The Perfect Body
Teenagers’ views on weight and body image are shaped by society. Many feel as if it is necessary to meet the requirements of what society claims to be a perfect body. Teenagers experience the most controversy with having a perfect body. As a result, teenagers are more prone to becoming obsessed with fitting the perfect body standards leading to depression, hatred, and eating disorders.
Images of what society illustrates to be the perfect body, results in depression amongst many teenagers. I know from a personal standpoint how body image can lead to depression. Being larger in size resulted in me comparing my body to others. I became very unhappy with the way my body looked compared to others. People would bully me calling
Everyday females are exposed to how media views the female body, whether in a work place, television ads, and magazines. Women tend to judge themselves on how they look just to make sure there keeping up with what society see as an idyllic women, when women are exposed to this idea that they have to keep a perfect image just to keep up with media, it teaches women that they do not have the right look because they feel as if they don’t add up to societies expectations of what women should look like, it makes them thing there not acceptable to society. This can cause huge impacts on a women self-appearance and self-respect dramatically. Women who become obsessed about their body image can be at high risk of developing anorexia or already have
Nowadays, society is obsessed with the way our body looks because it is now used as a way to portray what is on the inside. The ideal body image is socially designed as the ultimate goal that one can attain in order to fit-in and be acknowledged in today’s society. The image that society has on the “perfect body” that has been gathered through media, ads and culture, is something that most people have started to “idolize” and are setting
When dealing with mental effects of body image many people develop thoughts of suicide when dealing with stress and anxiety out on them. When social effects
At age 17, 78% of american girls are “unhappy with their bodies”. Television, movies, magazines and the internet all show images of women that put pressures on what their bodies should look like. The media does this by portraying an impossible body image. Millions of teens believe the lies and resort to unhealthy measures to try to fit themselves into that impossible mold. There is way too much pressure on girls today to have the “perfect” body.
In today’s modern culture, almost all forms of popular media play a significant role in bombarding young people, particularly young females, with what happens to be society’s idea of the “ideal body”. This ideal is displayed all throughout different media platforms such as magazine adds, television and social media – the idea of feminine beauty being strictly a flawless thin model. The images the media displays send a distinct message that in order to be beautiful you must look a certain way. This ideal creates and puts pressure on the young female population viewing these images to attempt and be obsessed with obtaining this “ideal body”. In the process of doing so this unrealistic image causes body dissatisfaction, lack of self-confidence
If you already have a poor body image, this can make you have even lower self-esteem and be susceptible to self-criticism. These are the same people that want to “drop a few pounds” or “get healthy”. Often these people will choose some sort of crazy diet and the misinformation that goes with it. The pressure to fit in is dominant during the school year. A body has become perceived as a billboard for expression of someone’s successes, power, desirability and status.
“I’m so fat, why can’t I be skinny just like her!” “How does she get the perfect body, while I’m stuck with all of this fat!” These statements are common among teenage girls of today’s society. Social media of today shows unreal pictures of photoshopped models and the “perfect life”. This leads to discontent of young women with their body and lives.
These physical appearances create a society that makes other individuals feel like they should have that body too. Having these physical characteristics allows individuals to exist in a community however it can also make someone feel insecure about their body. Butler describes how “[our] body is and is not [ours]” (Butler 117). Meaning that yes it is our body but at the same time, it isn’t because it's controversial to what our body should look like. This relates to the “perfect body” because someone who is overweight is criticized as someone who eats unhealthy and doesn’t exercise.
According to a survey done by Jesse Fox, Ph.D., 80% of women feel bad about themselves just by looking in the mirror (Dreisbach). This has happened because of social media being changed to make girls feel like they need to have a certain body shape. Models and celebrities in magazines and media show unrealistic beauty and it contributes to eating disorders, depression, anxiety, and much more (Seventeen magazine). Media has put lots of stress on women throughout history with changing body shapes. A survey done by Dove found results that 9 out of 10 women want to change at least one aspect of their physical appearance.
The idolization of slim figures are blinding teenagers to believe it is a necessity to practice these methods. As Blaid describes society’s perspective, “If you develop an eating disorder when you are already thin to begin with, you go to the hospital. If you develop an eating disorder when you are not thin to begin with, you are a success story,”(26-27) this is to point out how society has manipulated the point of view on health conditions to be viewed as a
Body image has become such a big issue among society especially females mostly. According to Mariana Gozalo, states “Using Will’s sociological imagination, I thought about how there are girls who wish to look skinny because it is what is being idolized on TV and magazines and online ads. “Social media make us believe that there is a “ideal body” shape. In my opinion, there is no such a thing as the ideal body shape, because everyone is beautiful in their own individual way.
Social media makes teenagehood harder by creating a stereotype of what a perfect body should look like, celebrating extremely thin, unhealthy
For example, girls will style their hair to “become more attractive” (Berger 2014), or they will purchase ‘minimizer,’ ‘maximizer,’ ‘training,’ or ‘shaping’ bras, hoping that their breasts will conform to their idealized body image” (Berger 2014). This all appears to be harmless activities, yet when body image is only addressed outwardly and not psychologically, there can be an increase in poor and destructive behaviors. For instance, body image dissatisfaction can lead to poor self-esteem, which can create a cycle of increased body dissatisfaction, followed by decreasing self-esteem (Stapleton et al., 2017). Ultimately, a teenage girl can find herself in a cycle of “depression, eating disorders and obesity” (Stapleton et al., 2017). On study in 2012 revealed, “Two-thirds of U.S. high school girls are trying to lose weight, even though only one-fourth are actually overweight or obese” (Berger 2014).
However, in today’s world it has detrimental impacts on the youth as a whole. In stores, people are often bombarded by magazines and other such items that display pictures and tips on how to become this “perfect” person. For guys it is this ripped, lean physique, and females skinny, and beautiful. This is nothing but a simple picture with some editing done, but it creates this feeling inside of youth that they are not good enough as they do not fit in with this category. This can also lead to becoming an outcast in society and viewed as weird, driving people to do terrible and even sometimes dangerous things.
The harmful effects of body shaming among teenagers include lowering their self-esteem and confidence, leads to their poor mental helath and causes weight gain. Firstly, body shaming lowers a teen’s self-esteem. It is common for young people to feel