The Effect of the Media on Male and Female Body Images - Essay Example

April 28, The Effect of Media on Male and Female Body Images Media exposure happens to everyone these days and even the younger people like the pre-pubescent children are not spared. These exposures lead the audience into believing certain things to be realities. These are common in body image problems in the society today, as the mass media are promoting body types that are perceived to be the ideal body type, as well as the desirable body type by the audience. This construct about the perfect body is vital in an individual’s aspect in building self-identity (Dittmar, 2009). The images that we see in the mass media, however, are not representations of the real body types that exist in reality. According to Sohn (2009) the mass media produces unrealistic images of the ideal body shape while sending out a false impression of how real and attainable these body shapes are. This trend of giving out false impressions is not limited to sex, gender, race and age. According to several studies, men are more prone to have their body images focusing on their musculature and the women focusing on their weight. The black women, however, are not as affected as the whites (DeBraganza and Hausenblas, 2008). Also, the age by which the women get to be body conscious is getting younger, starting at the age of six (Dohnt and Tiggeman, 2006). There are a lot of studies that pertain to media promoting body image problems among its audience, particularly women. There have been issues that blame media regarding some women’s problems about body image, specifically on self esteem issues among teenagers and heavy women. The media often presents women with thin bodies and these models are often perceived as the ideal people and it is the standard. Many women strive to have that ideal standard and concentrate on being thin. This desire for thinness is now common for women that the scientists have identified it as “normative discontent” (Dohnt and Tiggeman, 2006). Also related to this is the social comparison theory, when applied to certain concepts such as body perception and satisfaction, argues that people compare themselves and significant others against other people including media images, which they perceive to represent ideal and realistic goals (Sohn, 2009). This makes people think that they are heavier and overweight than they actually are and when they make the comparison (unconsciously, at that), they feel bad because they “do not meet the ideal” body presented by the media. This makes them motivated to alter their body shape. These comparisons often result in the audience having negative body images and these can have varying reactions both positive and negative, from adopting a healthier diet and exercising routine or acquiring diseases such as bulimia, anorexia and obsessive exercising (Sohn, 2009). Black women, however, are not as affected as the white women when confronted with their own body image issues. According to Sohn (2009), black women usually ignore these materials from the mass media because the majority of the body images presented are different from themselves and their standards of beauty and ideal body shape are completely different from those that are presented in the media. This means that ethnicity is also significant when it comes to analyzing whether media is effective in promoting body image perceptions on a said segment of a population. In the study of DeBraganza and Hausenblas, it has been found out that black women are more satisfied with their bodies on weight-focused measures and on global measures of body image. This is because of the fact that most models and celebrities that the mass media is using are mostly Caucasians, especially in the United States. Additionally, the study of DeBraganza and Hausenblas concluded that black women generally have more positive body image compared to Caucasian women. The result of the study points out the ski color as the ultimate determinant in having to relate to the models that are presented in the mass media as the ideal. Also noted in the study is that the black women pointed out ethnicities when they are presented with models that are supposed to be ideal. This implies that the black women make assumptions that although a model is pretty, they do not assume that that is the ideal because, for the black woman, it may be pretty for that model’s ethnicity but not hers, which basically tells that not all people that they see on mass media represent their own culture’s standards of beauty, which is different from what is appealing to white women (DeBraganza and Hausenblas, 2009). This implies that women identify themselves to images when the images are closer to their own appearance. Although most of the studies focus on women, men have also issues regarding their self-image and their body shape too. Although unlike women, these men do not focus on their weight and have severe issues on their body (Agliata and Dunn, 2003). Men are more concerned about their musculature than their weight. But like women, men have also seen increasing body image disturbances through the years and this has largely been the media’s fault because of promoting body image ideals which are different from the ones that exist commonly in reality. As literature often is the reflection of reality, magazines and other mass media are also the barometer, if not the purveyor, of certain trends. The study of Agliata and Dunn has noted that the magazine Playgirl have their centerfolds increasingly muscular and dense. Also, toy action figures for little boys have become largely muscular too. This behavior of the mass media encourages more muscular men. The emphasis on appearance is now common to men, as evidenced by the emergence of the metrosexual and the increase in male cosmetic surgery procedures. This “Adonis Complex” in men has spurred increased efforts to build muscle and stay lean and the ideal body for the man these days is unattainable for most people, just like the ideal body that is presented by the media when the audience is female. This also results in depression and low self-esteem for men. Unlike the women, men do not struggle with their weight. The men’s issue when it comes to their body is the muscle, that attractiveness for them is associated with muscularity, with emphasis on the chest and a larger body. In that study, they observed the print ads and concluded that the mass media urged the men to mold their bodies using exercise and women through dieting because of the frequency and the kind of the ads the men’s magazines and the female magazines have in their pages. All of these discrepancies in body image and mass media presentations of the ideal body can largely be blamed on mass media itself. Today’s media do not distinguish fiction and reality (Agliata and Dun, 2003) and thus makes the society (the audience) regard the images that they see in the mass media as realistic representations. This is aggravated by the media trying to present artificial, airbrushed and heavily made up personas as realistic representations of beauty. These representations, therefore, become targets of comparison for themselves and these comparative activities make the audience, become less satisfied with their own appearance and make them vulnerable to eating disorders and the like. This is especially true for the females. Because of this, the males view the women as less attractive and rate their current relationships as less favorable (Agliata and Dun, 2003). References: Agialata, Daniel and Dunn, Stacey Tantleff. “The Impact of Media Exposure on Male’s Body Image.” Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, Vol. 23, No. 1 (2004): 7-22. Web. 19 April 2011. DeBraganza, Ninoska and Hausenblas, Heather. “Media Exposure of the Ideal Physique on Women’s Body Dissatisfaction and Mood: The Moderating Effects of Ethnicity.” Journal of Black Studies Volume 40 Number 4 (2010): 700-716. Web. 19 April 2011. Ditmarr, Helga. “How Do “Body Perfect” Ideals in the Media Have a Negative Impact on Body Image and Behaviors.” Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, Vol. 28, No. 1, 2009 (2008): 1-8. Web. 19 April 2011. Dohnt, Hayley and Tiggeman, Marika. “Body Image Concerns in Young Girls: The Role of Peers and Media Prior to Adolescence.” Journal of Youth and Adolescence, Vol. 35, No. 2 (2006). 141–151. Web. 19 April 2011. Sohn, Steve. “Body Image: Impacts of Media Channels on Men’s and Women’s Social Comparison Process, and Testing of Involvement Measurement.” Atlantic Journal of Communication, 17:19–35, (2009). Web. 19 April 2009. Swami, Viren, Taylor, Rosanne and Carvalho, Christine. “Body dissatisfaction assessed by the Photographic Figure Rating Scale is associated with sociocultural, personality, and media influences”. Scandinavian Journal of Psychology 52, (2011). 57–63. Web. 19 April 2009. Read More