In today’s society, media is widely used in almost everything we do and most of the time, we are affected by what is given to us, in one way or another. What is mass media? It is technology that is expected to reach a mass audience, like the newspapers you read, the latest Twitter post or the video online that went viral, all these are examples of mass media in our lives. And it is also because of all these, that our beliefs and values have changed over time.
Mass media has been known to have affected our thinking of many things, a prominent one being our portrayal of body image. What exactly is body image? Body image is “the internal representation of one's own outer appearance which reflects physical and perceptual dimensions.” (Borzekowski …show more content…
There is common belief that the mass media is the culprit causing us to think negatively of our body image, thus creating an ideal body image we would want to achieve.
However, there are some instances when it is positive as there are forms of mass media which are giving us the message that there should not be obsessed with having a fixed ideal body image and that we should accept ourselves for what we look like.
For example, Mattel released three new dolls targeting the different types of females bodies. One of which has thicker thighs and wider hips compared to the trademark slim Barbie body. The other two are shorter and taller than the average Barbie, changing the ideals of the “ideal height” among females. With mass media, more people found out about the dolls. For example, news sites like theguardian and CNN wrote about it on their sites.
Queen Latifah, who is “known for her curvaceous body” (Brock, 2016), supported this movement through her social media account on Twitter. This led to people finding out more about this change and supporting it as well, proving a positive attitude towards body …show more content…
(Labre, 2005)
Harrison conducted a study of elementary school boys and girls and discovered that for the boys, “television exposure was positively correlated with a stereotypical and prejudicial tendency to assume a fat girl will be lazy, greedy, and have no friends”. (2000). Children are also more inclined to favour a slim figure as their ideal and as a sign of captivation among people, regardless of their gender. (Collins, 1991).
Despite all the different negative views each gender has of each other’s ideal body image, there are also examples of how the mass media influences our perception of the opposite gender’s ideal body type. One of which is the movie “Shrek” where the ugly ogre is not interested in the beautiful princess but rather in the ugly princess when she turns into an ogre.
Many people will be impacted by portrayals of body image in mass media, the most common being gender. It is commonly known that females are more likely to be impacted by portrayals of body image in mass media but that is not the only distinct group. Factors like the ethnicity of someone could predict whether or not he or she would be
Mass media has been known to have affected our thinking of many things, a prominent one being our portrayal of body image. What exactly is body image? Body image is “the internal representation of one's own outer appearance which reflects physical and perceptual dimensions.” (Borzekowski …show more content…
There is common belief that the mass media is the culprit causing us to think negatively of our body image, thus creating an ideal body image we would want to achieve.
However, there are some instances when it is positive as there are forms of mass media which are giving us the message that there should not be obsessed with having a fixed ideal body image and that we should accept ourselves for what we look like.
For example, Mattel released three new dolls targeting the different types of females bodies. One of which has thicker thighs and wider hips compared to the trademark slim Barbie body. The other two are shorter and taller than the average Barbie, changing the ideals of the “ideal height” among females. With mass media, more people found out about the dolls. For example, news sites like theguardian and CNN wrote about it on their sites.
Queen Latifah, who is “known for her curvaceous body” (Brock, 2016), supported this movement through her social media account on Twitter. This led to people finding out more about this change and supporting it as well, proving a positive attitude towards body …show more content…
(Labre, 2005)
Harrison conducted a study of elementary school boys and girls and discovered that for the boys, “television exposure was positively correlated with a stereotypical and prejudicial tendency to assume a fat girl will be lazy, greedy, and have no friends”. (2000). Children are also more inclined to favour a slim figure as their ideal and as a sign of captivation among people, regardless of their gender. (Collins, 1991).
Despite all the different negative views each gender has of each other’s ideal body image, there are also examples of how the mass media influences our perception of the opposite gender’s ideal body type. One of which is the movie “Shrek” where the ugly ogre is not interested in the beautiful princess but rather in the ugly princess when she turns into an ogre.
Many people will be impacted by portrayals of body image in mass media, the most common being gender. It is commonly known that females are more likely to be impacted by portrayals of body image in mass media but that is not the only distinct group. Factors like the ethnicity of someone could predict whether or not he or she would be