The Media and the Self-Image of Women

Distorted and unattainable sexist mass images are the inevitable

consequences of a social system in which those who are thin and big

breasted benefit most. We as a society have created an environment so

image obsessed that those with power give approval for being thin and

disapproval for being fat, creating a generation of women so self conscious

about their body image, that it is affecting their health. In this essay I

plan to discuss the inexcusable methods in which the mass media encourages

young women to disfigure and mutilate their bodies.

When an obsessive media targets and forces young women to hate

their bodies it makes them more vulnerable to emulating media stereotypes

and prone to compulsive dieting. "Perfection looks like magic to those who

stand aside and do not know any better. The main problem with perfection

in a society so obsessed with perception is that it looks too easy." States

Florance Brone a physiologist from Michigan. Media purveyors promote the

message that unrealistic thinness equals sexiness and popularity, which

equals beauty, success and all the "good" things in life. Yet, recent

interviews have revealed that even glamorous and successful supermodels are

afraid of getting fat and what it might do to their careers. In many cases

the media has constructed faulty images that suggest that the influence of

gender in terms of "human nature" compel people in the eyes of the media to

behave and act in certain stereotypical ways, in turn causing young

impressionable women to be wrongfully misled.

"Babies aren't born hating their bodies but instead grow up to

learn that fat is bad; and thinness will bring you happiness." states Sarah

Stephen in the 1998 article "Fat is Still a Feminist Issue" These images

are being taken to extremes throughout the fashion industry, often

displayed by the waif look of hollow cheeks and skeletal bodies. It has

been proven that media images do have a powerful effect on young women

today due to the extensive reinforcement on our everyday lives. Everywhere

we look we see unattainable images sworming around us, it seems as though

it is a fad we can not get away from.

Women are all too often described in terms of what they look like,

rather