This week’s blog assignment was to write about a mass medium that could send undesirable messages to an audience. I was required to locate at least three academic journal articles, describe the medium and cite my research. This piece will be reflecting on how pop culture magazines affect young women’s ideas of body image…
Cosmopolitan.
Vogue.
Lucky.
InStyle.
Glamour.
People.
Seventeen.
Elle.
There’s no easy escape.
Young women everywhere are constantly being exposed to and encouraged by our media to do the three essentials: Be thin. Be beautiful. Be like us. Although many find that self-consciousness is merely another stage of growing up, is being 8 years-old with a self-destructive body image just another “circle of life”? Women of all ages are exposed to impossible body standards and sexual pressures everyday. After reading three separate articles about body images in the media, and personally being victim to body dissatisfaction, I firmly believe that magazines negatively influence young women and their confidence.
According to Time Magazine, “fashion magazines [are] giving girls unhealthy ideas about how thin they need to be in order to be considered beautiful.” Some of those in agreement with this statement would be the “body activism” group located at the University of Texas. Psychologists there are conducting research that they call ‘The Body Project’. The mission being to, “get girls to understand how they have been buying into the notion that you have to be thin to be happy or successful.” This group not only helps girls gain confidence back, but also promotes self-assurance by slipping notes that say, “Love your body the way it is,” into diet books sold at Borders. According to the Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, the Body Project lowered participant’s risk of developing eating disorders by 61%.
So, virtually, the media is asking women to go to “fashion mag rehab” to overcome the ridiculous standards that they set. However, let’s be honest… How can you even begin to point fingers at a magazine and claim they are the sole reason for such high numbers of youth anorexia, bulimia and adolescent sex? Insecurity in your body is something we all experience at one time or another. The 2002 Swiss Multicenter Adolescent Survey on Health showed that 40% of girls and 18% of boys were dissatisfied by their bodies (a representative sample of 7,420 adolescents.) The real question is why such high numbers? Would these numbers be as striking if we didn’t have a “vogue diet” available to twelve year olds?
The best way to discover whether magazines truly have harmful effects on young women is through research. These studies that I examined were important because they showed how powerful media types (as taught to us by Cary) like magazines, can circulate and influence young minds. Some readers may argue that it is not the magazine’s fault because many young women are easily influenced at that age. This is where I say both sides need to take a stand. Magazine editors need to take responsibility for their audience by including realistic and healthy images in their work. In addition, a study done by Jennifer L. Derenne shows that “parents need to limit children’s exposure to media, promote healthy eating, physical activity, and encourage participation in activities that increase mastery and self-esteem.” A hopeful solution to an increasingly serious problem.
“Every society has a way of torturing its women, whether by binding their feet or by sticking them into whalebone corsets. What contemporary American culture has come up with is designer jeans.”
—Joel Yager, M.D.
RESEARCH CITED:
Derenne,Jennifer L. (2006). Body Image, Media, and Eating Disorders. Retrieved October 30, 2008, from http://ap.psychiatryonline.org/cgi/content/full/30/3/257
Gupta, Sanjay. (2002). Taking on the Thin Ideal. Retrieved October 30, 2008, from http://www.time.com/time/specials/2007/article/0,28804,1703763_1703764_1810730,00.html
Knauss, Christine. (2008). Body Dissatisfaction in Adolescent Boys and Girls. Objectified Body Consciousness, Internalization of the Media Body Ideal and Perceived Pressure from Media. Retrieved October 30, 2008, f from http://www.springerlink.com.janus.uoregon.edu/content/l143580074308p21/fulltext.html
