Essay about The Media’s Effect on Adolescent Bodies

The Media’s Effect on Adolescent Bodies The stringent standard Barbie-doll proportions of body image and what is considered beautiful in today’s media has resulted in devastating effects on adolescent women. The images displayed of women who have long beautiful legs, thin waist lines and smooth flawless skin are very hard to ignore. Throughout history the female body has been on display as a selling tool to coerce people into buying that new fancy car or the latest new appliance that can make their everyday lives easier. Commercials of the extremely thin Kelly Ripa can act as a mantra of what a modern day picture perfect house wife should look like standing beside her magical ovens and washing machines. There are also constant ads on†¦show more content†¦In her book The Beauty Myth, Naomi Wolf criticizes the media and its negative effects on women by stating that every woman should be allowed the choice to do whatever we want with our faces and bodies without being punished by an ideology that is using atti tudes, economic pressure, and even legal judgments regarding womens appearance to undermine us psychologically and politically (10). Some of the most common negative effects that young girls are experiencing are physical, emotional, and social. The physical effect s that the media has on a young girl’s overall beauty and body image are staggering. Many young girls put their bodies through painful physical transformations. They want to look just like their favorite celebrities or to fit into the latest fashion trends and appeal to the media’s idea of what the opposite sex wants them to look like. Willis’s The Culture of Beauty, argues this point by saying â€Å"The Media distract women from focusing on what bodies do†¦ dressing up, dressing down or sculpting our bodies in pursuit of a profile the we’d be happy to avoid dressing altogether. They print lessons available to male readers regarding what’s ‘desirable’ and ‘ideal’ when it comes to the sizes and shapes of women’s body parts†(106-107). What’s even more disturbing is the physical appearance of girls who starve themselves to reach theShow MoreRelatedTeenage Girls and Body Image Essay 1291 Words   |  6 Pagesof influence from the media’s message. The problem with this is the media has a specific way of doing things and can be negative to a susceptible teenage girl. Media’s way of portraying a woman can be skewed and unrealistic way from what reality is. Teenage girls then have a desire for this look or way. 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