Proponents of Western culture’s influence on society will often praise the new clothing styles and trends or innovative fashion designers. However, there is one social group that continues to be heavily impacted by the social constructs formulated among those in the Western society: women. More specifically, women have become extremely subject to upholding the absurd beauty standards set by modern society. With the implemented preconceived notion that beauty is derived from being tall, thin, and hourglassed shaped, women have resorted to unhealthy eating trends to compensate for their low self esteem. With the considerable amount of research conducted on how Western culture influences eating disorders upon young women, it was reported that …show more content…
The corset originated in Greece, becoming extremely popular in sixteenth-century Europe and spreading to the United States shortly after. This article of clothing was utilized to change the physical appearance of the bodies of women by shrinking the waist. The widespread use of corsets among the women in colonial America radiated the impression that a slim figure was equivalent to having more beauty. However, the singular benefit of a corset is highly outweighed by the disadvantages that is has. Corsets can cause shallow breathing, extreme bruising, pelvic fractures, acid reflux, mood swings, decreased core strength, fainting spells, and deformed organs (“Peer, Parent, and Media …show more content…
These images used to be limited to traditional mass media such as magazines, movies, and advertisements, which was consumed on a weekly or monthly basis. As history progressed, the presence of media in the daily lives of not only women, but also men, increased with the development of new technology. Now with the rise of social media, the average person engages with these types of images multiple times within one calendar day. The constant engagement with these images and the analysis of adolescents who absorb them suggest that there is a higher rate of body dissatisfaction (“Social Media Helps Fuel…”). Social media amplifies the obsession of having the ideal body; Psychological factors of disorders, like anorexia and bulimia, are common in women and are associated with unrealistic body images displayed on social media.Due to the growth of social media platforms, exhibiting only the typical model frame, the search for the ideal body increased tremendously. Rachel Simmons, a leadership development specialist at Smith College, honed in on how the history of body image has been affected by the introduction and daily use of social media platforms. She provides valid evidence that psychologists have found evidence that links social media usage to self-objectification in adolescents, dieting,
Anorexia survivor Erin Treloar said “my eating disorder was perpetuated by retouched magazine photos”. Beauty standards has such a giant effect on women emotionally, psychologically and physically. The pressure on women to be thin leads to unhealthy weight loss practices (Battle & Brownell, 1996), eating disorders such as bulimia and anorexia (Thompson, Heinberg, Altabe, & Tantleff-Dunn, 1998) and low self-esteem (Tiggeman & Stevens,
“In the past, eating disorders were generally considered to be confined to young white females from middle-to-upper class families living in Western societies” (Caradas 112). Both studies exploit the false stereotypes associated with eating disorders and culture. Both parties believe that non Western cultures are being influenced by the “slim is beautiful” idea. Each view points out the false misconception that non Western cultures traditional ideas of being thick is related to health is protecting them from eating disorders. Studies prove all ethnicities have shown concern towards body shape and eating attitudes in recent years around the
They started exposing more of their bodies, like their ankles and then their legs. Corsets were common among women. They were a type of body suit laced in the back, which was worn to enhance women’s hips and breasts, while making their waists seem as thin as possible. The use of corsets started in the 1800s and continued until the 1920s. (Cohen,1984).
In “The Globalization of Eating Disorders”, written by Susan Bordo in 2003, the author declares that eating and body disorders have increased rapidly throughout the entire globe. Susan Bordo, attended Carleton University as well as the State University of New York, is a modern feminist philosopher who is very well known for her contributions to the field of cultural studies, especially in ‘body studies’ which grants her the credibility to discuss this rising global issue (www.wikipedia.org, 2015). She was correspondingly a professor of English and Women Studies at the University of Kentucky which gives her the authority to write this article. “The Globalization of Eating Disorders” is written as a preface to her Pulitzer Price-nominated book “Unbearable Weight: Feminism, Western Culture, and the Body” which was similarly written in 2003. Through the use of many logical arguments and evidence, Bordo successfully manages to convince her audience that the media, body images and culture have severely influenced the ‘so-called’ trending standard of beauty and how it leads to eating disorders across the world.
In addition on the article by Chris York “Eating Disorders: How Social Media Helps Spread Anorexia And Bulimia In Young People” states that “Whilst the portrayal of "ideal" body types in western media has long been recognized as a factor in propagating eating disorders”
Magazines, TV, music, books, and movies help one make decisions and take action whether consciously or subconsciously. This large sphere of influence, however, is not always beneficial for those who suffer victim to these forms of public entertainment. The medias version of beauty, shames those who are considered overweight and scares almost everyone into thinking that being thin is the only way to be pretty. Jolene Hart emphasis how important beauty is in the American culture in her book Eat Pretty: Nutrition for Beauty, Inside and Out: “There’s a multi-billion-dollar industry built on helping us achieve greater physical beauty” (Hart 33). By creating this manipulated and untrue image of beauty, the American culture encourages eating disorders like anorexia (undereating) and sustains obesity (overeating).
In the article Body Image & the Media: An Overview, the author describes the ways in which people’s opinion of themselves are being altered due to the unrealistic standards being viewed in the media. Since the growth of media and internet, people have been greatly exposed to what a “perfect” body should look like. These unrealistic standards have taken a toll on people’s physical and mental health. One envisions a perfect body image and is concerned about how others will perceive them and how they perceive themselves.
During the nineteenth century, corsets were really common among women. They were a type of body suit laced to the back, which was worn to enhance a woman's hips and breasts, while make her waist seem as thin as possible. The use of corsets continued till the 1920s, as it was later attacked for its restrictiveness, both in breathing and movement.
The people living on the earth are the results of million years of assessment. Show people are just the surviving individuals from the human clade. They are the branches of the huge monkeys. They are portrayed by upright stance and biped motion, physical wellness, the utilization of enhanced devices, and a general pattern towards bigger and more brains and more intricate social orders. Amid past people lived as seekers and gatherers.
We live in an era where social media has been everywhere and it has impacted many people. Everyone is obsessed with their bodies and ‘fixing’ ourselves has become a daily activity. The perfect body type is having ; thin and long hair, curves, flawless skin, big waist with a flat stomach, thick eyebrows, nice slim nose, big lips and much more. The media influenced this type of body image a person “should have “.During these decades, the beauty and diet industries are all over magazines, advertisement and all types of social media. These industries are filled with thinness ideals and it makes people feel unsatisfied with their body.
When looking at magazines that contain advice on how women can perfect themselves and become more beautiful, pictures of women who are supposed to represent this flawless body image are constantly found to be exceptionally thin. Magazines specifically spreading this phenomenon include Cosmopolitan, Vogue, and Victoria’s Secret, to name a few. Of course, giving in to societal pressures is expected from the female adolescents who are exposed to these forms of media, as they feel that often times, physical attractiveness above all allows for ultimate perfection. This causes these girls to do anything in their power to attain this picture-perfect look, most of the time leading to disorders that could become potentially fatal to these teens. In an attempt to follow the crowd, adolescents look at themselves and, with the discouragement of not being as thin as the women in the pictures seen in the magazines, television shows, or movies, result in having anorexia nervosa which becomes a crucial impediment in their lives.
In the essay “A Woman’s Body: Put Down or Power Source” by Susan Sontag and excerpt from the film “America the Beautiful” directed by Darryl Roberts, it emphasizes the “power of beauty” .Women are fascinated with a beauty that is unreal, made-up, and doesn’t exist. Young adults are unhappy with their bodies because of the unachievable standards of beauty portrayed in social media, several aspects of video and print media. This unhappiness causes young adults to obsess with achieving an unrealistic body image which in turn, causes low self -esteem and excessive dieting which can also lead to eating disorders such as anorexia. Young adults feel rejected because of their looks, provoking dissatisfaction and unhappiness with their appearance.
Fauquet, Sánchez, Levine, and López (2010) engaged in a cross-sectional analysis that focused on the association between exposure and consumption of media outlets, such as television and magazines, and its relation to body dissatisfaction, excessive weight concern, and bad eating habits. The media integrates ideas, values, attitudes, and behaviors that potentially affect young female girls because it represents a distorted, unrealistic vision of the world and the expectations women are assumed to obtain. In one cross-sectional study conducted by Groesz, Levine, and Murnen (2002), focused on twenty-five experimental studies, which they controlled what the young women were exposed to. For example, excessively thin models in photographs, music
Users of extensive social media will go to extreme measures to compare themselves to their counterparts and will rest at nothing to get their fifteen seconds in the limelight. Which includes, but is not limited to posting nude pictures or pictures that invoke sex to attract an unwanted audience. In reaction to the effects of social media lead to low self-esteem, self-objectification and in severe cases body
Derenne and Beresin (2006) examined how the media has progressed throughout the years and what the “ideal” body type was in that time period, which influenced female dissatisfaction with their bodies. The study showed that in the colonial times, women contributed to physical labor, which resulted in bigger, stronger bodies. As time shifted to the 19th century, tiny waists and large bustles was favorited by society, which is difficult to attain. Advertisements that are available for kids and young adults display underweight supermodels, appetite suppressants, dietary supplements, which creates a negative repetitive message that being skinny is the only way to be beautiful. ( talk about how different factors in different locations play a role).