Media and Body Image Essay

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How do the media influence females? Images of female bodies are everywhere. Women, and their bodies, sell everything from food to cars. Women's magazines are full of articles urging women to fit a certain mold. While standing in a grocery store line you can see all different magazines promoting fashion, weight loss, and the latest diet. Although the magazines differ, they all seemingly convey the same idea: if you have the perfect body image you can have it all…the perfect marriage, loving children, great sex, and a rewarding career. The media, whether TV, print, or Internet advertising, seems to play a huge role in influencing women of all ages; from adolescence and teens, to women in their twenties and thirties, as well as …show more content…
"Cool" is what these adolescent girls strive for and portraying this image is very important to them. While walking through the mall on September 17, 2006, I saw a young girl who could not have been more than 12 years old. She was looking through a rack of clothes in Charlotte Russe when I stopped to ask her a few questions. With her mother's permission I asked the girl's name and age: Miranda J., age 11. She agreed to answer a few of my questions and we sat on the bench outside the store with her mother. I asked about all the different brands of clothes and if she were loyal to any particular brand. She said that she got most of her clothes from Charlotte Russe, Abercrombie and Fitch, American Eagle Outfitter or Aeropostal, "because that's what's cool." She explained that her perception of "cool" depends upon "what all the ‘cool' kids are wearing." She expounded that, "cool" kids take their fashion sense and style from the hip TV shows. I mentioned the fact that a couple of the stores she had pointed out were geared toward girls with a low dress size. She mentioned that she tried dieting once, because she wanted to be able to say that she fit in a size zero. The interview was concluded when her mother voiced her concern and disbelief at her daughter's dieting disclosure. The media seems to also put subtle pressure on females through magazine advertisements, as well as through television and film, to be sexually attractive. Magazines
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