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Body image: A better perspective

Many people think of body image as a women’s issue or a young person’s issue. in actuality, we all  have a perceived body image that affects so many aspects of our lives — including the opportunities we seek. .

What exactly is body image, and how can we cultivate a better, more healthy image so that we get the most out of life? To learn more, we talked to Dr. Kristine Luce , p sychologist and clinical associate professor in psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Stanford University School of Medicine. 

Your body image is defined by your personal perception. 

Dr. Luce defines body image as how a person thinks of, feels about and perceives their own body, and how a person imagines others perceive their body.

“Body image is an aspect of identity. Most people tend to self-identify by segmenting their lives into different roles. For example, a person may self-identify according to their profession, relationships, hobbies, etc. Body image is one aspect of a person’s complete identity, and within it a person can hold many perceptions, even contradicting perceptions.”

Although body image is commonly understood as having to do with weight and shape, the term actually encompasses all aspects of a person’s perceived physical appearance  — including age, facial attributes and gender. 

Body image exists on a continuum.

Dr. Luce views body image along a continuum, with “positive body image” on one end, “negative body image” on the other and the middle composed of varying aspects of both. 

Dr. Luce describes a positive body image as a healthy self-image, in which a person has self-compassion and appreciation for their body. They recognize the amazing functions of their body and don’t let how they feel about their appearance limit how they live their life. On the other end of the spectrum, a person with a negative body image tends to be strongly self-critical and less attuned to the beneficial capabilities and functions of their bodies. 

Most people, however, do not fall on one extreme or the other. The vast majority of people have varying degrees of appreciation and criticism for their bodies. Terms like “positive” and “negative” tend to be inadequate for fully capturing a person’s felt experience, which is generally more nuanced than binary. For example, when speaking about body image, a person may “fragment” and speak about parts of their bodies they like, and parts that they don’t like. Others might describe feeling positive about their bodies overall, but still want to change certain physical aspects.

A person’s body image is dynamic and ever changing throughout the lifespan. People tend to move along a continuum of how they perceive themselves at various stages of life, such as when they age or gain or lose weight.

Many factors contribute to a person’s body image.

Dr. Luce explains that we are constantly inundated with body image messages from many different sources, including history, economics, religion, family of origin and the media, which is the most prevalent.

Luce describes a series of studies conducted in Fiji before western TV was brought to the island. At that time there were no known cases of eating disorders in Fiji. The studies revealed that the first cases of eating and body image disorders emerged after western TV was brought to their culture, indicating that media presence was at least a contributing factor in how people perceived their bodies. 

“Culture has long influenced body image by defining and dictating what is attractive. The media is a strong force that can shape and influence culture, for better or for worse.” 

Other societal factors, including economic history and religion, can also contribute to one’s body image. Luce mentions that a higher body weight used to be a sign of fertility and wealth when resources were more scarce, but as resources have become more accessible, thinness or fitness is seen as a symbol of wealth because it indicates more time for self-care. For some religious groups, a thinner appearance could indicate a greater ability for fasting, which is associated with the virtue of self-control and used as a measure of spiritual virtue. 

Finally, an individual’s personal history and upbringing can influence the way they perceive themselves and their bodies. For example, if someone is raised in a household or social environment in which a person’s value is very closely tied to their physical appearance, a person may begin to perceive their bodies as a measure of their self-worth. 

With the constant onslaught of information we are receiving about how we think we should look, Dr. Luce assures us it is understandable if we feel pressure to look a certain way. 

Body image can impact the choices we make in our lives.

Put simply, overconcern about appearance can limit what opportunities a person seeks. Dr. Luce gives several examples of this phenomenon, termed “self-handicapping” in social psychology. Self-handicapping is a cognitive strategy in which people avoid an opportunity to protect their self-esteem against the possibility of failure. For example, if a person makes the assumption that they will be discriminated against because of their appearance, they may not go for a promotion. 

“Research on this subject shows that a strong enough limiting self-belief can restrict access and experiences throughout the lifespan. This is based on an assumption that may or may not be true.”

Other common examples of self-handicapping due to body image include postponing dating until reaching a particular appearance or avoiding visiting the doctor until reaching a desired weight. According to Luce, these are paradoxical approaches that rarely work, and often bring us further from our desired outcomes. 

“When you think about it, most people want to look a certain way for more access in life, whether it be jobs, partners, health or something else. By avoiding promotions, dating and doctor visits due to body image concerns, our access to our desired outcomes becomes more and more limited. On the other hand, people who feel positively in their bodies are more likely to seek out opportunities in all of these areas.”  

Negative body image persists throughout different demographic groups.

According to Luce, there used to be evidence that negative body image occurred more for women than for men, and more for white women than for other ethnic groups — but the gap has narrowed over time.

“In the last 20 to 30 years, there has been a proliferation of body image marketing to every ethnic group and gender. Now you can find body image advertising that targets everybody, thus increasing body image concerns and eating disorders across all types of people. I call it, ‘equal opportunity in the direction we were not hoping for.’”

Research conducted in the 1980s showed it was rare for people to feel positive in their bodies, which is a feeling that still persists, according to a 2018 poll .

There are many strategies for cultivating a more positive body image.

Dr. Luce encourages her patients to act according to their values rather than their negative self-beliefs. An example of this would be encouraging someone to go to the beach, if that is what they enjoy, even though they might also feel uncomfortable in a bathing suit. This is called a “cognitive dissonance intervention,” based on the theory that increasing the tension (or dissonance) between a person’s thoughts and actions will eventually create a new belief. Dissonance interventions are really about being aware of one’s values, living in alignment with them and not letting one’s beliefs limit opportunities in life. 

“Sometimes the discomfort gets better at first, and sometimes it takes a while. But feeling the warmth of the sun or the coolness of the water can make the volume of those negative thoughts turn down, or at least fade them into the background.”

Another intervention, applied on a more macro scale, is counter-attitudinal marketing, which features people of various body sizes, shapes and ethnicities in advertisements.

“I used to have a lot of optimism around counter-advertising and counter-marketing as a strategy for improving body image across culture. I still believe it can work for people who are open to it.” 

However, counter-attitudinal ads represent a very small percentage of mass media and social media images. The vast majority of media displays are not representative of the average body type: many are altered by image editing applications like Photoshop and filters, and some even represent an unhealthy body image. By understanding this fact, and being selective of our media exposure, we can begin to combat some of the negative effects of body image marketing.  Luce acknowledges this is not an easy feat:

“Negative body image beliefs are deeply entrenched for some people and changing these thoughts, for some, can be very challenging.” 

Luce goes on to describe how undoing a belief can be harder than building a new one, especially when we are exposed to so many media images and messages that are constantly reinforcing certain ideas. 

  Dr. Luce also encourages us to think about the way we speak about bodies and how this might affect body image for ourselves and our communities. 

“We can all refuse to engage in conversations about other people’s bodies. By choosing to not engage in appearance-based conversations, we can influence the world by modeling our values.”

A similar strategy is reconsidering our appearance-based decisions as a message to the world. Dr. Luce admits that she doesn’t color her hair because she doesn’t want to give into the pressures around ageism. However, she acknowledges this type of action can be challenging because ageism and appearance-based discrimination exists in many fields. 

“I am a psychologist in academia, so looking ‘old and wise’ is still valued. I recognize there are many people who feel they have to look a certain way to keep their jobs.”

Although we may not all be able to take such a strong action, everybody can do something to show the perception of feeling comfortable in the body they have. By choosing an alternative action that goes against societal pressures around body image, we can make changes that influence ourselves and the world around us.

Dr. Luce closes with a note of encouragement. “Body image is not static. Throughout life we move along a continuum of how we perceive ourselves. Regardless of how we feel about it at any given moment, we can have a full and meaningful life in the bodies we have.”

Mia Primeau July 2020

Select resources: Stanford Health Image Body Program The Body Positive Stanford Research Project Stanford Children’s Health: Boost Your Teen Daughter’s Body Image National Eating Disorders: The Body Project

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Essays About Body Image: Top 5 Examples Plus Prompts

Essays about body image tackle delicate subjects like insecurities and mental illnesses; to effectively discuss it with tact, see our top essay examples.

The term “body image” refers to how you see and feel about your appearance. Although many support body positivity today and push for body acceptance, studies still show that 86% of women suffer from negative body image and want to lose weight . The inability to accept oneself results in low self-esteem, stress, and depression. Picking body image as your essay topic lets you join the discussion regarding this always-timely issue. Consider the examples listed below as inspiration for your essay:

1. Long Essay on Body Image by Prasanna

2. gender and body image essay by anonymous on ivypanda.com, 3. the negative body image presented by the media by anonymous on gradesfixer.com, 4. social media and body image by anonymous on edubirdie.com, 5. negative body images essay by writer valeria, 1. aspects of body image, 2. body image: the good and the bad, 3. factors affecting teenager body image, 4. beauty pageants: pros and cons, 5. body image and mental health, 6. victoria’s secret models and body image, 7. men’s body image, 8. what is body shaming, 9. knowing what’s real: curating my body image, 10. my journey to self-love.

“People have forgotten the concept of inner beauty. A person should always think of themselves to be perfect in front of the mirror.”

Prasanna explains what body image means, including its consequences in the form of disorders. She delves into how a person’s perception of their physical appearance affects their lives and how it’s now a big problem in today’s society. The author believes cultivating a supportive environment dramatically improves one’s body image. In the end, she reminds the readers how God made everyone unique in their own right and to start having a positive attitude towards their bodies.

You might also be interested in these articles and essays about appearance .

“Online blogs, television, and films all provide examples of perfect female and male bodies. When real people compare themselves to these ideals, they experience dissatisfaction with their body that results in body image issues.”

The essay scrutinizes ideals that trigger someone’s body issues, often leading to physical and mental problems. For example, today’s ideal female body is fit, with low body fat and a slim waist. Meanwhile, men should be muscular with sharp facial features. Because these are the only acceptable “right” bodies, many go through unhealthy diets, take dubious pills, and engage in strenuous exercises. The writer supports the body positivity movement that demands diversity from mass media.

See how to write an essay about diversity if you want to write about it instead.

“The media also provide unrealistic body image that no human can meet without causing harm to themselves.”

Harmful diets, dangerous treatments, expensive surgeries – people do these and many more to achieve and maintain the perfect body presented in mass media. This “false advertising” even results in eating disorders and food-related diseases. The essay adds research findings and relevant cases to support the author’s distaste for mass media’s impact on individuals’ perceptions of themselves.

“… social networking can cause an individual to set a high expectation on themselves. The media encompasses a set thought of what is attractive and what is not attractive.”

While social media is a great platform to promote healthy living, the author brings up how it also presents unrealistic body standards. Although most are thanks to digital editing, photos depicting perfect body images of celebrities, models, and influencers on social media still affect individuals’ concept of how they should look. By constantly seeing these “perfect” photos online, people turn to doctoring their pictures and deluding themselves into thinking they look like something they aren’t. Sometimes, people even go under the knife to replicate their altered photos.

“Seeing overly skinny models in the media does not enhance women’s self-esteem, self-worth or self-image.”

In this essay, Valeria shares her review of the book Understanding Negative Body Image by Barbara Moe which focuses on the culture’s obsession with weight, shape, and body image. The writer includes her favorite part of the book, where flat chests are fashionable in Ms. America. She compares it to today, where bigger breasts and thinner bodies are preferred. Valeria believes the media needs to show more diverse and realistic body shapes to reduce negative body image.

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10 Helpful Writing Prompts On Essays About Body Image

Are the samples above effective in giving you inspiration for your essay? If you’re still thinking of what to write about, you can use the following prompts:

Identify and explain the four main aspects of body image: perceptual, affective, cognitive, and behavioral. Provide examples to make it easier for the readers to understand how they differ and contribute to a person’s overall body image. Add surveys or research findings to support your statements and increase your essay’s credibility.

You don’t create your body image with your eyes alone. Your feelings and thoughts about your body are also part of the equation. These are all the results of your experiences, whether they are positive or negative. For this prompt, share any encounters that affected how you look at your body. 

Youngsters in their puberty are the most affected by today’s body image pressures. First, discuss factors that significantly impact how teenagers value themselves. Then, share steps to help young people overcome these issues. You can also write down the causes and warning signs of a negative body image.

Write your opinion about the “beauty” standards in beauty pageants and whether you favor them or not. Talk about its benefits and drawbacks to children, adult participants, and anyone who consumes such media. To demonstrate the severity of these standards, present cases where a contestant’s appearance or body became the matter in question.

The pressures of attaining a perfect body take their toll on an individual’s quality of life. These taxing pressures, such as eating disorders, anxiety, and mood swings, spill over the person’s relations and even hinder everyday living. Therefore, incorporate the importance of maintaining a positive body image to achieve healthy psychological and physical well-being.

Victoria’s Secret, a brand known for its skinny models, hired its first-ever plus-size model in 2019 . Find out why the brand made this significant change and how its customers received it. Include your opinion about the brand’s decision. Add if you believe the company did what it did to start a more diverse line of clothing or because it succumbed to people’s demand of wanting to see more realistic bodies in media.

Although most body image essays are about women, men also cope with self-acceptance. Discuss common problems men have to deal with daily regarding their appearance. Integrate how men are described in books and movies and probe how these visuals can affect a man’s ego. To make your essay more compelling, you can also delve into why there are more rigid rules on beauty standards imposed on women versus men.

Explore what encompasses body shaming and add why people do it. Relay to your readers how it affects people with a history of depression, low self-esteem, trauma, and other mental illnesses. Through this prompt, your essay will help raise awareness against body shaming. You might also be interested in these articles about eating disorders .

One excellent way to improve body image is to tailor what you see, especially on social media. Then, remind yourself that these photos are altered and unnatural. For this essay, list steps that can help protect one’s self-image away from the fake “perfect” bodies flooding mass media. For example, add joining groups highlighting edits in photoshop pictures, etc.

Everyone has something they want to change regarding their appearance. Through this essay, share what you did to overcome the struggles of accepting yourself as you are. You can also recommend books that helped change your perspective.

If you are interested in learning more, check out our essay writing tips !

If you still need help, our guide to grammar and punctuation explains more.

Maria Caballero is a freelance writer who has been writing since high school. She believes that to be a writer doesn't only refer to excellent syntax and semantics but also knowing how to weave words together to communicate to any reader effectively.

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The Media's Effect on Women's Body Image

by Alexandra Ossola '10

September 1, 2010

Women's Studies

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While women have made significant strides in the past decades, the culture at large continues to place a great emphasis on how women look. These beauty standards, largely proliferated through the media, have drastic impacts on young women and their body images. Arielle Cutler ’11, through a Levitt grant , spent the summer evaluating the efficacy of media literacy programs as a remedy to this vicious cycle.

Put simply, the beauty ideal in American culture is: thin. “Large populations of ‘average’ girls do not demonstrate clinically diagnosable eating disorders—pathologies that the culture marks as extreme and unhealthy—but rather an entirely normative obsession with body shape and size,” Cutler said. “This ongoing concern is accepted as a completely normal and even inevitable part of being a modern girl. I think we need to change that.”

Anyone who is familiar with American culture knows that many of these cultural standards are established in the media. “We are constantly surrounded by all sorts of media and we construct our identities in part through media images we see,” Cutler remarked. And the more girls are exposed to thin-ideal kinds of media, the more they are dissatisfied with their bodies and with themselves overall.

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The correlation between media image and body image has been proven; in one study, among European American and African American girls ages 7 - 12, greater overall television exposure predicted both a thinner ideal adult body shape and a higher level of disordered eating one year later.

Adolescent girls are the most strongly affected demographic.

 “More and more 12-year-old girls are going on diets because they believe what you weigh determines your worth,” Cutler observed. “When all you see is a body type that only two percent of the population has, it’s difficult to remember what’s real and what’s reasonable to expect of yourself and everyone else.”

As women have become increasingly aware of the effect of media on their body images, they have started media literacy programs to make women and girls more aware of the messages they are inadvertently consuming. “Media literacy programs promote an understanding of the effect media has on individual consumers and society at large. These programs aim to reveal the ideologies and messages embedded in the media images that we encounter on a daily basis,” Cutler said.

Advertising, she asserts, draws on people’s insecurities to convince them to buy a product, and few populations are as insecure overall as adolescent girls—which is why media literacy programs are so important for them. In programs such as that designed by national organization Girls, Inc., girls learn how to look behind the scenes and messages that advertisements are producing in order to reconcile their own bodies with the view of “perfection” presented by the media.

The programs already in place have been found to be very effective; “College-age women have been the main focus, but 10-11 year-old girls are the most important target so that they can have these [critical] processes going on before internalizations of messages have really started,” Cutler explained.

Arielle Cutler ’11

Major: English Language & Literature Hometown: Wilton, Conn.

But what sorts of standards do the media portray for women who are not white and not upper class, and how does this affect the body images of women in these groups? This question, Cutler has found, is one that is not always well addressed in the scholarly material she has read. “I realized at some point in my research that I had been universalizing the experience of a particular set of girls privileged by their race and, even more so, socioeconomic background. It did not help that this blind-spot was reflected back to me in some of my research,” Cutler said.

While she asserts that certain standards of beauty are universal throughout the country and across all demographics, Cutler believes that media literacy programs should take racial and socioeconomic backgrounds more into consideration. Different groups have different issues and concerns, she said. For example, overeating is a real issue as an eating disorder, especially for lower-class women. How does this fact change women’s relationship to the beauty ideal?

Cutler is reading studies about the body image problem among women in the U.S. as well as evaluations of media literacy programs. She recommends greater sensitivity to the concerns of non-white, non-upper-class groups in order to increase the effectiveness of media literacy programs.

Related News

There’s that Body Image Story ... Again 

Week after week, year after year, The Media’s Effect on Women’s Body Image, a story written and published on Hamilton’s news site in 2010, remains at the top of those most read. On its 10th anniversary, we contacted the author, Alex Ossola ’10, and the researcher, Arielle Cutler ’11, for their reactions.

Schneck ’23 Research Examines Prison System Injustices 

Lena Schneck ’23 looking further into American prisons, specifically in relation to inadequate healthcare treatment, through a Levitt Center-funded project.

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Women’s Feelings on Body Image Through Social Imagination

• Categories: Body Image Sociological Imagination

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Published: Nov 22, 2018

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What do you think you look like? Body image is the mental representation an individual creates of themselves, but it may or may not bear any relation to how one actually appears. Body image is subject to all kinds of distortions from the attitudes of one's parents, other early experiences, internal elements like emotions or moods, and other factors. The severe form of poor body image is body dysmorphic disorder, where dissatisfaction over a slight or undetectable defect in appearance becomes a severe obsession.

• The Dangers of Negative Body Image
• Who Suffers from Distortion?
• Overcoming Poor Body Image
• Signs of Poor Body Image

Poor body image can affect a person in many ways, including performance in academics or in one’s professional career , relationship satisfaction, and overall quality of life. Often a person zeroes in on a specific area like the nose, breasts, or legs. In reality, however, this perceived flaw is not even noticeable to others. People who suffer from severe levels of disorder obsess over a flaw to a point of dysfunction, with some people even repeatedly visiting cosmetic surgeons.

Body dissatisfaction can be minor, too bad my nose is so big , or it can be severe, I hate everything about my body. Once you start to think that you have a flaw, your mind runs with the distraction and turns it into more than it is. All of which affects the way you think and feel about how you look, and about life in general.

Yes. Body dysmorphic disorder is more prevalent in people who opt for cosmetic surgery. Compared to the 1 to 2 percent prevalence of BDD in the general population, rates of up to 7 to 15 percent have been identified in the cosmetic surgery population.

Being exposed to images of airbrushed supermodels and perfectly sculpted celebrities, even briefly, can trigger body shame , body dissatisfaction, depression , anxiety , and eating disordered behaviors .  

Research has found that even young children can display excess concern about body weight, but fortunately many children outgrow these worries. And children experiencing body awareness, sometimes as young as age 8 or 9, are more likely a reaction to peer pressure and self-consciousness rather than suffering from any true disorder. But a distorted perspective can be real for people from the pre-teenage years through to adulthood, with more women than men suffering.

Thoughts and opinions about one’s body can start forming as early as 3 years of age. Often this is a direct result of a parent’s relationship with their own bodies. How a parent sees herself is influential and can mold a child’s ideas about their body.

A person's body image strongly influences their behavior. Preoccupation with, and distortions of, body image have been found to be widespread among American women and, to a much lesser extent, among males.

In the midst of body image angst, people tend to forget about the body's important utility, and it does so much for us, too--our bodies get us from point A to point B, for example. Yet many people remain mired in a world where physical looks take primacy. To put body image back into perspective, experts suggest that you curb the use of social media , platforms where visitors are constantly reminded of the outsize value placed on looks and image are ill-advised. And if snapping a selfie makes you feel worse, then avoid it. No one deserves to go through life hating the place where they live – their body. Body image should not hinge on whether a person looks like a runway model. It's possible for a person to have a better view of their body no matter what it looks like.

Consider everything your body does for you. Thank the different parts of your body. Do your arms let you hold the people you love? Do your legs take you on walks to beautiful places? Do your hands help you express yourself? Write your body a letter of gratitude for the ways it has served you throughout your life.

Encourage your friend to talk about how they feel, yet discourage negative talk that shames them about their body and weight . Also engage in positive activities together, eating healthy and working out as friends, for example. 

People who harbor a negative view of their bodies may have chronic bleak and obsessive thoughts about the way they look. Here are some other signs of poor body image:

• Focuses excessive attention on a minor flaw in appearance.
• Views oneself as unattractive, even ugly.
• Fears other people can see the so-called deformity.
• Might be a perfectionist .
• Avoids social engagements.
• Constantly grooms and looks at oneself in the mirror.
• Constantly hides the perceived flaw with makeup or clothes.
• Constantly compares one’s appearance with other people’s.
• Pursues excessive cosmetic procedures or surgery.
• Needs reassurance from others ("Do I look fat in this?").
• Is never satisfied with appearance.

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Explore the impact of thin privilege on mental health and society at large. Dismantle harmful norms and set intentions for authentic well-being.

Uncover the disturbing truth about how our looks shape our lives. From courtroom biases to the unexpected downside of beauty, this post reveals it all.

Beauty standards perpetuated by social media and the beauty industry intensify the emotional struggles of those with body-focused repetitive behaviors, complicating their recovery.

A recent example of image-based sexual abuse on social media highlights a need for broader public education about the harms caused by these kinds of behaviors.

Personal Perspective: We keep trying to be "perfect" women, even when we know the trying is killing us.

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Weighing the evidence: Assessing the relationship between body weight and health.

Professional ballerinas are at risk of having an eating disorder and many are unhappy with their bodies. Recreational ballet dancers, however, can feel good about their bodies.

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Social Media and Body Image Essay

How it works

Have you ever looked in the mirror and said something negative about yourself?

According to the Merriam Webster dictionary body image is, “”a subjective picture of one’s own physical appearance established both by self-observation and by noting the reactions of other. Negative body image and low self-esteem are real problems and I want to discover the causes, how much of a factor social media is, and ways that people can get help to move past it.

Many people see things they do not like about their body that others do not even notice.

Negative body image is on the rise and some believe that it could be due to mass media. There is a high quantity of research being done because negative body image does not need to happen. Most researchers are focusing on the main causes of low self-esteem and body image, the effects mass media has created, and how someone can overcome their problems.

Researchers are identifying what in the first-place causes someone to one day love their body to all of the sudden hating it. Negative body-image and low self-esteem are very similar things. Low self-esteem is when someone lacks confidence in themselves often. According to the “”Department of Health & Human Services, (Department of Health & Human Services May 2014), some of the causes for low self-esteem are an unhappy childhood, poor academic performance, a stressful life, poor treatment from a partner or parent, ongoing medical issues, and also mental illness. In another article the Department of Health & Human Services, (Department of Health & Human Services August 2014) states that things such as, being teased about the way one looked in their childhood, having dieting parents, and the medias tendency to promote thinner people, are all causes of negative body image. All of these things that are listed above are things that could lead to low self-esteem and create a negative body image. Through exploration one can discover that there are many things that are said to cause negative body image and low self-esteem. Another cause of negative body image is fat talk.

Some researchers are also discovering what fat talk is and why it happens. Fat talk is as simple as its name suggests. It is talking about someone’s body in a negative way while emphasizing on weight and shape. In the journal, “”Body Image, (Chow, Hart, Tan 2018) it states that 93% of young women had fat talked while only 11% of men had been in this situation. Fat talk could be talking about oneself or it could also be talking about someone else’s body. No matter how it is being done such as about oneself, someone else’s body, or even their appearance it could affect them more than people realize. In the article, “”Fat Talk, written by Sarah Royal for “”The National Eating Disorder Information Centre (Fat Talk 2012) she states that fat talk often happens, and it is not realized that it is being done. These fat talk conversations also happen very often in the dressing room while people are trying on clothing. Social media is said to have caused a raise in the amount of fat talk online.

Researchers are discovering what amount of negative body image and low self-esteem that mass media is blamed for. Social media can be used for very good things, but it can also cause some not so good things. There have been studies that show that when someone looks at a picture of a skinny model they then compare themselves to that model. In the journal “”#SocialMedia, (Santarossa & Woodruff 2017), it explains that the online environment is full of pictures of celebrity and models for someone to compare themselves to other people. Social media is also used as a platform for influencers to help others with things that they themselves have gone through in the past. Richard Perloff says that the United States, United Kingdom, and Australia have all conducted experiments and research that have evidence that social media has effects on body image problems (Perloff 2014). With the rise of users on social media there are a lot of opportunities for people to see others and compare their body to the fit model on social media. Fat talk and social media may cause negative body image and low self-esteem but how does someone who has these things get over it?

Once someone has low self-esteem and see their body negatively, it is very important that they seek help or work on gaining confidence themselves. According to “”The Department of Health and Human Services a few ways to build one’s self-esteem are talking to oneself positively, do not compare yourself to others, do not worry, and there are also many more small things someone can do. People should always talk positively about themselves but if someone is going through low self-esteem it is very important that they find something positive to talk about. One way that would be very simple is to find something positive that they like about themselves every day and this will eventually be a habit. Comparing to others is a very easy thing to do especially because with every advertisement if there is someone on the ad then it is normally a skinny, beautiful girl or a fit, muscular guy. If someone worries often then it is very easy to worry about their body and what everyone else thinks about them but that should not matter. What other people say about you should not bother you at all, but this is easier to say then to actually do. As Bob Marley said, “”Don’t worry be happy.

According to the BYU Counseling Center, at any one point in time 50% of women are on a diet. BYU also reports that 14% of five-year-old girls say that they go on diets. It also stated in the article that 98% of people who diet gain their weight back in five years (Ways to Overcome a Negative Body Image, BYU). Another thing to take in to account when someone is trying to get over their negative body image is their genetics. Everyone is made a different way and not one person looks exactly the same as another. According to “”Building Self-esteem: A Self-Help Guide (Building Self-esteem: A Self-Help Guide), a few other things someone can do to help themself are things such as, wear outfits that make someone feel good about themselves, do things nice to other people and it will make them feel good, and they could also reward themselves for little things that they have accomplished. In conclusion there are many ways for someone to get over their negative body image and low self-esteem problems.

As you can see, negative body image and low self-esteem are major problems in our society today. This can be caused by things such as social media, family problems, academic problems, fat talk, and many other things. People are constantly researching to find what specific things trigger negative body image and low self-esteem. As often as they are researching what causes it, they are also researching what can be done to help people who have already been affected to get over this. There are many more things to be discovered about negative body image and its causes.

In the future I plan on arguing that women are more effected with body image and self-esteem problems than men. Everyone needs to be informed about the causes of negative body images and also how to recover from negative body images and self-esteem, but I want to look at the research on who is affected more and I believe it is young women.

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Young Women’s Body Image

Young women’s body image in the 21st century is largely influenced by mass media. In today’s world, advertisements can be seen almost everywhere you look. Young women see advertisements on billboards as they drive or walk by places, on buses that are passing by, on benches they may sit on, in magazines that they pick up to read and on the TV they watch to escape from a long day. The cell phones that are glued to their hand 24/7 also subject them to seeing advertisements on the internet and social media.

A lot of the advertisements that you see in these places are typically photos or videos of beautiful women that use a certain product or wear certain clothes. Just by seeing these advertisements, young women are being influenced on what products to buy or what beauty looks like based off the women they see in ads. What is the sociological imagination ? During the first week of class it was taught that C Wright Mills was the man responsible for giving a name to a new sociological way of thinking. This way of thinking was called the sociological imagination.

The sociological imagination calls for one to take a step back and look at their problems from a larger frame. When one does this, they are able to see the bigger picture and realize that their personal problem is not just a problem for them but is also a problem for others in society. The reason that their problem also affects others is because the problem stems from cultural or social “norms” and one feels as if they need to conform to them. A lot of young women in today’s world struggle with their body image .

This is because they see advertisements, pictures and videos of flawless women and all of these influence younger girls by setting a standard of what is considered to be beautiful . Majority of the young women in the 21st century do not have the same body type or the same features that these “ideal” women have so they are not able conform and do not see themselves as being as beautiful. I, myself, am among the many young women in this century that struggle with accepting their body image . At a young age I was exposed to the media and started seeing the advertisements of beautiful women in magazines and on the TV.

I may not have realized then that I was being influenced and was subconsciously forming an idea of what “beautiful” looked like, but it is evident to me now that my problem with my body image started taking root a long time ago. My issue with my body/appearance did not really show up until middle school . This is when all the other girls in my classes started buying and wearing certain clothes that were considered cool. When all the other girls started wearing these name brand clothes, I started to feel pressured into wearing it too. I wanted to be cool and I wanted the boys to think I was pretty also.

I cared a lot about what brand of clothes I wore. Who could show up to school not wearing name brand clothes ? Where did the idea that wearing certain clothes made you prettier and more popular? The answer is the media. As 12 and 13 year olds I saw the ads for Aeropostale, American Eagle and Hollister and saw how beautiful and popular the models were and wanted to be just like them. As I progressively got older other things about my body began to bother me even more too. At this point in the media the “ideal” woman has a big chest and a big butt with a slim waist.

By the time I reached high school all the other girls in my grade had bigger busts than I did. I was very small chested compared to everyone else and this made me feel very self-conscious about my appearance. I felt like no boy was ever going to want to date me because I was not as sexually attractive as the other girls in my grade or the women in they saw in the media. Even now that I know that the media is the driving force behind the “idealist” body and that the standards are impossible to live up too, I still have issues seeing my body and appearance as good enough.

Do I still feel the need to buy name brand clothing? Yes. Do I still feel insecure about my body features? Most definitely. This just proves how deeply my ideas of beauty are rooted and how strong the effect of the media can be to young women. When looking at how one’s perception of their body is formed in the 21st century it is important to look at how social forces and historical context affect it. Society as a whole has standards for what a person should look like. This standard that has been set comes from the media and the photos and videos that they advertise nationally.

The National Association of Anorexia Nervosa and Associated Disorders reported that the body type portrayed in advertising as the ideal body is only naturally possessed by only 5% of Americans. On top of that, they also conducted a study that revealed that 69% of girls in 5th – 12th grade admitted that magazine pictures influenced their idea of the body shape (“Self Image…”). The media and society both hold impossibly high standards that can never be met by myself or others. When looking at this body imagine from a historical stand point it can be noted that women have influenced by media for a long time.

The media did not just start influencing what the ideal body type is in the 21st century. The media affected my mother’s view of her body and it also affected her mother’s body image. This shows that negative body image has been a problem that women have had for generations. The media does not just hold power over me and my family, it also influences other women and young girls body image all across the nation. This is because women feel the need to conform to societies standard of beauty. Some women will try to conform to these standards by dieting and some will even develop eating disorders .

With the increasing pressure of being thin it is no surprise that research has found that many bulimics have learned to purge as a way to lose weight by the media (Stice). Controlled experiments also show that the emphasis on dieting placed by the media has been linked to binge eating (Stice). The National Association for Anorexia Nervosa and Associated Disorders also states that over half of teenage girls resort to unhealthy eating habits such as skipping meals, fasting, smoking cigarettes, vomiting and taking laxatives as a means for weight control (“Self Image…”).

The reason the media has such a large effect on society and their body imagine is because of socialization. Socialization is the way that people learn the culture of their society. It also includes norms, which is what is considered to be normal in your society. In the century we live in today, mass media is easily accessible. You can just pick up the phone and search the internet or you can grab a magazine and read it while waiting in line at the grocery store. With all the different sources of media that are available within the reach of our fingertips, it makes sense that mass media plays a large role in socialization.

The norms in today’s society in regards to the standards of body image are set impossibly high. Who does this affect the most though? Research reveals that women are much more critical of their body and 8 out of 10 women will be dissatisfied with what they see when looking in the mirror (Fox). Research has also shown that men have a much more positive outlook on their body women and tend to either be pleased with what they see on the mirror or are indifferent (Fox). Women tend to be more subconscious of their body image because they are put under more pressure and scrutiny than men.

Women are exposed to the media at a young age and this is when they start developing ideas on what one’s body appearance should look like. Research conducted by Duke University discovered that 40% of all 9 and 10-year-old girls have already been on a diet (“Self Image…”). Another study conducted by the National Eating Disorder Association revealed 70% of 6 through 12-year-olds want to be thinner (“Self Image…”). As they grow into an adolescent and then into a young adult the pressure to conform to society’s ideal body type only grows stronger.

The negative affect that this has on young women also carries on with them into adulthood. Research on the body image of adults shows that 80% of women are unhappy with what they see and they often see themselves as being larger than they actually are (“Self Image…”). The negative outlook that the media creates on women’s body image starts at a young and stays with them and throughout their lives. In the 21st century young women’s body image is majorly influenced by the mass media .

The media sets standards that could never be met by most average women. Women will try dieting and some will even develop eating disorders in order to try and obtain the ideal slim figure. Although body image is a personal problem for me it is also a bigger problem for society. Using the sociological imagination, one can take a step back and view the bigger picture to see that the reason they have a negative body image is because one feels a strong need to conform to the norms set in place by society.

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