For decades now, people have debated the negative ways that images we see in media impact the way we perceive ourselves when it comes to beauty ideals and expectations. Today’s beauty standards of women have been created by advertisments and photos in the media, that portray unrealistic images of beauty. A 2004 study showed that, 72% of girls feel tremendous pressure to be beautiful, and 90% of women would change at least one thing about their physical appearance (Brodbeck 2007). According to the Dove Campaign for Real Beauty, 82 percent of women feel the beauty standards set by social media are unrealistic, and almost three quarters of en believe social media comments critiquing women’s beauty are destructive to their self-esteem (Brodbeck 2007).
A Dove study showed that, when girls feel bad about their looks more than 70% avoid normal daily activities such as attending school, going to the doctor, or even giving their opinion (Brodbeck 2007). The media’s view’s on women has been a concern in today’s society when it comes to the presentation of women’s idealized beauty (Markey, Markey 2012). Images of women in the media are manipulated so dramatically these days that it can feel like being beautiful is less and less attainable.
Some of the media’s portrayals of how women should look are unhealthy and unattainable, but this still hasn’t stopped America from sharing their media ideals, and many girls judge themselves by the beauty industry’s standards. A study from Psychology of Popular Media Culture showed that about 50% of girls and women are dissatisfied with their bodies (Markey, Markey 2012). Many argue that the overwhelming presence of media images, of painfully thin women means that real girls’ bodies have become invisible in the media. The desirability to be what the media shows as beautiful or mainstream destroys young women’s confidence.
Society’s image of “beautiful women” is so powerful and widespread in our culture that it affects girls starting at a young age. Studies have shown that by age seven girls are able to identify something they would like to change about their appearance. These attitudes about changing body appearance only get stronger as girls get older. In one survey almost 50% of 9-12 year-old girls said they wanted to be thinner and had either been on a diet or were aware of the concept of dieting (EngelnMaddox 2006). Young women are influenced to look like models and portray their looks based on today’s beauty industry and advertisements.
Ann Britton (2012) analyzed the results from a 45-question survey about cosmetics, behavior, and personal habits that was given to 92 women between the ages of 18-23 through social media sites. Out of the 92 responses, there were only 3 respondents who do not wear makeup at all, and all 89 others Began wearing makeup below the age of 18, and 66. 3% of the respondents said they began wearing makeup when they were between 12-15 years old (Britton 2012). The media’s idea of the perfect body is sending a message to young women that they are not pretty or skinny enough.
The obsession with looking perfect or looking like the women in the media’s photos can cause disorders such as anorexia or bulimia. It can also cause women to believe they need makeup, teeth whitening, cosmetic or plastic surgery and so on. Today, physical attractiveness is celebrated and upheld as a quality that will result in success in multiple arenas (Bissell, Chung 2009). The effects from these images are going beyond influencing girls to use beauty products. Research links exposure to images of thin, young, photo shopped female bodies to depression, loss of selfesteem and unhealthy eating habits in girls and young women.
In a 2009 study, half of girls from the ages 16-21 said they would have a surgery to improve their bodies. Social media has made constant the ability to critique and analyze bodies in such a way that promotes body dissatisfaction, constant body surveillance, and disordered thoughts. Retouching photos in this way raises a number of concerns. One is that the already unrealistic bodies youth are exposed to are made literally impossible, guaranteeing that even those who meet media standards of attractiveness will still be left feeling inadequate.
In some cases, the bodies in the medias images aren’t even the models real body, some retailers put models heads onto computergenerated bodies. The Journal of Social & Clinical Psychology randomly selected 102 women between the ages of 18 and 35 years old to view fashion magazines that showed pictures with a warning label if the pictures had been digitally altered or not. The study showed that participants who viewed images with a warning label reported lower levels of body dissatisfaction (Slater 2012).
Unfortunately, just knowing that images are manipulated doesn’t change their effects, we know that the pictures are photo shopped, but we still want to look like the women we see in photos. In fact, young girls often use photo manipulation software to retouch their own photos. By placing photo shopped and computer-enhanced models in the media, society has almost an impossible standard of beauty, causing many women to have anxiety, low self-esteem, or low confidence because of their unhappiness with their body and appearance.
Research done by Marie Britton (2012), included a 45-question survey that was given to 92 college students about cosmetics, behavior, and personal habits. Britton’s research found that positive relationships were established between cosmetic usage and anxiety, self-consciousness, introversion, conformity, and self-presentation and that negative relationships were found between cosmetic usage and extroversion, social confidence, emotional stability, self-esteem, physical attractiveness, and intellectual complexity (Britton 2012).
Social media and social networking sites influence young women to put their focus on beauty ideals and attractiveness. A 2012 study from The Journal of Communication examined the media’s negative effects on young women and their extreme body surveillance. The results from this study suggest that exposure to media’s ideal images is related to the internalization of beauty ideals, self-objectification, and body surveillance (Vandenbosch, Eggermont 2012).
The article “Social Media and Body Image Concerns: Further Considerations and Broader Perspectives” provides information and research about the effects of social media on young women’s body image concerns. “Social media is the main form of mass media being used by the youth of today, and researchers in the U. S. and Australia have commenced studying how these may be affecting body image concerns” (Williams, Ricciardelli 2014). Social media influenced pictures are more available in todays society and they are everywhere, this can be one of the causes that women have body dissatisfaction.
The media’s images of ideal beauty have had a very large influence on the way young women view themselves. Studies have shown that one’s evaluation of their own appearance can have a large impact on their psychological development. Kasey Serdar (2005) investigated the dissatisfaction’s that young females have with their body image due to the medias ideal body image. The images that the media is publishing are projecting an unrealistic and dangerous standard of beauty. These expected beauty standards can lead into physiological problems such as; anorexia, bulimia, social anxiety, depression and many other disorders (Serdar 2005).
