Jonathan Calderon 4/6/2014 Mrs.

Fuentes English

How the Media Effects Men and Women Differently

In daily life we are exposed to thousands of advertisements, some of which we see on TV and the Internet, others we see while walking through the mall, driving down the highway or even reading through a magazine. These advertisements can effects the way men and women of all ages view themselves and can alter their definition of normality and their view of themselves. I am going to compare the effects that the media has on male's verses females, and also the difference it makes in different stages in life - starting with children, followed by teenagers and ending with adults. I will be comparing all three age groups and showing how body shaming and eating disorders is apparent in each stage. I will also show the importance of body image and how damaging the media can be on people. Recent research has shown that illness due to self image distortion such as depression and anxiety, caused by body shaming and eating disorders has increased rapidly over the years. According to the US National Library of Medicine - National Institute of Health over the last twenty years there has been multiple studies showing
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that there is definitely a link between the female and male body ideal shown in the media causing a range of psychological effects including body dissatisfaction and eating disorders like bulimia and anorexia. In the United States there are over eight million men and women dealing with eating disorders. As this number continues to raise so does the number of children who are becoming affected. A recent study shows that forty-two percent of first to third grade girls want to be thinner and that eighty percent of ten year olds are afraid of being seen as fat. These children could also end up with an eating disorder like anorexia and bulimia. Almost half of United States citizens know of at least one person, such as a friend or colleague who has or had an eating disorder. As children we are subjected to many forms of media, one form that children are subject to for upwards of five hours almost every day is television. The sociocultural theory of body image proposes that societal standards of beauty are stressed and contribute to the development and maintenance of body image disturbance, and it begins at a very young age. Characters on TV are often shown with unrealistic, "perfect" bodies. Women are shown as too thin and men are shown with larger-than-life muscles. Photographs in magazines or billboards are edited on the computer to erase flaws and imperfections. Even if you know what you see is not normal or not real, it can still impact you. Many teens and young adults want to be like the characters they see on TV. Also, some forms of media do not show the real diversity of the world. According to Common Sense Media, seventy four percent of the characters on TV are Caucasian, and sixty four percent of video game characters are males. In western society females by the age of ten already have a portrayed image of what perfection is and what is attractive. Children are exposed through TV shows like Barbie and Brats where they are suppose

to be thin and attractive. Some could even say that Disney princesses are teaching that in order for a girl to get her "Prince charming" she must be as attractive as the princesses in the movie. In movies like Shrek where the "ugly" princess is green, overweight, and more masculine and the "beautiful" princess is thin and extremely feminine influences kids at an early age that fat is bad and thin is good. Even from a very early age these ideas are planted and soon they will grow thinking that they must look just like them basing their ideas of beauty on them. Male children are just as affected and are as easily influenced by the media. They are taught that they need to be like the super heroes they see on TV, they need to be very strong, attractive, and always get the girl. This can cause them to become dissatisfied about themselves, they believe that if they aren't like them then they aren't right and are insufficient. They see over masculinized figures like captain America, iron man, superman, and batman whom are all extremely fit with six packs, and massive amounts of muscle. All being swooned over by every woman they come in contact with because they have perfect hair and are built full of muscle. This can have a damaging affect on male children because it can cause them to have a skewed and altered view on their self image. These children can develop mental illnesses like depression, anxiety and things like the napoleon complex where they do things such as lift weights that way they aren't small or weak in order to be more like the heroes they grow up watching and seeing as perfect. Becoming a teenager is a tough part in anyone's life. It is the part where we go through one of our biggest changes in life, our brain begins rewiring itself to think more like an adult, your hormones are out of line, you feel like you're at your strongest, almost
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invincible, but mentally you are at one of your weakest states. Teenagers are bombarded with media the most, they are influenced by the music they listen to everyday, the gossip they hear, the newest fashion in the magazines, having the best look and trying to look like the hottest actors in Hollywood. In high school, girls are very self-conscious about how they look. Making a remark about their appearance or wording something wrong can send them spiraling into a depressive state, they will think they're fat or need to go on a crash diet. Many girls result to starving themselves just to keep off "unnecessary" calories. This is all due to the media, for example Hollywood - home to the actors we know and love today - many of them are looked upon as role models and therefore girls will judge themselves on a false reality. I say false reality because what the media calls "beautiful" and "perfect" is really just smoke and mirrors. A reality altered by programs like Photoshop, which literally change someone into a whole new being. The women you saw before you wouldnt recognize because they can alter these images so intensely. These teenage girls will see these images, and strive to be like these women that are placed on a stepping stool in society because of this altered reality. Due to this about eighty percent of women say that because of the images in movies, magazines, and television they feel insecure. The average American model weighs about one hundred and seventeen pounds, and is five foot eleven inches, while the average American women is five foot four inches and weighs about one hundred and forty pounds. This has also lead to more than half of the teenage girls thinking they need to lose upwards of forty pounds; usually these forty pounds are naturally gained between the ages eight through fourteen due to puberty and natural growing. Losing this natural and necessary weight for some goes

too far and they become anorexic or bulimic. These eating disorders are sweeping across teenagers because of the media; they aspire to be just like he models that are extremely skinny causing these damaging diseases. These can lead to brittle bones, poor health, failing organs and even death. Traditionally, most of the concerns about media and body image have revolved around girls, but more and more researchers and health professionals are turning their attention towards boys as well. Male teenagers are affected by the media and become very conscious of the never ending need to be overly masculine and to come off as a man and not a boy. They also become aware of the need to have some sort of female companion in order to not be seen as homosexual. Groups of boys often beat on each other and play fight to reassure their masculinity and those who don't comply are outcasts and this can lead to being bullied and can then cause things like depression and anxiety and give them a lowered sense of self worth. Culturally, guys have to be nonchalant when it comes to their appearances, which makes it harder to diagnose and treat damaged body image. The portrayal of women in media also directly effects how boys feel about themselves, they now believe they have to date and find women who look and act like the ones they see on TV or in movies. A 2008 study by Human Connection Research found that young men were more self-conscious about their bodies after reading a magazine showing sexualized, scantily-clad women, based on the belief that they were expected to be in relationships with women like that and that those women would expect them to have similar physiques.

Other research by Linda Smolak shows that there is a relationship between the increase in idealized male bodies in media and the rise in body dissatisfaction and weight disorders in boys. A study by the UK National Health Service found that the hospital admissions for men with eating disorders had risen by two-thirds between 2001 and 2011. There are other concerns as well, such as boys as young as 10 becoming obsessed with building a muscular physique, a condition that is thought to be related to changes in how muscular male sex symbols have become. Building this muscular physique can include things like exercising; particularly weight lifting, steroids or other performance enhancing drugs and protein shakes which all have their own list of side effects such as damage to the heart, kidneys, and immune system along with muscle dysmorphia. Most of these issues follow men into adulthood where the media continues to be a persuasive force in shaping the physical appearance ideals of men and women. The University of Central Florida carried out an experiment on 158 men which consisted of showing half a TV show that contained either ideal male images or neutral images. Results showed that those who were exposed to the ideal image of males became significantly more depressed and had higher levels of muscle dissatisfaction than those exposed to the neutral ads. This continuum of satisfaction and dissatisfaction with one's physical appearance is carried into adulthood, which we can see in an early study showing that 95% of college-age men expressed dissatisfaction with some part of their bodies and 70% experienced a discrepancy between their current and ideal body shapes. Showing men these images distorts their view of reality and really affects their self esteem. Men believe they need to have many sexual partners to be seen as masculine and

A comparison of the latest magazines shows that although more diet-related advertisements and articles were found in female-targeted magazines, there were significantly more exercise and weight lifting advertisements in male magazines. Thus, the print media encourages women to control their weight through dieting while urging males to mold their bodies through exercise. Just as women are vulnerable to the culture of thinness that permeates Western society, males are subjected to a culture of muscularity. Recent research has addressed the role of social comparison as a prime factor in body dysmorphia. Females report appearance-related peer group comparisons to be the most influential on body image, whereas males place a greater emphasis on comparisons with celebrities. Television and magazines exacerbate this problem by presenting airbrushed, artificial images as real. Experimental evidence suggests that females who view idealized female images become less satisfied with their own appearance and exhibit more eating disorder symptoms and males subsequently judge the average women to be less attractive and rate their current relationships as less favorable. We are bombarded daily with skewed versions of reality and it affects every one of all ages and it starting earlier as technology advances and finds more ways to impact us. Media's impression has lasting and possibly severe effects on children, teens and adults. No matter what age we are, where we are from we all strive to be perfect but in reality with societies controlling influence of the media, we will never reach our "goals". As I stated earlier in the paper the numbers of cases, disorders and body shaming are

only increasing. If this continues to spiral out of control we may see a world where the idea of being happy with your own body is simply a dream.

Work Cited Agliata, Daniel, and Stacey Tantleff-Dunn. "The Impact of Media Exposire on Males Body Image." Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology 23.1 (2004): 7-22. Web.12 Apr. 2014. Body Evolution - Model Before and After." YouTube. YouTube, 22 May 2012. Web. 14 Apr. 2014. Cusumano, Dale, and J. Kevin Thompson. "Body Image and Body Ideals in Magazines: Exposure, Awareness, and Internalization."

Depression." NIMH RSS. National Institute of Mental Health, n.d. Web. 10 Apr. 2014. Eating Disorders and Statistics." ANAD. National Association of Anorexia an Associated Disorders, n.d. Web. 13 Apr. 2014. Ransohoff, Julia. "How the Media Affects Teens & Young Adults." Media. N.p., Oct. 2013. Web. 13 Apr. 2014 Slayen, Galia. "Barbie's Effect on Body Image?" YouTube. YouTube, 03 Dec. 2012. Web. 13 Apr. 2014. Stice, Eric, Diane Spangler, and W. Stewart Agras. "Exposure to Media-Portrayed ThinIdeal Images Adversely Affects Vulnerable Girls: A Longitudinal Study." Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology 20.3 (2001): 270-288.

The Body of Public Opinion: Attitudes to body image in the UK. YMCA. Web . 13 Oct 2012.
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