THE MEDIAS EFFECT ON BODY

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Introduction

Cumulative exposure to thin-ideal images in advertising and other forms of mass media is of greatest concern with regard to the development of positive or negative body image in women and men and boys and girls. The review of research in this area suggests a positive relationship between thin-ideal media exposure, thin-ideal advertising, and body image disturbance in young women and girls, particularly among whites. Body image disturbances are also increasing among boys, who have an increasing awareness of body image as a result of advertising featuring a muscular ideal.

The Thin Ideal In Advertising

Health communication and social science scholars suggest that the body shape standard for women as represented in mediated images has become increasingly smaller over the last several decades. We see these portrayals in entertainment programming on prime-time channels and cable, in music videos, in the editorial content of women's magazines, and in all forms of advertising. The Social Issues Research Centre reports that young women now see more images of what are considered to be outstandingly beautiful women in a single day than their mothers saw throughout their entire growing-up years. Some researchers argue that chronic dieting is a direct result of the social pressure on American women to be unnaturally thin, and they argue that this body shape ideal is a result of media exposure to images depicting and promoting images of thin women, especially in advertising.

Scholars studying the social effects of such media as advertising argue that, through repeated viewing of these images, women and girls are taught to judge and compare their own body shapes and sizes. Even though the advertising industry has received a good deal of criticism for its use of ultra-thin models, the industry seems to be reluctant to modify its practices because, in the end, images of thinner women sell.

Effects Of Exposure To Thin-Ideal Images In Advertising

Because many researchers suggest that editorial content nowadays is so similar to advertising content, it has become even more difficult for readers and viewers to distinguish between the two. This is especially relevant for younger girls who read teen magazines and may not be very knowledgeable about the influences of advertising. Jean Kilbourne argues that advertising is a highly persuasive and pervasive medium that permeates society and sends subtle and repeated messages promoting the thin ideal. She further argues that it is the cumulative exposure to ads that is most harmful to women and girls. Other scholars suggest that advertising has been accused of unintentionally making women feel self-conscious and inadequate because advertising may play a role in reinforcing a preoccupation with physical attractiveness.

Several studies have examined predictive factors of body dissatisfaction, drive for thinness, anorexia, and bulimia—all correlates of body image disturbance—and have examined the relationship of media use and exposure as positive correlates to these dependent variables. These studies have been conducted via surveys and experiments with younger girls, teenage girls, college-aged women, and women older than college age, and most have been conducted to ...