Debate & controversy
Young girls around the world are very self-conscious of the way they see themselves. They think that they aren't good enough because they are not skinny or they feel like they don't have a beautiful face. Self-image has been an important part of a girl's life because it either gives you a high self-esteem or a low self-esteem. The controversy on this is that media has targeted girls to think a certain way. With their campaigns, they make them think that if they don't look like the models in the campaign, then they aren't good enough. Researchers agree that one of the strongest influences on the development of body image disturbance is a sociocultural factor (Thompson, 1992). Body image is a complicated aspect of the self-concept that concerns an individual's perceptions and feelings about their body and physical appearance (Cash & Pruzinsky, 2002). That's been the controversy over the course of the years, media has been targeting young girls to be self-aware of their body image. Images in the media today project an unrealistic and even dangerous standard of feminine beauty that can have a powerful influence on the way women view themselves. From the perspective of the mass media, thinness is idealized and expected for women to be considered "attractive." Images in advertisements, television, and music usually portray the "ideal woman" as tall, white, and thin, with a "tubular" body, and blonde hair (Dittmar & Howard, 2004; Lin & Kulik, 2002; Polivy & Herman, 2004; Sands & Wardle, 2003; Schooler, Ward, Merriwether, & Caruthers, 2004; Tiggemann & Slater, 2003).The controversy over self-image has been media and there has been campaigns that think differently. For example the dove campaign, they have a different point of view than other companies. In their campaigns they put women who are tall, short, fat, skinny, and different color skin. They are aware that teens have been targeted and they have that idea that everyone is beautiful no matter how they look. The Dove brand is rooted in listening to women. Based on the findings of a major global study,The Real Truth About Beauty: A Global Report, Dove launched the Campaign for Real Beauty in 2004. The campaign started a global conversation about the need for a wider definition of beauty after the study proved the hypothesis that the definition of beauty had become limiting and unattainable. Among the study’s findings was the statistic that only 2% of women around the world would describe themselves as beautiful. Since 2004, Dove has employed various communications vehicles to challenge beauty stereotypes and invite women to join a discussion about beauty. In 2010, Dove evolved the campaign and launched an unprecedented effort to make beauty a source of confidence, not anxiety, with the Dove Movement for Self-Esteem (The dove campaign, 2012). There are different points of view in what really causes young girls to be so aware of how they look. As how i had mentioned media is one of the main reasons why girls are targeted into thinking a certain way. Other people think that media is not the problem. People say that it’s the parent’s fault because they aren’t there for them. It’s difficult to motivate yourself to want more, strive for more, and imagine that you deserve more when your parents or other primary caregivers didn’t pay attention – as if your greatest achievements weren’t worth noticing.This scenario often results in feeling forgotten, unacknowledged, and unimportant. Feeling unrecognized can result in the belief that you are supposed to apologize for your existence (Lachmann, 2013). Some parents are also not aware of how their child is feeling or being treated. At times it is when they are bullied by their appearance and their parents aren’t there for them. For example when someone is being bullied because of their weight, that motivates young adults to stop eating and they can fall into different diseases such as anemia, bulimia, and other several diseases that are caused because of bad eating habits. If your experiences have been negative, your beliefs about yourself are likely to be negative too. Crucial experiences that help to form our beliefs about ourselves often occur early in life. What you saw, heard and experienced in childhood - in your family, in the wider community and at school - will have influenced the way you see yourself (Overcoming, 2008). |
Debate & Controversy
There are many different point of views about self-image. People say that the negative effects aren’t caused by the media. Others say that the media is causing the teens to a have negative self-image. Some people say that it’s family and friends causing the negative effects and the change of how you feel about yourself. There’s also bullying that may cause young girls to have a negative self image, whether it’s cyber bullying or just bullying. People say that the media is not the fault for young girls to have that negative perception of themselves. Its the way that teenage girls take the ads for, or see whatever they see on tv. Young girls are the ones going into websites and are the ones looking at pictures of celebrities. Teen girls are going into websites trying to look at things to eat, so that they don’t get fat. Others are going to websites where there are Pro-anorexia and are giving young girls advice to get skinny. Some people say that it is the media’s fault because there are a lot of advertisements trying to get girls to buy products to make themselves more beautiful. “From an early age we are bombarded with messages that reinforce the idea that to be happy and successful we must be thin. It is nearly impossible to open a newspaper or magazine, listen to radio, shop at the mall or turn on a TV without being confronted with the message that to be fat is to be undesirable.” ("Mobile Site Preview") The advertisements have a low-key message to girls. Either young girls have blemishes on their skin and they need to buy a certain cream to make their skin “smoother” or “better.” Other advertisements say that they should buy a certain mascara to make their eyelashes longer or thicker or blacker. Teens see the people being advertised and they like what they see; it catches their attention, but some don’t even know that the eyelashes they see are fake! “Lash inserts were applied to both of Nicole’s lashes to add lash count before applying mascara, the ad copy read.” ((Goldwert, "CoverGirl model wears false eyelashes in mascara ad; Fine print reveals use of 'lash inserts'", 2011) Another different point of view is that family and friends are the ones that get teens to have a negative effects on girls. Family and friends are the ones that influence the girls to act a certain way, to be a certain way, your friends influence you to wear whatever the trend is. “ Role models expressing body image concerns and modelling weight loss behaviors, can increase the likelihood of an individual developing body dissatisfaction regardless of actual body type.” ("What is body image?") Young girls might look up to family members and all they are seeing is how they are trying to eat less to lose weight or how they are exercising more and this is making them have a different perception about how they should look. People say that if young girls have a negative self image it’s because they are being bullied, this bullying is cause through the social media like facebook, twitter etc. They might also be bullied in school, whether it’s being teased or called names, picked on etc. Young girls get bullied for how they look and this is what some people argue. Based on a powerpoint made by Carrie Anderson, “bullying can take many forms: physical aggression, threats, insults, spreadin rumors, social exclusion and mocking victims culture, disability or sexual orientation.” (Anderson, "Body Image and Bullying") Bullying, because of how you look happens everywhere. There are lot of statistics that tell you that bullying is caused because of appearance or weight. “Approximately 41% of students identified being overweight as the primary reason for being victimized...76% of students are being ignored or avoided because they are fat...68% are being targeted with negative rumors...71% are being teased in the cafeteria” (Anderson, "Body Image and Bullying") People that have a negative self image is because they are always being told so because of bullying. There is a lot of negativity and people should be aware of this. |