In my spare time ive been doing a spot of research on how the media can affect us as an audience and one topic which kept coming up, and which i found particularly interesting, was its influence on body image. Nowadays, youl find it hard to get through a day without coming across media in some particular form. Mostly, we choose to browse at the media, like when we buy a Heat magazine in tesco or turn on the television to catch up on a bit of Hollyoaks. The fact that media products in todays society have become a necessity for many people, means that it also has a huge influence over society as a whole.
Obviously i am linking this to the point that the media has a very big influence on body image, especially as in most areas of the media, body image has been closely focused upon.
Almost every magazine on the shop shelves are packed with pictures of underwieght models featuring the lastest trends or airbrushed celebrities caked in the newest makeup, sending readers the message that the only way to look attractive or successful is to wear, dress or look like these people. In the same way TV can also give this impression, by showing adverts and on occasion programmes that make viewers feel that they are not attractive unless they look or dress like the people featured on screen.
As a result, people are being given a false impression of what the majority of people look like which has left women believeing that they are not beautiful unless they are skinny and men wanting muscles to look fit and healthy.. (not that im saying boys with muscles arent attractive!)
Recently the media's influence on body image has become a serious problem and a much discussed matter. This is because many people feel that is has influenced illnesses, the main one being anorexia, as people crave to look like the stars in magazines or on TV. I did some research on the effects of anorexia and found out that its is characterized by low body weight and body image distortion for people with an obsessive fear of gaining weight. As a whole, about 10% of people with anorexia are male and about 90% of people with anorexia are female. More interestingly, reasearch has shown that anorexia is most common in westernised countries, where more people are exposed to the media.
While looking through youtube for realted clips, i found lots of short videos showing skinny women celebrities or muscly men models along with a few related facts. However, the most powerful clips, in my opinion, which were related to this idea, were the new dove adverts. I liked these clips most of all because they wernt just showing how the media is damaging the publics thoughts on body image, but they were also trying to solve the problem and to show people that the media can be decieving and that people can look beautiful without having to wear the latest makeup/fashion or to be superskinny!!
Below ive added some links to the Dove adverts so you can have a look...
1 comment:
Hi Georgia,
Some excellent research here. I have a copy of Louise Redknap's documentary about Size Zero on my Mac somewhere. I'll try to dig it out for you.
Also, we have a number of books on this topic in the Media Studies reference library, which you might find interesting to read through.
Laura Mulvey's The Male Gaze is the seminal work, that provided the first major reference point, academically speaking, for examining the representation of women in the media from a feminist perspective.
Keeo on researching and posting. It's fascinating!
S
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