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Brandy Frye 1

Brandy Frye
Instructor Connie Douglas
UWRT 1102-025
2 February 2015
Rhetorical Analysis: Body Image
The rate of negative body image is higher than it has ever been, it has been proven that
media also has an impact on body image more than ever. Whether it is from magazines, the new,
social media it has an impact on our lives and how we view ourselves and others. Studies at the
Stanford University and the University of Massachusetts found that 70% of college women say
they feel worse about their body after reading womens magazines. (The Media)
By comparing the two study from Brown University Health Education and the article
about the link between high school students and media the connection was very clear. In the
brown university study the researchers do a good job telling the effects of media and it is obvious
the do research on this subject for a living. It describes the affects on how when young girls see
images in media of women that we are supposed to see as beautiful and how sexualized media
portrays womens body, which leads to the negative effects which are things like depression and
anorexia. The article is no doubt well developed with proven statistics and facts. A lot of times
arguments on body image with media can be very one sided with gender, but they make sure to
give fact on how it affects men also. They are arguing how media has so many negative effects,
like it gives men the idea of being aggressive with women is an acceptable thing because the
media portrays womens bodies as sexual object which leads to women having the idea that
beautiful is some unrealistic image. The writer decided to research this topic to make others

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aware of the issue and all of the long term effects that having a negative body image can have on
peoples lives. I think this article has many strengths, it gives solid information but it could give
more information on things you could do to prevent or ways to make media a safer place.
The second article about high school students is directing more towards a younger age
range instead of just society as a whole. The writer used surveys to prove the message they were
trying to give. They used the approach of first giving the basic information on how media effect
teens thoughts and view on the opposite sex and also their behavior in general. This article
focused a lot on hip hop music videos and how the portrayed the women body in a negative way.
They asked kids about what they thought about how they portrayed the women in a negative
way. The writer did a great job at showing how the two different genders view the subject, girls
were more damaged by the fact that this is what media is portraying as beautiful, not womens
intelligence or successes its all about the body. To where most boys just thought that is how
media is and its not as big of a deal. One thing that could make the article better would be if the
article looked at more aspects of social media instead of just one single example. The message
the writer was trying to give is more about how media affects each gender and how each gender
views the issue. To where the article was more based on how media affects womens body image
which is okay because in most cases women are the ones effected the most in the harshest ways.
The writer also did a good job on giving some examples to fix the issue which the last article
lacked to do so and also show how media has different effect on different people. I think the
writer has a passion for the subject and wants to make teens and maybe even parents aware of
how this affects society and do it by a hands on approach and getting information on who media
actually effects the most.

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Both articles focus on the negative effects that media plays on body image, but both
articles came from different points of view. The writers do a good job at proving and giving facts
on how media affects society. Even though they were about the same subject, both article had
interesting point and brought something unique to the argument. Both articles were very credible
and reached out to different audiences, even though both writers have different backgrounds on
the subject, they gave some similar information but both gave both a very interesting take on the
issue.

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Work Cited`

"The Media." Body Image. Brown Univesity Health Promaotion. Web. 4 Feb. 2015.
http://brown.edu/Student_Services/Health_Services/Health_Education/nutrition_&_eating_conce
rns/body_image.php
Damico, Amy M, and Heidi Fuller. "High School Students' Perceptions on Potential
Links between Media and Health Behaviors." Simile. 7.2 (2007). Print.

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