Deception of Beauty in the Mass Media

Beauty

Shaping up to Fit in"

This is a paper on the image of beauty produced by the mass media. 4 references are given.

In the 20th century the mass media has played a major role in advocating and propagating an ideology of female beauty. For the past few decades' fashion has passionately endorsed thinness to the point of emaciation to be the manifestation of true beauty and the mass media has been the tool used for disseminating this view. Dr. Allison Field, of Brigham and Women's Hospital is a strong advocate of the opinion that media influences are causing an increase in unhealthy practices including eating disorders amongst young women. One such example is that of Marne Greenberg, a victim of propaganda who fought with bulimia all through her teens. In her search for a new self-image Greenberg said, "It doesn't matter who you are, you always want to be that someone... The highest of expectations of someone you can't, or never will, be."[Salvatore, 1999].

Many sections of the media have now woken up to the detrimental effects of encouraging stereotypes through advertising products that link loss of weight to being sexy and sophisticated. As audience awareness and dissention grows many advertisers have found Bartos, author of "The Moving Target" to be correct in his assertion that they must, "understand that abolishing stereotypes really is an intelligent marketing decision." [Author not available, 2003(a)]

Thesis

When faced with the popularity of screen personas such as Helen Hunt, Calista Flockhart and, Kate Moss women inevitably associate success and emotional well being with a particular appearance- thin. Any variation of this ideal is condemned. Greenberg describes the peer pressure that can cause women to go to harmful lengths in their bid to conform. She describes how she became emaciated and was inflicted with gastric problems while "people who didn't know her thought she looked great."[Salvatore, 1999] The association of 'diet' and fat-free' products with sex and romance emphasises the notion that it is the beautiful skinny woman who will get the handsome hunk. Indirectly consumers are encouraged to buy diet coke, Skippy peanut butter, Slim fast products if they want to change their overweight negative self-image to a positive socially correct and personally rewarding thin one. [Author not available, 2003(a)] Impressionable adolescents and teens and even mature but ordinary women suppress their natural physique and aspire to the more socially acceptable 'thin waif' look. As Dr. Fields explains that it is important for the media to "refrain from using the severely underweight models who are unhealthy and unrealistic role models for these young girls to have."[Salvatore, 1999] "The average North American woman is 5-foot four and 143 pounds, "and in her quest to be 5-foot ten, and 107 pounds"[Salvatore, 1999] she can cause damage to her body and psyche.

Literature Review

"Body and Soul: The Self -Image of Girls" an article in the "The Chronicle of Higher Education" describes with facts how the self-image of women and girls is directly linked to their self-esteem.[Author not available, 2003(b)] Numerous statistics have shown the influence of the media in sending out negative messages. The solution the article gives is to raise the self-esteem of girls through education programs, making them aware of health issues, media tactics, and the marketing behind the glamour. This can be done by teachers, institutions and parents.[Author not available, 2003(b)]

The article uses polls and research studies to prove that the body image of girls is affected by external factors such as advertising and magazines. His examples are revealing and shocking. He quotes a study of 4,294 network television commercials which revealed that 1 out of every 3.8 commercials sent some sort of "attractiveness message" telling viewers what is or is not attractive.[Author not available, 2003(b)] A psychological study in 1995 found that three minutes spent looking at models in a fashion magazine caused 70% of women to feel depressed, guilt and shameful. These statistics support his argument and mine. Eric Stice at the University of Texas, Austin argues that due to the media "Most of us...think dieting is going to keep us thin, but there's never been a single study to date that has found that dieting as commonly practiced in the real world leads to weight loss."[Author not available, 2003(b)] Not only are the myths cultivated by the media exposed but the author gives innovative ideas on how to counter their effects practically through reassurance of the natural diversity in body shapes and sizes and awareness of differences between media image and reality.[Author not available, 2003(b)].

Media may feed weight problems of teen-aged girls" by Dr. Steve Salvatore is a small but explicit article that describes how very real the danger posed by media images is when imposed on young and malleable minds. Eating disorders were best tackled by raising self-esteem he agreed.

Girls like Marne Greenberg were interviewed as were experts such as Dr. Stanley Hertz of Long Island Jewish Hospital, who admit how frequent the use of vomiting or laxatives to control weight really is.[Salvatore, S, 1999] This article too, through description and examples derided the role of the media in proliferating false ideals and prioritizing physical attributes in its bid for higher ratings and more consumers. The author encourages young girls to evaluate themselves in ways other than weight. [Salvatore, S, 1999]The author has a tendency to quote expert opinions rather analyze the data himself but his message is clearly towards producing a more media savvy consumer as bulimia due to low self-image is a very real issue.

Conclusion