Influences of Body Image on the Media
Numerous studies exist that buttress this notion and suggest that the media is inclined to present children with ideals relating to what is and is not considered acceptable by the society. A good example of that is smoking where recent figures report the number of women smokers in the world to be 12, a number that is seen to rise to 20 by 2025 as an indirect result of marketing efforts which often show attractive, modern-looking women smoking (Associated Press, 2006).
Though other factors such as work stress and the gender race may also come into play in this figure, it can easily be deduced that mass media has a profound effect on women. Men, on the other hand, follow a different pattern of influence and may not adhere to similar lines with respect to what is portrayed in the media. It is worth exploring whether men have succumbed to the trends of body image and what is presented to them as beautiful in a negative or positive way.
Concept of Beauty
The concept of poor body image does not necessarily stem directly from the media frenzy of today. It more or less has taken root in every culture throughout history. People have had a distinct apprehension of what is definably appealing and considered good-looking in every period as time has progressed. Initial propagations may have been done by Kings, their jesters, and members of the elite class but their always was an innate appreciation of beauty.
Rich texts of history go to great lengths in describing chiseled males with shapely noses and high cheekbones as womanly objects of desire. Shakespeare himself indulged in such displays of articulacy when it came to describing individual male or females which he considered as beautiful. Given the popularity of his works, he may himself be responsible for indicating to the public what may or may not be regarded as acceptably appeasing to the eyes. However, where his depiction of ideologies differs to those that are widely circulated today is in the level of artistic flair.
Later unscientific years also gave rise to unfavorable fashionable trends. The 19th century for example, saw the advent of the corset, being considered modern and fashionable where as in reality it brought with it a wealth of breathing and digestive problems (Fox, 1997).
Body Images through Media
In todays world body images are thrust upon onlookers in as vivid a way as possible. No longer are they a result of subtle innovations in the broadcasted advertisements or soap operas but are as clear as a bikini-clad woman in an aftershave ad or a man with a chiseled physique publicizing a deodorant. These set a preconceived notion of beauty in the minds of the audience thriving upon their obsession with beauty. This obsession has its roots in how the society treats attractive people. It is indeed a fact that those that are considered fortunate looking are treated favorably as they grow up (Squidoo, 2010).
Consider the school environment, where attractive children are generally more popular, and are given more priority both by fellow classmates and teachers as well. The teachers have a distinct pattern of giving the cuter children more attention than the rest and pushing them harder at the same time, expecting more out of them and in turn driving them towards better grades.
In the work environment, attractive candidates seem to score better jobs with better pay and are generally kept at the forefront with jobs like brand ambassadors and receptionists one US study found that taller men earned around 600 per inch more than shorter executives (Fox, 1997). Whats more, figures suggested by the Social Issue Research Centre suggest that attractive people are found guilty less often and have shorter sentence terms.
Such notions exist parallel to the societies we live in and no community is completely unbiased in its treatment of those fortunate looking and those unfortunate looking. As a result, stigmas are formed about beauty, and people regard things that look good generally better than those that appear less attractive.
Childrens storybooks are a good example in this regard where the princess that needs to be rescued is always beautiful and requires a beautiful prince to rescue her where as the witch that cursed her is always ugly with a crooked nose and a big mole on her cheek (Fox, 1997). Those are complemented today by the likes of popular soap operas such as Bold and the Beautiful, Ugly Betty, Project Runway and the numerous beauty pageants that seem to accompany them.
Effects of Body Image on Women and Men
However, those are targeted squarely on the female population which outnumbers the male population. The female gender is much more susceptible to such stigmas. Research suggests that women criticize themselves much more than men and analyze themselves in the mirror a lot more acutely in virtually all cases. The beholder here sees nothing beautiful in the reflection in this case and always manages to find faults in their physical attributes so much so that around 80 of the women who see themselves in the mirror are said to be dissatisfied with their physical status (Fox, 1997).
Men on the other hand barely ever get affected with what they see in the mirror. They are likely to be satisfied with what they see or may easily choose to ignore it. As a result, the body image they present themselves with is much more superior to women and may actually just be an overestimate.
Their flaws are shrouded by their ego and their conscience over rules any imperfections. The likes of people such as Arnold Schwarzenegger and TNA wrestlers may have induced many to work on their physique and tone their body image but most still remain indifferent.
It is no surprise then that women who resort to better individual grooming than men are more susceptible to body image projections. This has a lot to do with the added scrutiny of women who aspire to be cheerleaders or runway models representing large fashion corporations. The standards they are judged against are seemingly more inflexible than those of men rendering them more prone to physical judgments.
Women are generally associated with beauty, a trait that plays an important part for them to be able to stand out in the increasingly competitive world of today. It also enables them to present themselves better to prospective male partners and hence, they resort to the ideals of facial structures and figures that are set by the media trends of today, described by Naomi Woolf as the The Official Body (Fox, 1997).
The level of exposure that women tend to receive to these ideals start as early as their teenage years mostly through TV, internet, print media such as magazines, books and billboards. This makes being beautiful a priority since every other woman presented in these ads is a showcase of such making beauty part of acceptable mainstream life. Anything less than perfection is considered unacceptable. Contrast this with the life of earlier generations and it is evident that the growing number of borderline lewd commercials and portrayals of extravagantly beautiful women on the media are directly responsible for the displeasure women express with themselves.
The problem is worsened by the seemingly large variety of changes that have been seen over the years of the definition of beauty. History tells us that the influenced women may even be trying to achieve the impossible, considering how standards of female beauty have altered their persona throughout the 20th century, reaching an obscure level of unrealism. For example, in the earlier decades of the 20th century, the physically perfect woman was about 5ft 4in tall and weighed nearly 10 stone (Fox, 1997) where as in the latter half of the same century, the weight requirement for top models and pageant queens in contrast was not starkly short of that considered of the average woman amounting to a difference of 8 between someone considered beautiful and someone considered physically average.
Compare that with the seemingly beautiful figures of today, and one sees a rising trend towards borderline anorexia, where women are expected to be as much as 23 lighter than average, a figure that is somewhat unachievable by a large majority of the female population (95) (Fox, 1997).
Mens Body Image
While men are generally unsusceptible to body image stigmas, some common grooming traits are found to be prevalent in their quest for beauty. Certain features such as hair are of prime concern to the male psychic. Such has been the case throughout history. Hair loss has been a natural cause of concern for males (reportedly 20 of men suffer from it during their 20s) whereas both long hair and short hair have seen their prime and plight.
From the 1840-1860, for example, growing ones hair long was considered part of the fashion trend (Luciano, 2002). Later on, they were frowned upon and considered inappropriate for formal gatherings as America was swept with moderate looks brought about by industrialization. Up until the latter half of the 20th century, the notion depicting long hair as feminine and undesirable remained prominent.
Wavy hair itself did not see much favoritism in the early 20th century as it was either a result of a professional stylist or an extremely wet comb. It was also expected that hair was parted to the side and not through the middle as that was a feminine trait. Throughout this period, the media was adamant at providing products for the upkeep of hair focusing more on hair loss than anything else. Providing shine and gloss was the least of a mans worries (Luciano, 2002).
With regards physical fitness, the earlier part of the 20th century saw commitment to the same by men mostly in preparation for war or military endeavors. America in this era was gripped with industrial change of paramount proportions and young men were increasingly subject to urbanization stress a little too much to care for physical exertion. However, with mounting urgencies of urbanization, exercise became a key ally for a healthy lifestyle as Gilded Age America struggled with the evils of urbanism and sedentary lifestyles (Luciano, 2002).
Pre 1970s, however, opportunities were limited as half the population lived in the Northeast towns which did not have the requisite incentives. In due time playgrounds, YMCAs, and sports programs designed to make exercise an acceptable part of city life surfaced. They helped reinvigorate much of the lost concern for healthcare.
Body building did not come about up until the turn of the century, where strongmen were seen to engage in muscle building in order to represent what America stood for. It was a matter of national pride and international representation more than anything. Men bulge their biceps and showcased their strengths in public only as a spectacle and became mostly confined to carnivals, restricting their spread to other classes of the society.
These trainers were more akin to weight lifting than cosmetic body building, and thus the latter did not get prioritized until much later in the century. While people struggled during the 20s to come out of the stigma associated with body building that deemed it just a hobby, Bernarr Body Love Macfadden launched his physical fitness magazine. This was the first publication fully devoted to health.
1939 saw the inauguration of Muscle Beach in Santa Monica, California which took the fad to another level leading to the launch of the Mr. America contest the same year. However, muscle building and body toning still went unheeded by sponsors and prize money never exceeded more than a few thousand dollars all the way up to the 70s. Arnold Schwarzenegger only won 1,500 as Mr. Olympia in 1976.
Misconceptions about muscle building were gaining momentum through this era. Gluttony was the central focus and the media went through its phases advertising against it. Vegetarian diets were advertised as preferable but hardly ever adhered to. In the 20s, Hollywood sprung into action with movie stars who were young, healthy and presented an aura of sex appeal.
Since movie making had shifted from the East Coast to California, physique became all the more popular and being slim was an essential part of being on film, because cameras automatically added twenty pounds to actual weight (Luciano, 2002). Movies brought slim and healthy aspirations to the common citizen and American men began associating healthy lifestyles and perfect physiques to success.
The wealth of advertising and national health-campaigns has made obesity a thing to fear. The phobia of fat has developed into such a prejudice that people who are obese, especially if they are of the female sex, develop a very poor body image so much so that it is linked to health concerns such as anxiety and depression. Women who are obese tend to develop worse chronic illnesses that have causal links with depression. Such a trait is only found in societies with fat-phobia and those that do not exhibit this phobia are found to have normal healthy women. Thus, the aggressive health campaigns may have in turn led to another problem of social depression (Fox, 1997).
The Impact of Body Image
The excessive bombardment of images of perfect women and beauty queens to women has led to an era of excessive aspirations. Ever since the advent of anesthesia in the later decades of the 20th century, voluntary surgery has become a reality and there has been a new surge in the number of people opting to change their appearances in order to look like their ideals. Aesthetic surgery is the route dissatisfied women (and in some cases, men) tend to take when opting for alterations in their nose, lips, eyes, or any other body part that may keep them from meeting their pre-requisites about beauty.
The process of nose reconstruction has taken a fresh wave of eager women in its grip and countries like South Korea, Brazil, and Israel have joined the originally thriving Indian aesthetic culture in its ventures regarding eyelid restructuring, buttock lifts and tummy tucks (Gilman, 1999). Argentina has emerged as the leader in the frequency of silicone implants becoming the highest provider of such aesthetic procedures.
This frenzy regarding aesthetic beauty has gripped the globe in its paws simply because of the ever increasing demand to look beautiful or at the least aesthetically pleasing to others. Such procedures have formed a culture of their own as Gilman relays a nose job while originally a way to help patients with breathing problems is now served as a sweet-sixteen birthday present (1999). Procedures such as the removal of male breasts and excess fat from ones thighs all help enable those who undergo it become acceptable members of the society, serving to promote the stigma that has become central to the media-centric world of today (Gilman, 1999).
Applying Sociology Theories
If the influences of advertising media on the body image were to be considered in light of the feminist theory, then (Rivers, 2008) elaboration of women in media stands out when he refers to women with regard to how the news media manipulates their anxieties. Women are placed in a constant state of perplexity in which they are convinced that they will not succeed in life unless they adhere to specific criteria in terms of their appearance and mannerism altogether.
Another sociology theory that can be observed to be at play here is the gender theory. The discussion supports the traditional interpretation of the gender theory in accordance to which the social acceptance of the roles of males and females in a society is determined as a result of the perceived attributes with regard to factors that are fundamentally physical (Welsh, 2001). It can be observed that the media does indeed put men and women in a position where they have to mould their appearances in accordance with a pre-established standard that is created with no consent of theirs.
The gender theory is strongly applied in advertising media where men and women who do not adhere to the expected dimensions in terms of their body are given very little or no room for progress or prominence. Therefore, the roles of men and women in modern day society as influenced by the media are not ones that compliment their nature, but are ones that have been taught to them through generated learning.
When considered in light of the Symbolic Interactionism theory, the central idea of the discussion is further asserted through the fact that man and women tend to make use of the standards and thresholds that they have been taught when carrying out self assessments (Andersen Taylor, 2007). The media, being present in society and influencing society in every possible dimension, exposes them to an illusion based on unreal and impractical standards. Considering that this illusion is subjected to continuous reinforcement through repeated exposure, it comes as no surprise that the men and women alike generally begin to consider their bodies less than adequate.
The media therefore makes people feel increasingly self conscious. In order to satiate the feeling of being less than adequate, men and women begin to chase after products and services that promise them that satisfaction (Luciano, 2002). What is imperative to note here is that by doing so, the media generates the cause of the restlessness while promoting the solution to the same.
Conclusion
While it is apparent that individuals today are increasingly provoked to meet rising standards of beauty by the media, it is also evident that such vulnerability is more common in women than men. Men have the ability to dismiss small imperfections such as a crooked nose, a sixth toe, baldness, and other peculiarities that have a greater chance of being noticed by women. However, women tend to overlook genetic limitations and other inhibitions and set weight and size targets that may be seemingly impossible to attain (Chambers, 2009).
This results in emotional setbacks creating societal pressure which results in further health and disorders in the young minds of today. Parental roles are exceptionally important in the development of media oriented ideas, thus, more so with women than men. Every other billboard depicts a woman in barely there attire revealing a perfect figure that drives more than a few minds into a dilemma which either concerns their size, height or weight.
Where the media depicts pageants and beautiful people with such vivacity, it also needs to address the downsides of pursuing such unattainable aspirations and paint a clearer picture relating to health (size 0 does not always equal to good health) before the thirst to become beautiful kills individualism completely.
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