Factors That Influence Body Image

People tend not to sometimes love the body they were created in because of the way the media culture has acculturated certain body shapes and sizes. Body image refers to a person’s mental representation of their body. The way people view their body mentally can either be positive or negative. In today’s society where the media culture and celebrities dominate almost everything including a certain way people should look, have made most people have a negative body image. As a result of people having negative body image, it has contributed too many eating disorders, low self-esteem and low self-confidence. The media culture have not been helpful with impacting positive body image, rather, has influenced people’s perception of their bodies negatively. The essay “Enhancing Your Body Image” by Rebecca J. Donatella, made known that there are many factors which influence body image and also, suggested ways on how people can build up positive body image. The media and popular culture is one of the factors that influence body image. The media influence body image negatively because it shows and represents unrealistic and perfect bodies of celebrities, not considering what the average American looks like. Another factor that affect body image is family, community and cultural groups; if the society accept people the way they are, it makes people have positive body image. In contrast, if the society accepts only certain body type, it tends to make people develop negative