Root Causes
There are many causes of the issue of self-image but I personally think that media, uninvolved caregivers, and trauma are the main root causes. These root causes are social and they can also be cultural. A recent CNN article explored how we are now exposed to more and more images of unattainable beauty, thanks to social networking: Before social networks, we mostly had images of impossibly perfect celebrities. We would pass these images on billboards, watch them on TV, flip through them in magazines, but we weren't sitting around staring at them for hours every day (How Does Social Media Affect Your Body Image?, 2010). As you can see teens are highly exposed to media and they are badly influenced by them. Effects of the Media on Body Image, she mentions that “the national eating disorder Association (2006) reports that in the past 70 years national rates of incidences of all eating disorders have dramatically increased across the board. Bulimia in women between the ages of 10 to 39 has more than tripled. This information being found six years ago leaves to wonder how much worse it has gotten between then to now; 2012. Though we are unable to stop the effects of media images on this growing epidemic of eating disorders, we must train our minds to not be affected by such “unrealistic body shapes” (Kovar, 2013). Self-image can also be affected when a parent underestimates a child’s pain and downplays or ignores a peer problem it can cause damage. A child can feel even worse if a parent brushes off the emotion that they are feeling(Parenting on purpose, 2014.) Uninvolved parents can make a child feel less and uncared for, therefore they have a negative image about themselves. When there’s a trauma in someone’s life it can also affect the way they see themselves. The majority of abused or neglected children have difficulty developing a strong healthy attachment to a caregiver. A child with a complex trauma history may have problems in romantic relationships, in friendships, and with authority figures, such as teachers or police officers. Children who have experienced complex trauma often have difficulty identifying, expressing, and managing emotions, and may have limited language for feeling states. Children learn their self-worth from the reactions of others, particularly those closest to them. Caregivers have the greatest influence on a child’s sense of self-worth and value. Abuse and neglect make a child feel worthless and despondent. A child who is abused will often blame him- or herself. It may feel safer to blame oneself than to recognize the parent as unreliable and dangerous. Shame, guilt, low self-esteem, and a poor self-image are common among children with complex trauma histories. A complexly traumatized child may view himself as powerless, “damaged,” and may perceive the world as a meaningless place in which planning and positive action is futile. They have trouble feeling hopeful (NCTSN). Critical PerspectiveThe critical perspective that we decided to use for this topic of self image is Feminist Criticism. Women have a certain expectation of what a person or specifically a girl should look like; what a girl should and should not wear. Feminist criticism works with this topic because before women use to be manipulated into looking a certain way and acting a certain way.
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Root Causes
Based on the research I have done there are three root causes to self-image. Self image can be caused by family & friends, the media (magazines, ads ect.) and bullying. I decided that these three causes are all social problems. Family, and friends can have a big influence in how a teen sees themselves. Teens might see their friends trying to join a sport because they want to be fit and they want to have a “nice body.” Their friends might also be trying to convince them to be in the sport just because they are in it and they start telling the person to join so they can get skinnier, or if you are a senior teen, the teen girls join sports to be able to get a flat stomach to fit in a dress perfectly for prom. Friends do influence teens a lot in how they see themselves because I remember when I was in third grade I had a friend that would always be checking her face, she had this “method” for making her nose less greasy. She didn’t like her nose and so she would be in the bathroom for a long time staring at her face and then she would squish her nose to make herself feel better and apparently make her nose look better. I don’t get what was really the point in that but to her it was something to make herself feel better. After she told me and this other girl, the other girl started doing the same thing. So even if you aren’t teens, younger girls are concerned about how they look and sometimes your friends are the ones to start making you see yourself different or others. Family might also be of influence because you can start being compared to other family and if you are fatter than someone else in the family you will be made fun of, or picked on. Even your own family can make you get self-image problems. “Family life can sometimes influence our body image, some parents might be too focused on looking a certain way or make weight...” ( What Influences a Person’s Self-Esteem?, Michelle J. New PhD). Family can also be telling the teen to eat more because they are ‘too skinny’. I know that this is true because everytime I would go to Mexico my cousins are all really skinny, they look anorexic but they aren’t and my grandma (from my dads side) is always telling me that I should eat less. My grandma is pretty straightforward and she would just say mean things without even knowing. When I go to California, it’s a total opposite. My grandma (from my moms side) starts to tell me that I have to eat, that I am too skinny, “Te esta dando de comer tu mama?”, my grandma would say. When I was smaller my dad use to always tell me that I had fat showing, and that I was fat. I would cry and before I wouldn’t have noticed and I didn’t even care, but when my dad would tell me, it would make me feel bad and I would cry and I would believe that I was fat and try to eat less junk food. So I know that family does influence a teen to have negative self image concerns. The media, such as advertisements, music videos, magazines, and tv shows all have a major influence in teen girls as well. “ Our tweens and early teens are a time when we become more aware of celebrities and media images---as well as how other kids look and how we fit in.” (What Influences a Person’s self-esteem?, Michelle J. New PhD). Through the media teens see how famous people look and start seeing themselves and start thinking of themselves as not good enough or not perfect enough to be like the people seen on tv. “We start to compare ourselves with other people or media images (“Ideals” that are frequently air brushed”.) (What Influences a Person’s self-esteem?, Michelle J. New PhD) Teens are so use to always seeing the same images over and over and end up thinking that thats how they should look, when in reality the images seen in magazines are all edited. “ 70% of college women say they feel worse about their own looks after reading women’s magazines.” (brown.edu--IPOD) The magazine pictures were just making the women feel bad about how they look. Even though I’m pretty sure they know that most of the pictures seen are of women with too much make-up on and the pictures are edited; either women’s faces are being reduced, or their waists. Now if little girls and teenagers are seeing these magazines they are more influenced because they wouldn’t know as much as the older women. Bullying may also has a major influence on the way teens see themselves. Bullies like to make people feel bad. Some teens, even elementary school girls are picked on because they either have a big nose, or they are too fat; they are basically picked on for their appearance. Based on the article I read, Barker says “When bullies say mean things about you, you may translate them in your head into something else that you feel bad about, says Becky Hashim, MA, a clinical psychologist at Children's Hospital at Montefiore Medical Center/Albert Einstein College of Medicine in Bronx, N.Y. A bully might say, "You're a fat slob," but what you hear is "I should stop eating cookies" or "I am horrible at gym." And that makes the taunting feel even worse.” Teens or elementary school girls get picked on for simple little things. I believe this is most commonly seen in elementary school because once you go into high school teens are much older and have more knowlegde. I know that when I was in elementary school guys would pick on girls for what they were wearing, and if you have something big like lets say your lips or nose, boys would point it out and you would feel bad about how you look. In elementary school you worry about how you look because you want people to like you; girls want to have friends so they try to fit in with everyone. Once you enter high school what you see more of is cyber bullying. You see how teen girls are being called names through the social networks and are being teased and these teens are being affected through these, making themselves feel not worthy and that they are ugly. |