a desire to participate in certain tasks that require close bonds.

In many instances, even if the disabled person has good intentions and is a good person, most people see the disability, and they formulate conclusions regarding an individual. This is not anyone's fault, but rather is the conditioning that has taken place that forces people to want to associate with individuals who do not have any disabilities. For an adolescent who is not fully aware of the reasoning behind people's attribution, it can be hurting (Cusumano & Thompson, 2001). The disabled adolescent also watches TV, and they do see the images the media does present. From the images, they become more self-aware of their disability, and most of them do not know how to cope with their current situation. Interaction with others would give a person with a disability the necessary skills to be more independent. Participating in normal adolescent activities is beneficial to the individual, but this would only be possible if other teens accepted the person and invited them to participate. Gaining independence teaches the individual to not rely on others and gives them the life skills required to succeed in life as an adult.