Effect of media on young women and girls body image and self esteem

Effect of media on young women and girls’ body image and self esteem

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The media has a great impact on the self-esteem and the body image of young women and girls. Young women and girls are in their development stages and the media has a great effect on their perception of various growth matters. Body image refers to a person’s aesthetic and sexual attractiveness of their own body. The Medias harmful effect on the self-body image and self-esteem of young girls has brought about three major damaging effects. The three effects are; eating disorders and dietary changes, mental depression and physical depression. The Medias portrayal of self-image has had a great impact on the lives of young women and girls (Blakeslee, 2006, p.34). The two classes have been striving to meet the standards as indicated by the media. Most of the women and models that are displayed in screens and advertisement are beyond exemplary standards. Most of the young women and girls are plump owing to their dietary traits. This portrayal by the media of what an ideal lady should be like instils a lot of restlessness in the ladies as they strive to achieve these standards. As the media advertises the various means which one can achieve the super model’s status, it leaves many girls on the rush to attain this status. The media is always soliciting a new form of a pill or a company to jump on board with to lose weight (Cullari, 2002, 225). The media’s placement of various gorgeous girls with perfect figures, smooth skins and with perfect tones gives a motivation to the young aged to work out and look like that. Owing to all this realizations, media can be truly said to affect the notion of body image as well as the self-esteem of young women and girls.

One of the major effects of the media on young women and girls is eating disorders and dietary changes. Many advertisements and shows brought in the media are showcased by young-looking slim and extremely beautiful young ladies who are bound to catch the eye of almost every if not all girls who get a glimpse of them. The popular media which includes television, movies, magazines and advertisement billboards since world war two, increasingly held a thinner and slimmer body image as the ideal for a modern lady (Grabe, Ward and Hyde, 2008, 467). In a survey of girls and ladies in the lower and middle ages, about forty to fifty per cent have tried to put on measures to cut on their weight. Another study also indicated that, the amount of time young people watches soaps, movies and music videos is closely linked to their degree of body dissatisfaction and the desire to achieve a certain body figure. Most of these conceptions are followed by stern actions by the young ladies in their diets to cut off on their weight and hence achieve the model’s status. Epidemiological studies indicates that the occurrence of eating disorders among adolescent girls has increased over the last fifty or more years. These dietary disorders are chiefly brought about by the urge to gain idyllic weight, shape, size as well as the body image (Derrence, 2008, 258). These behaviours have been suggested as possible risk factors for the development of eating disorders. Many researchers have hypothesised that the media has played a central role in creating and intensifying the phenomenon of body dissatisfaction and consequently the eating disorders.

Another accompanying feature that comes along with the Medias effect on young women and girls is mental depression. The exposure young ladies and girls receive from images of slim and very attractive models in the various media bourgeons body dissatisfaction and other negative feeling in them. Continuous exposure to these images brings about many negative connotations in the self-image of women. Most of the women who undergo such experiences and are unable or are not in the position to change their situations for the better succumb to depression and even emotional stress (Janet, 2013, 185). Psychologists have found out that most of the people and especially young ladies who dissatisfied with their own body image suffer immense depression which is also a source of other phenomena that are not desirable. A study indicates that mental depression in girls begins at a very tender age once there is a realization of the ideal body image from the media (Steve and Seonmi, 178). This depression keeps on track with them into their teenage years and even adult years. If young girls grow up seeing slender women on commercials, on television shows and on film, they get a notion of how an ideal woman should be like and hence fight hard to attain this status. In case they are unfortunate enough not to attain this, a great percentage are bound to undergo emotional stress which culminates into depression. A feeling of inadequacy gets the better part of most girls. A feeling of self-hatred also develops in most of the young ladies. This ultimately lowers their self-esteem to a great extent. Most of such ladies are less confident and are violent and are less resilient.

Another harmful effect of media on young women and girl’s body image and self-esteem is physical depression. Mental depression in most cases manipulates itself at the physical level (Kaman, 2013, 2). Therefore, physical depression can be termed to be an aftermath of mental depression. Though most of the manipulations of mental depression are emotional, depression also comes along with a number of physical symptoms. Most of them affect the victim’s health wise and are extremely detrimental. Since most of the depression in young ladies is as a result of the media display of body image, the physical depression that results from it can also be attributed to the media. Some of the physical symptoms that arise to young ladies who are under mental depression includes; nausea, diarrhoea, pain, and weight changes. Others include; headaches, sleeplessness, muscle ache, fatigue and chest pains this physical depression is especially lethal as most of the young ladies going through it dismiss it as petty and fail to seek proper medical attention in health care institutions. These problems often culminate into serious health problems that take a lot of effort to hamper. The portrayal of an ideal image by the media has been said to be the chief cause of such complications in young women and girls. Many women put their blame on weight gain on the media at large. Blaming the pressures put on them to look good cause’s depression because they never feel good enough so as the term is said “they eat their feelings” (Claudia, Jose and Christiana, 57).

On the contrary, blame cannot be laid on the media for affecting young women’s body image and self-esteem. Much of the efforts made by the media are to achieve their marketing objectives of presenting an appealing message to the target group. The media cannot afford to compromise this aim by bringing out unattractive parties in their advertisements and shows. There is little or no direct influence on body image which is depicted by any media (Janet, 2013, 286). To ensure the realisation of the desired effect of an advert, its anticipated end results must be indicated. For instance, in an advert involving beauty products, an attractive image of the product must be brought out clearly and vividly by using gorgeous ladies who have made use of the product. This hence ensures that the target group is lured into purchasing the product and hence the objective of increasing the sales volume is met. As they say, image is very important and is everything and therefore emphasis has to be put on achieving a good image. In the film industry, most emphasis by film directors when selecting their crew is placed on talent and not the body image of the actors (Janet, 2013, 287). The role assigned to each of the actor is the one that probably necessitates a change of certain qualities. Therefore, the selection is majorly based on talent and the skills, the rest follows afterwards. Most of the reality shows aired on television is done to enable the viewer’s raise their esteem by accepting their status and their image. This is contrary to the belief that the media has only a positive impact on the body image and self-esteem. Therefore, it can be comprehensively concluded that, the media has little or no influence on the self-image perception or self-esteem of young women and girls.

Beyond any reasonable doubt, there exists enough proof of how the media has affected young women and girls in a disadvantageous way. All the allegations that are levelled against the media are true. Despite media’s denial that they are directly linked to the negative effects on ladies body image and self-esteem, most of image related issues in women are aroused by the media directly and indirectly. Various advertisements, television shows as well as films bring out vividly and to a great extent a picture of an ideal lady as in the figure perspective (Cullari, 2002, 226). If body image was not as necessary, they would have invited any kind of lady to do the roles. Plump and rough-faced girls instead of slim and gorgeous models would have found their way into commercials, shows and films as models, hosts and actresses respectively. The message sent by media to young women is very sharp and is inevitable (Blakeslee, 2006, 34). It arouses a lot of interest in young ladies and makes them seek ways and means of attaining the ideal status. If at all a role in a film which is short-lived can make a lady can her diet to attain the “ideal” figure and shape, then why can a lady in her mid-twenties not miss lunch at work to attain the same for a life time. If a commercial advert on a local television on a beauty product showcases slim and very smooth-skinned ladies, then why can’t a teenage girl try to put on all kinds of makeup and swallow slim pills to meet the standards?

With all the above findings, we can comprehensively conclude that the media impacts negatively on the body image and the self-esteem of women and girls. The media potently bombards young ladies and girls with images of thin models. For instance, for many American girls, being model thin is a real aspiration and it starts at a shockingly young age. Most of the television shows whose focus is on appearance are swaying to the self-esteem of young girls (Claudia, Jose and Christiana, 60). This presentations by the media are whatsoever the case not helpful in creating real life role models as some of the images presented have been altered to fit the medias purposes. In an attempt to emulate the countless media images they view, girls often take some drastic and even lethal measures to get to such standards. Most of the taken measures end up flopping terribly which demoralises the girls and makes them feel incomplete and lowers their self-esteem drastically. Dismissal and disapproval by other members of the society for being not so attractive due to body shape and flaws may be extremely detrimental to the girls (Grabe, Ward and Hyde, 2008, 464). A very slender flawless body has been continuously seen as the image of beauty and the mass media is responsible for this change. Therefore, I can authoritatively state that the media affects young women’s and girls’ body image and self-esteem.

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