Body ImagePrey To Media

Timothy Hui
14-03-16

Volume 1, Issue 1

Media And Its Methods

The power of media is impeoples bodies, slimming
mense in our society, and as
body parts, removing wrinwe progress through time, it
klesand anything else that
will only grow larger as techcan make the model look
nology improves and peoples exceptionally handsome or
access to different forms of
beautiful. Robin Derrick ,
media increase. Though mecreative director of the wildly
dia has its benefits, media
proclaimed fashion magazine
also has its surprisingly sinisVogue, has admitted I spent
ter side. Everyday, magazines, the first ten years of my caadvertisements and television reer making girls look thinner
shows are released, suppos-- and the last ten making
edly depicting the ideal body. them look larger." The editor
However, these
of Vogue,
ideal bodies
Alexandra
I spent the first ten
are often manipShulman, has
years of my career makulated to create
also coning girls look thinner -- fessed quietly
unrealistic, stereotypical imag- and the last ten making to being horrithem look larger."
es which are
fied at some
usually extremeof the models
ly hard to attain. In fact, a very on shoot for her own magalarge percentage of magazine zine, saying "I have found
companies use editing softmyself saying to the photogware to enhance the images
raphers, 'Can you not make
of their models. Well-known
them look too thin?'" This is
magazines such as Glamour
just one example of media
and Redbook are known for
out of thousands that showPhotoshopping heads on other case false imagesfalse

Spot the differences: before and after Photoshop

Front cover of an issue of

Cosmopolitan

images that can instill an extremely

untrue image of the ideal body into
a teens mind.
Lets assume that a magazine became Photoshop freeunlikely, but
lets pretend that, for example,
Vogue magazine decided that it
wouldn't use image editing anymore
in any of its features. The women
featured on Vogue are all full time
models full time models that
spend every second of their life
trying to make a living by looking
beautiful. These women do everything they can to look good for the
cameraskin products, makeup and
trying to stay unnaturally thin. While
models are doing this, the rest of us
people need to fit in school and
work and other items of our busy
schedules, leaving only a few
minutes for body building or focusing on beauty rituals. It just isnt
possible to reach the standards
models have set, however, we still
try. Real men or women dont
have the time, money or ability to do

Page 2

Volume 1, Issue 1

The Weight of Media

According to recent statistics,
approximately 50% of girls and
undergraduate women report
to being dissatisfied with their
bodies these perceptions
appear in girls as young as 7
years of age. Gradually over
time, this dissatisfaction
morphs into serious eating
disorders such as bulimia and
acts as a predictor for other
problems such as low selfesteem, depression, and obesity. On the other hand, as
many as 85% of men seem to
be dissatisfied with their bodies in terms of weight, with
around 50% wanting to lose
weight and 50% wanting to
gain weight. While women
seem to want lose weight in

order to attain the ideal; body, thin women with long legs and
there is an equal number of
narrow hips or buff, solidly
men wanting to lose weight
built males with ripped abs.
and gain weight to attain the
As teenagers aspire to have
ideal masculine body of mini- this ambitious, impossible to
mal body fat
achieve body,
and large
Movies, magazines, tele- they develop
amounts of
vision programs all display lifestyle diseases
muscle. But
which in many
either stick thin women
what is the
cases prove to
with long legs and narrow
cause of
be fatal. As well
hips or buff, solidly built as this, many
these dissatmales with ripped abs. people go to
isfactions
relating to
extreme
peoples bodies? There are
measures in order to achieve
many forces that could influthe ideal bodytaking suppleence ones perception of their
ments to increase muscle
body, however, the most domi- mass and excessive gym visNatalie Portman lost 20 pounds off
nant of these is media. Movits. In fact, statistics show that her already small frame for Black
ies, magazines, television pro- steroid use is rising rapidly
Swan.
grams all display either stick
and 68% of steroid users use

1. Less magazines and mass media

Strategies
There are many strategies that
are effective in reducing the
medias impact on your perception of body image. These
include reading less men/
women magazines and mass
media for a while, trying physical activity just for fun instead
of for body weight loss and
being informed about body
image issues. On the right is a
list of strategies that teenagers can use.

A good way of dealing a problem is to take away the source of the problemreducing the time
spent reading or viewing media which depicts the ideal body of men and women can significantly
reduce the impact it has on your perception of the ideal body.
2. Physical activity for fun not weight loss
Physical activity is a great way to socialise, exercise and have funit shouldn't be viewed as a tool
to lose weight. By doing sports just for the fun of it, you will find that you can keep your body
healthy but not over-exercise it for the sake looking like a model on a magazine
3. Knowledge is power
Being informed about body image issues can change your opinion on trying to achieve the standards media sets with the ideal body. Across the world, there are thousands of cases of people
who have lifestyle diseases because their perception of body image was changed by media. By
reading about such cases and keeping up-to-date on body image issues, you may find yourself less
wanting to over-do your body.

How Media Can Change

Though we as people can try
to be less influenced by media, media can change as well
in an attempt to influence us
less so that problems related
to body image become less
frequent. Some media companies, such as BGM Models
have introduced plus sized
models, which despite being
larger than the average Australian, are still beautiful. This
helps people realize that being
slim and tall isnt the only way

to have a nice body. This promotion in media can reduce

the chance of people having
lifestyle diseases. As well as
this, magazines are introducing Photoshop policies which
state that they will not use
image editing for any of their
models. An example of this is
the Verily magazine, which
policy states: Whereas other
magazines Photoshop to
achieve the ideal body type
and skin, we firmly believe

that the unique features of

policy such as this can effectively
women be it crows feet, freck- minimize unrealistic and unattainales, or a less-than-rock-hard
ble body ideals.
body contribute to their beauty and dont need to be removed or changed with Photoshop. Therefore, we never
alter the body or facial structure
of our models, remove wrinkles
or birthmarks, or change the
texture of their skin. We aim to
show everyone at their best, but
An example of a plus-sized model
also firmly believe that your
best is not a work of fiction. A