http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iYhCn0jf46U
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TczkBlcAAjs
- What is your opinion about this issue?
A few facts for you to also consider:
-Women now would consider Marilyn Monroe fat.
"Model/Actress Elizabeth Hurley stated in Allure magazine “I’ve always thought Marilyn Monroe looked fabulous, but I’d kill myself if I was that fat.”(http://www.raderprograms.com/special-issues/media-influence)
-A study asked children to assign attractiveness values to pictures of children with various disabilities. The participants rated the obese child less attractive than a child in a wheelchair, a child with a facial deformity, and a child with a missing limb.(http://www.raderprograms.com/special-issues/media-influence).
-81% of ten year old girls are afraid of being fat.
-42% of girls in first through third grades state they want to be thinner.
-A study found that adolescent girls were more fearful of gaining weight, than getting cancer, nuclear war or losing their parents.
- How does this make you feel?
- Should photoshop really be used considering it is unrealistic?
YES! The media plays a HUGE role in influencing eating disorders. I would go as far as saying it is about 80-90% of the cause, with the other percent being peer influences. We are surrounded by it. Children and teenagers today experience it in their music, magazines, shopping malls, TV shows, movies, the internet and from their friends...all aspects of a young person's life that have the greatest influence on their immature minds.
ReplyDeleteIn our society, criticizing individuals who are fat or obese is more socially acceptable than ridiculing someone because of their race, sexual orientation, intelligence, and/or religion. Like one of the youtube videos posted above stated, the media consistently portrays overweight characters or people as either stupid, clumsy or goofy and typically show them enduring much more adversity throughout their lives simply because of the way they look. Even an incredible person like Oprah Winfrey for example, whose accomplishments have helped change millions of lives for the better, can simply be disregarded and scorned and labeled as "fat" and "ugly" by those who criticize or don't care for her. People today are always noted by their looks first; their clothes, weight, hair style, accessories etc. The overwhelming emphasis on what we look like and what others think about us affects everyone everywhere, and unfortunately this negative trend is even eating away at our young children. 81% of ten year old girls are afraid of being fat?!?!!? I can't believe this and it truly saddens me. This is NOT an issue young girls (and even boys in some cases) should have to deal with or even think about.
I whole-heartedly recommend you all watch the two youtube videos posted above. I have seen the Dove video before, but it's still very eye-opening to get such an in depth and detailed view as to how technology can create a false visual of a "beautiful" person.
I believe the media will remain as it is for a long time. The demand for pretty people and sex appeal will always lean companies and promoters to use individuals who fit their exact mold of beauty. We as a society must educate people, specifically our children, on how to distinguish the differences of a healthy weight and lifestyle with that of starving oneself in order to reach a distorted and false body image. I see no wrong in dieting and exercising if one wishes to becomes "sexy" or "hot." But people must know how to do so in a healthy, proper way that doesn't physically and emotionally harm the individual or their families. Education and awareness are the keys to helping prevent eating and body image disorders. Campaigns and advertisements that encourage women and men to be happy with their current body image are a fantastic start. But this issue is so psychologically demanding on those who suffer that they must know how to handle situations on their own. Loving yourself truly comes from within first. No outside source can tell you the right way to think or feel unless you honestly believe it yourself.
^^^ Posted by Michael Esclana
ReplyDeleteI think it's terrible that girls so young feel as if they need to be thinner. I think that parents need to be more of an influence in their daughters self esteem and actively tell them that they are beautiful no matter what others say. The media holds an unhealthy amount of control when it comes to body image and it's sad that it will probably never change.
ReplyDelete-Samantha Walters
I agree! With my expierence working at a camp, my campers who were ten or eleven had self esteem issues pertaining to their body.. I think it is so sad when young girls feel like they have to look a certain way... The media def. plays a large role in this... A lot of the shows for young children, especially girls, dipict girls at a young age wearing make up, and looking much older then their actual age... I have seen the dove ad that was mentioned above! I used it in a project I did in high school.. it is so interesting to see how much a picture is altered before it is used in the media...
ReplyDelete-Lauren Piligian
As a nanny for 8 year old girls, I have seen these ideas being placed into their heads even through cartoons. Children today have such a skewed view of women, and all that goes along with being a women, it is a vicious cycle that needs to come to an end at some point.
ReplyDeleteAlli Shortt