What is perfection? Is it having the perfect hair? The perfect, flawless face? The perfect skinny body or perhaps to be a duplicate of Barbie? For a majority of adolescents, this is the case. We live in a world where the epitome of perfection is exposed on a daily basis. The new model on vogue magazine, Victoria’s Secret or the new face on the cover of girlfriend magazine have practically made it inevitable. Different types of media play significant roles in influencing young women in particular causing a beauty standard amongst them in which many would consider harmful.
The internet, billboards, movies, music videos, television commercials, magazines and other types of mediums are what we occupy our daily lives with but it is also all forms of how the media is able to reach out and bombard us with their benchmark of beauty. We see perfection being depicted so often that the perception of beauty which the media fosters has been accepted and accustomed as a part of our daily lives. The ideal body image set forward by the media is so built into society’s head that it is becoming an expectation.
The negative influences of the media pressurize teenagers into gaining that ideal, unattainable body that it becomes a preposterous obsession which affects their safety. Beauty is only in the mind’s eye of the media. Mass media has corrupted our cultural definition of beauty ideals by virtually altering our perception of beauty and how people measure up with the perception through the use of all the available forms of communication as established before. With a click of a finger, a beautiful-face-to-be is flawlessly airbrushed and the pimple that once existed was never even there.
With a swipe of a hand all excess body fat once showing is discarded. Continuously on a daily basis we are exposed to these unrealistic and unnatural ideals by the media which causes a fraudulent beauty criteria for the individuals. As people start familiarizing themselves with the ideals, it also happens to become an expectation amongst society where all the adolescents, especially, start to compare themselves to the unrealistic (the media) and also attempt just about anything to achieve the unattainable skinny, perfect body.
The Eating Disorders Association of New Zealand stated that the 81% girls surveyed were, in fact, more afraid of becoming fat than losing their parents, nuclear war or cancer and that 46% of 9 to 11-year-old girls have already taken precautions and started dieting. An investigation carried out by Benjie Achtenberg Macalester College shows that the media generate bad influences on teens. Of those who were surveyed, 16% would like larger breasts, 10% would like bigger posteriors, 6% would like to become tanner, 6% what flatter stomachs, 6% would like the perfect hair and approximately 100% wanted to be skinnier.
Teenagers have a tendency of “wanting everything they can’t have or don’t have” affirmed by SelfGrow, therefore when they are exposed to body ideals by the media, it automatically becomes something teenagers desire. Again stated by SelfGrow “when you don’t get what you want, you want it even more”, instead of a typical desire, adolescents begin to compare themselves to the unrealistic (the media) and also start attempting just about anything to achieve the unattainable skinny and perfect body in ways such as starving or consuming diet and laxative pills.
Constant exposure to the beauty appeal type advertising may influence girls to become self-conscious about their own bodies and to obsess over their physical appearance as a measure of their worth. ” According to Monique. E. Smith. The media pressurizes its audience (teenager) by setting the benchmark of beauty or perfection. The most influential and impressionable time of our lives would be during our teenage years, social acceptance is crucial as self-esteem or self-confidence is particularly low and fragile at this stage. teenagers tend to go through a lot during puberty as changes occur.
During this period, teenagers are also trying to figure out their identities as well as trying to find their place in society. Therefore, teenagers begin to form and develop an obsession over body image to conform to society. This has happens too often that it has become an expectation amongst society, now considered as the norm. These examples indicate that the media is the most significant influence in teens and is serving to define values and dictate ideals. The fact that the media is bombarding adolescents with a barrage of images with the portrayal of perfection is considered 100% unhealthy and nrealistically unattainable for teens.
Recent studies show that since 1995 according to Benjie Achtenberg Macalester College,”mass media’s thin ideal found in advertisements and print media send a false message to youth: Happiness and social acceptance are the product of ideal beauty and body type” and research by Dosomething. org. indicates that “the more reality television a young girl watches, the more likely she is to find appearance important” this proves to us that not only are adolescents being targeted by the media but the children of today are being influenced at a young age as well.
According to studies by the Keep It Real campaign, 80% of 10-year-old girls are already dieting and source from pbs. org. Also shows that 81% of the 10-year-olds are already afraid of being fat. This shows that the media is influencing their audience beforehand so that by the time they reach their teenage years they would have already have developed the desire of achieving the unhealthy idea of a standardised perfect body. One of the most common method utilised by teenagers to achieve the “perfect body” is by starving and according to dosomething. rg. “91% of women are unhappy with their bodies and resort to dieting to achieve their ideal body”. Body image is closely linked to self-esteem and low self-esteem can affect the way a teen perceives themselves and this is a mental disorder called dysmorphia, where the visualisation of an individual such as a teen is misrepresented and disfigured mentally.
Recent studies shown also by organisation: NCS (national comorbidity survey) shows the lifetime prevalence of eating disorders stating that a total of “9. 8 million women and 4. 24 million men have struggled with an eating disorder”. Many adolescents’ diets consist of several restrictions as they limit the food they are able to consume themselves. In addition, teens have been found to be exercising excessively which is not okay as they are not being supplied with enough energy. This lifestyle or pattern increases the chance of them engaging in risk behaviours when they feel like they do not measure up to the benchmark of beauty which the media portrays.
Body image issues can expand and lead to consumption of drugs and alcohol, eating disorders, bullying, sexual addictions and at worst case scenario, suicide. It can also contribute in leading an individual into eating disorders, use of substances, suicidal thoughts, early sexual activity as well as a mental illness – depression. Research by dosomething. org indicates that “the more reality television a young girl watches, the more likely she is to find appearance important. ” This clearly shows us the effects of social media on adolescents.
By feeding their minds with irrelevant beliefs and forcing this concept that the ideal beauty through different forms of social media could have a disastrous effect of their physical appearance and mental wellbeing. Not only does this give adolescents a false perception, it takes away their ability to think on their own as an individual caused by their striving ambition towards achieving what social media claims to be “beautiful”. Social media has damaged what we as adolescents see as beauty and has affected adolescents all around the world.
Not only does this affect adolescents on an individual basis/level but it also creates conflicts amongst the young generation. Beauty and perfection are what the social media intends for us to strive for; making us believe that this was the only way in which we can feel confident in our own bodies. Due to the pressure that the social media has casted upon society, tension between relationships is also becoming an issue. As mentioned, bullying was a product created due to the deception of media. We strive for it, shouldn’t everyone else?
It has lead to a chain reaction which spread like a virus. The media has forced this perception upon adolescents which caused adolescents to force ideals on one another. This also leads adolescents into ostracising those who can not keep up with this so called “norm” and only associating themselves with those who can. Exclusion, rejection and overall bullying. As humans, we long for a place where we are wanted, acknowledged and accepted. Craving for the approval of other adolescents, they too begin to lose themselves in the perceptions of body ideals caused by the social media.
We should not be constrained so easily by such senseless ideals portrayed to us by another person on the far side of the planet in whom we do not even know of. Slowly but surely we are drifting away by ourselves and forcing the personas of others upon us. We would be wearing nothing but a mask, waking up each day as a different person and not as ourselves because of what the media has to say. If the media, tomorrow, portrayed perfection and beauty differently than today. Would we adolescents follow it unconditionally and without a doubt? Being excessively overweight, having imperfect, messy hair, a flawed face and looking like Shrek.
If these images were now being portrayed on vogue magazine, Victoria’s Secret or on the cover of girlfriend magazine. Would we strive to achieve what the new definition of beauty is without a second thought about our own personal well being like we are doing now? Would we eat nothing but fatty foods in order to become excessively overweight? Would we tamper with our faces in order to achieve what the media is showing us? That sad truth is, due to the large influence, power and control the media has over their audience, they probably would follow this trend and enable this to become a part of the norms.
