Media and Self Image

5 Pages 1154 Words

“Without social identity, there is in fact, no society” — Richard Jenkins. This

statement holds true to everything in our everyday lives. From the time we can sit up our

parents plant us in front of the television to keep us out of their way. Commercials and

media shape our outlook, our self-image, and our stereotypes. Every commercial has a

message in it; we’re to fat, to stupid, not driving the right car, we are all supposed to be

beautiful…. The list is endless, and by this we are ‘socialized” into our identities.

I am not going to take a look at any one commercial in particular but I am going

to look at few of the market dominators, self-image and dieting, and where they come

from. From catalogs, stores, commercials and magazines, it is not surprising that eating

disorders are on the increase due to the value society places on being thin. In modern

Western culture, women are given the message at a very young age that in order to be

happy and successful, they must be thin. Every time you walk into a store you are

surrounded by the images of withered models that appear on the front cover of fashion

magazines. Women are constantly bombarded with advertisements catering to what is

considered desirable.

Thousands of women and girls are starving themselves to attain what the fashion

industry considers to be the ideal frail figure. The average model weighs 23% less than

the average woman. Maintaining a weight that is 15% below your expected body weight

fits the criteria for anorexia, so most models, according to medical standards, fit into the

category of being anorexic (Brumberg 205). Women must realize that society's ideal

body image may in fact be achievable, but at a detrimental price to one’s body. The

photos we see in magazines are not a clear image of reality. Adolescents and women

striving to attain society's unattainabl...