There is no doubt that media brings us inaccurate image of women’s beauty. We are completely surrounded by images of super-thin women; we can see them in magazines, TV commercials, music videos, billboards on the street and also on the Internet. Images of underweight women with no shapes have become the media’s prototype of beauty (“Media distortion of beauty”) .We already know how powerful media are and we know that we are influenced by what we see every day so it is very “difficult to escape and ignore the images with which the media bombards us in today’s society” (“Effect of Media Portrayal of Women”).
The current portrayal of “perfect” woman with “ideal” body is that of size zero or even lower, which seems to be ridiculous in comparison with measurements of average woman. (“Effect of Media Portrayal of Women”). There is a myth created by the media that promotes the idea that the skinnier you are the more beautiful you will be. According to survey done in 2003 by Teen Magazine 35% of girls age six to twelve admitted to having once been on diet, 50-70% of healthy weight teenage girls are convinced that they need to lose some weight in order to meet the media’s thin ideal and only 7% of teenage girls are as thin as the average model who weighs 23% less than normal average woman. There we can see that women who look like models are minority but media portray them as the average (“Media distortion of beauty”). Therefore we should be aware of the fact that these images are not the norm even thought media and the “constant force of these images on society makes us believe they should be”(“Media Influence on Eating Disorders”).
What is more, it has been already proven that media can influence the beginning of eating disorder in some people (Webster). Eating disorders, such as anorexia and bulimia, are nowadays very common among teenage girls and young women. Actually, one of every four college women is using unhealthy methods to lose weight, including vomiting, fasting, skipping meals, laxative use and excessive exercise. Obviously, teenage girls and young women really believe that their figures need to be perfected to the media’s ideal of beauty (“Media distortion of beauty”).By promoting these fake and unobtainable images of women’s bodies media contributes a lot to lowering self-esteem, developing body dissatisfaction and consequently eating disorders (Webster).
To fight with this unhealthy trend it is important to educate girls and women on the truth of how the media works in terms of advertising and selling the products (Webster). It is clear that media and advertisers want women to be unsatisfied with their bodies because it will only force them to buy more cosmetic and diet products to improve their appearance (“Beauty and Body Image in the Media”). This is also the reason why media offer us unachievable ideal of women’s beauty because it will keep women in constant pressure that they need to be more thin and more beautiful and therefore they will still spend money for various types of beautifying products.
It is obvious that media plays role in the growing number of young women struggling with eating disorders (“Effect of Media Portrayal of Women”). Media makes women feel uncomfortable with their bodies by showing them ultra-thin models as an ideal. Nowadays, some companies, such as Dove with its Campaign for Real Beauty, attempt to shift today’s distorted ideal of beauty by presenting beautiful healthy looking girls and women, but still we have a long way to go to change current concept of beauty and make people understand that skinny does not equal beautiful.
References:
“Beauty and Body Image in the Media.” Media Awareness Network | Réseau éducation Médias. Web. 07 May 2011. http://www.media-awareness.ca/english/issues/stereotyping/women_and_girls/women_beauty.cfm
“Effect of Media Portrayal of Women.” Web. 8 May 2011. <http://www.mattbarton.net/tikiwiki/tiki-index.php?page=Effects+of+Media+portrayal+of+women>.
“Media Distortion of Beauty.” Associated Content from Yahoo! – Associatedcontent.com. 08 Nov. 2006. Web. 08 May 2011. <http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/84381/media_distortion_of_beauty_pg2.html?cat=38>.
“Media Influence on Eating Disorders.” Eating Disorders | Anorexia | Bulimia | Binge Eating Disorder | Compulsive Overeating | The Something Fishy Website on Eating Disorders. Web. 08 May 2011. <http://www.something-fishy.org/cultural/themedia.php>.
Webster, Dr Irina. “Eating Disorders And Media.” Self Improvement from SelfGrowth.com. Web. 08 May 2011. <http://www.selfgrowth.com/articles/Eating_disorders_and_media.html>.
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Beatrice's Blog 
Hi Beatrice,
I like that you analyzed this problem and used statistical data. It does not surprise me that even small children try diets, because there is a lot of pressure in Western society regarding one’s appearance, especially on females. I also have to say that I appreciate your use of language, e.g. using “contribute” instead of “cause”. This corresponds to the spirit of my own blog, which analyzes how media distort science.
Your remark that advertisers want women to be unsatisfied might seem a bit too strong and conspiratorial, but I believe that it is true to some extent. Even a writer J. K. Rowling once expressed her opinion that this can be about making money; it is good that some people are not afraid to say this aloud.
An interesting fact also connected to this issue is that today’s models are much further from the average weight of women than models used to be fifty years ago (before Twiggy). This shows that there is some radicalization, but it is caused not only by models getting thinner but also by average people getting fatter. Interestingly, eating disorders prevalence correlates with obesity in a society. This can be explained by the concept that more pressure to lose weight affects both overweight and normal-weight (or even underweight) people.
Sadly, people do not listen much to doctors promoting healthy BMI and sometimes label a normal-weight woman fat (as you mentioned in the article about Slovak moderator Tina).
Best,
Iva