Once in a while there comes a time in everyone’s life where judging ones physical appearance may come to mind. In both studies, conducted by Hargreaves D., Tiggemann M., and Polivy J. Media is not only responsible for causing psychological disorders, but also manipulating thoughts of our society and leading to false expectations of our bodies. Every person knows through media, advertisements, and television, a woman is usually modeling with a minimum of clothes on and guys are sought to be masculine and with defined bodies. Whether intended or not a woman’s and man’s body are depicted with having defined bodies. A woman and man’s body in the advertising company are not only a medium through which products are sold but also where trends start. The unfortunate thing is we live in a society where importance is given to certain types of physiques, following certain norms, and having the urgency to keep supporting these disgusting ideals.
Depression, anxiety, and obsession with working out, are some account of effects given off of media. An article by Marika Tiggemann et al. Findings suggested that after women were exposed to the advertisements, they had higher levels of anxiety. The results suggested that exposure to the advertisements led to bad moods, body disappointment, and low self-esteem (Tiggemann Et Al, 2009). This goes to show that media has targeted innocent women making them vulnerable to today’s societies thoughts, that they have to take such drastic measures such as changing their appearances to be able to fit into the norm. As for men in the Study Muscular Ideal Media Images and Men’s Body Image conducted by Hargreaves D., and Tiggemann M. 104 undergraduate men aged from 18-35 years old were including in the research. The purpose of the experiment was to show pictures depicting high muscular definition on men and attractiveness, and see how they would rate themselves. The results consisted of men who saw more muscular men than themselves, felt less physically attractive and were not satisfied with their appearance, thus showing a low self-esteem and desire to become more masculine, and toned. Things like letting media determine the right size for people is utterly wrong. Likewise media doesn’t run on its own, it is being driven from the average people. As long as people keep showing they agree with these unattainable body images these trends will keep going (Tiggemann et al, 2009).
According to Jean Kilbourne in “Beauty and the Beast of Advertising” advertisement companies spend over 100 billion each year, and an average American sees over 2000 ads in one day. From television ads to magazines people all over the world are depicted into going into this so-called norm. This norm may consist of people being led to believe of having a certain body type as recent studies suggested by Tiggemann et al., Policy J., and Hargreaves D. Similarly what Kilbourne really implies in her article is that they target us as kids and develop this idea in our heads until we are grown up. These are more than advertisements to media, they are getting a bigger picture across to Americans. People have been drawn into this type of thinking that only being what is depicted on magazine covers or television ads is the way one can fit into society, yet where this is not the case.
Men and women are aware that magazines feed into their distorted thinking of how they perceive
