Beauty & the Stigma of Difference

The media portrayal of women has become something that we, as viewer's, should not be proud of. Nine times out of ten, women are shown abnormally thin and have exaggeratingly fit bodies that in reality do not exist. In printed media, with the help of high tech broadcast programming, the bodies of these women are computer generated, touched up, body parts are switched around and cut and pasted according to what the advertisers think is best looking in their eyes. When the women and younger girls at home see these unreal images in the media, they struggle to attain these artificial standards and put their lives into jeopardy emotionally, physically, and psychologically. The repercussions of these unattainable standards are eating disorders, low self esteem, and depression.

The other end of this is the overwhelmingly negative image of overweight people. The media often portrays them in ill-fitting clothes or eating fast food, to illustrate the story of obesity. For one study, researchers looked at 429 news stories about obesity, along with their accompanying photos, published on five major news websites. Of the photos depicting overweight or obese people, the study found, 72% portrayed them “in a negative, stigmatizing manner.” Although news stories focus largely on reducing the obesity epidemic, the images that go with them have the opposite effect. Research shows that people who read a news story about obesity that is paired with a stigmatizing photograph subsequently express higher levels of weight bias than do those who read the same news story about obesity paired with a nonstigmatizing photograph.

The media so strongly influences not only how we view the world, but how we view ourselves. We give advertisers so much power over us and tell us what were doing wrong with our bodies. We're either too fat or too thin. There never seems to be a happy medium. The media puts so much emphasis on how our bodies look and they have created one norm for all different types of women to squeeze into. And if you don't fit, there are social consequences. We, as women, critique other women so harshly knowing how hard we each struggle. The media should encourage women to be happy and proud with their bodies and stop trying to conform to pop culture's beauty standards.

 

http://psupopculture.wordpress.com/2011/02/18/the-unrealistic-women-in-the-media/