Another type of media is a magazine. What seems to be the most popular and influential thing about magazines in today’s society is who is on the cover. The most common type of person that is seen on the cover of a magazine today is a young, skinny, white woman. With the amount of diversity that is in the United States, when a young girl sees a woman on the cover of a magazine that does not look like her, she is made to feel as though she needs to look like her in order to be considered beautiful.
This causes a lot of insecurities with skin color, gender, and body size. This is also what plays a role in what influences young girls to develop eating disorders. They feel as though even if they cannot change their skin color, or gender, they can at least be the same size as the women that they see on the covers of these magazines. Sports Illustrated is a very popular magazine that is generally intended for the view of men. In order to attract these men, women are used for the covers.
The type of woman that usually covers this magazine is usually very skinny, of a very light skin tone, and has very little clothing on to emphasize their body type. Maxim 100 is a type of online magazine that literally posts a list of what they believe is the top 100 most beautiful woman each year. Sine the year 2000, every single woman that has been at the top of the list has been a very skinny, white woman. It is clear how this can easily ruin the self-esteem of girls who don’t fit this category because if they don’t see women who look like them on the list, they think they are not beautiful.
Although social media, and magazines have a great influence on society, television seems to be what influences girls the most. There are many movies and television series that either praise a certain type of woman, or diminish a certain type of woman. Movies like Precious seem to target women who are overweight and make it seem as though, if you are not skinny, you cannot have a good life. There are also several modeling shows on air that display nothing but skinny and tall women. Anyone outside of this category can easily feel un-pretty because they don’t see themselves on T.
V. The media seems to praise the appearance of being thin and causing an epidemic of eating distress among young girls, yet, they deny that they are responsible for the disorders. A common debate is whether these disorders are caused by lack of self-esteem or media pressure. The exposure young girls get from ideal images in a period of their lives is where self regard and self efficiency it’s at it’s lowest, where body image is also at its most fragile due to physical changes caused by puberty and where the tendency for social comparison is at its peak.
Therefore that is what makes it so easy for them to be easily persuaded by the things they see. This is why the media cannot be the single cause for young girls to develop eating disorders. Many people argue that the media has a different purpose than to make females feel insecure. Instead, they argue that the media talks about valuable information on health and people’s well being. They also discuss awareness of eating disorders, through magazines, articles, and television programs.
Through the media, they educate people about the danger of abusing food and help them be aware that they are not alone in their journey. The media shows a variety of body shapes and sizes; it influences young people about accepting their weight, provides positive plus size role models. What actually affects the self-esteem of these girls’ stems from many causes that have nothing to do with the media’s influence. For example, internal issues, family pressure, and peer pressure can provoke an eating disorder.
Not only do women feel pressure from the media to control their weight but also receive peer pressure from, their boyfriends, husbands, parents, family and from stores that carry clothes that only carry sizes that fit small petite girls. Also, if a girl is already lacks the necessary self- confidence that she needs, it would make it easier for these outside influences to make matters worse. It is hard to evaluate the relationship between the media and eating disorders due to the messages the media is sending out on body size and food consumption to gain that desired look.
The media presents us with an idealized shape with attributes of being attractive, desirable, successful and loveable but is unattainable without resorting to dangerous eating habits. The overall purpose of the media is to do whatever they can to engage a large audience so that advertisers can sell products or services to make them desirable, not to threaten the self- esteem of young girls. So far the media had done less entertaining and more of changing that we are.
