Unrealistic Body Standards Research Paper

Words: 711
Pages: 3

As I walked into Hughes Springs Junior High, I put my head down and tried to make myself invisible. I did not want to be judged for my poorly colored hair, double zero waist, and having six One Direction bracelets for each wrist. It never failed for me to be told to "eat a hamburger" or asked, "what are you doing, starving yourself?" Girls in junior high were vicious. What I did not know then was that the standards of a "perfect" body were overwhelming all women.

According to Bradley University, "with images of ideal beauty bombarding us daily, it is easy to forget that the standards of beauty are arbitrary, and they vary greatly both from one culture to another and over time." What hasn’t been asked enough is, who is creating the body standards we live by? The most common answer is the media or industries. But, it is more appropriate to say that women have unrealistic body standards because of other women.

According to the School of Psychology at Flinders University, "It was found that exposure to idealized commercials led to increased body dissatisfaction for girls but not for boys. Idealized commercials led to increased negative mood and appearance comparison for girls and boys, although the effect on appearance comparison was stronger for girls." Not only do women reaction harshly to seeing other women advertised, but
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In Jennifer Worley’s writing, she includes a clip from New York Times that states "if the 11 1/2-inch doll were 5-foot-6, her measurements would be 39-21-33…. One academic expert calculated that a woman’s chance of having a Barbie’s figure were less than one in 100,000." If this was portrayed in real life, it would require surgical procedures. Worley could have created any shape or size of Barbie, but she chose a size (if measured into human measurements) impossible to reach naturally. Instead of women inspiring the media by banding together, they criticize one