Body Dysmorphia Research Paper

872 Words4 Pages

How do you remember your childhood? Many of us, when asked this question, would proceed to list off a multitude of blissful memories from our youth. Perhaps times when we weren’t focused solely on media and technology, instead remaining somewhat unaware of the world around us. Our childhood influences the people we become and acts as the context behind our core beliefs and ideals; but when you’re excessively exposed to harmful media images throughout your childhood you’re bound to be negatively influenced, right? Due to the increasing focus on women’s bodies, is it any wonder that young girls experience body dysmorphia? Studies of body image have established that girls as young as 6 to 7 years of age desire a thinner, ideal body. In many cases this is due to the portrayal of women in the media that children are excessively exposed to. This comes in varying mediums such as film, television and music videos, portraying women negatively as sexual objects of the male gaze, an aspect that has become normalized in today’s society. Girls grow up to believe that they have to be attractive to attract the attention of a man. If you’re like me, you would agree that this is obviously a damaging environment to raise a child in, let alone to grow up …show more content…

At the time that this article was written, Ariel Winter was sixteen, but despite this , the article’s writer, Kindra Mone, repeatedly describes Winter’s figure as “sexy and curvy”. The false representation of Winter as an adult works as a distraction to mask the gross over-sexualization of a teenage girl. This article succeeds in completely undermining Winter’s talents as a young successful actress, and instead focuses on the physical aspects of her appearance. Not once in the article does it mention the reason Winter was attending the award

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