Body Image

Words: 1229
Pages: 5

“A woman who is flat-chested is very hard to be a ten.” This quote from our very own President of the United States, Donald Trump, is a great example as how media affects women’s idea of body image. If the leader of our free world doesn’t believe you’re beautiful because you were born flat-chested, how are women supposed to think of themselves any better? Media portrays beautiful women as very thin and hour glass shaped, when really this body shape only accounts for a small percentage of women. I examined the peer-reviewed article titled, “The Role of the Media in Body Image Concerns Among Women: A Meta-Analysis of Experimental and Correlational Studies.” The authors are Janet Shibley-Hyde, Shelly Grabe, and Monique Ward. It examines how exposure …show more content…
Problems with body image exist all across ethnicities and sizes, it’s not just a problem with a certain group, it’s a problem among all women. Past research has linked poor body image with physical and mental health problems, as well as that body dissatisfaction is one of the most consistent factors for eating disorders and depression. The portrayal of women in the media is increasingly becoming thinner and thinner, and often thinner than the current criteria for being anorexic. The women they are showing in television shows, movies, magazines, and even cartoon characters are thinner than the female population. The purpose of this article is to connect the way mass media represents women, to body dissatisfaction and body image problems. …show more content…
All the data was in ranges that are considered to have a small to moderate effect on Cohen’s scale. For body dissatisfaction, the results found that the relationship between media and body image was -0.28, this shows that more media results in lower body image. The results also showed that women are internalizing the thin-ideal body image a lot more since the 1990s, which means they are becoming increasingly self-conscious with more media. For eating beliefs and behaviors, the data showed it to be at -0.30. The negative shows that overall, media exposure being linked to eating