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...

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…