Armagost 1

Amaris Armagost
Aughenbaugh
English 12
01 February 2017
Rough draft
Mirror, Mirror, On the Wall

For Women, life can often seem like a beauty pageant. Throughout every phase of our

lives, from childhood to maturity, our appearance is judged and critiqued. Our looks are

compared to those of our peers, our sisters, the woman in the media, or imaginary ideals. Were

rated pretty, ugly, plain- or just plain average (Walker 3).

Bodies have become our latest-and biggest-pop-cultural obsession. It all begs the bigger

question: Why are we so obsessed with bodies and what does it say about our precariously

shifting self- image (Why Were At War With Our Bodies)?

Its like being trapped in a room of fun-house mirrors. Flip through the tabloids, surf the

web, or tune in to an entertainment- news show, and practically all you see are distorted pictures

of Hollywood Stars and their weight problems. Mariah Carrys too fat. Nicole Richies too thin.

Brittany has blown up Its enough to make the average American woman- who is, hello, a size

14- wonder if anyone is normal anymore, if any woman, famous or not, is ever happy when she

looks in the mirror (Why Were At War With Our Bodies). The media has the world so brain

washed with thinking everyone should look the same, weigh the same, be the same size in

clothing, and be so obsessed with our bodies instead of loving ourselves with the way we already

look. Behind closed doors in Hollywood today, every inch of an actresss body is discussed,

It used to be all about an actors face. Now its all about the body, and everything has to be

perfect, regular woman have no idea how hyper-vigilant an actress has to be about her body

now (Why Were At War With Our Bodies). We as a society dont realize that an actress is a

person, just like all of us. They go through the same problems with their weight, height, and not

knowing how to love themselves just the way we do. To obtain the ideal yet mythical 36-24-
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36 measurements promoted in the media, most of us would need to submit to the scalpel

(Walker 5). Anyone could be that ideal number or even smaller than the ideal number and

still find a flaw about themself. We are such a media driven society that no one thinks that being

a size 10 in the bust, 2 in the waist, and 4 in the hips is acceptable. To achieve the curvaceously

thin body type- which is unusual in real life- we would not only need to starve ourselves, as do

many movie stars, models, and pop singers; we also would need to turn to a combination of

liposuction and breast augmentation. Turning to those options of making your body perfect

can affect you in a lot of ways. Television Advertisements play a huge role in causing our world

to turn to different ideas of getting a better body. Lipozene sharing their weight loss pills and

giving away their free bottle of MetaboUP to help you lose extra pounds. Nutrisystem with their

weight loss meals that are a home delivery with free shakes included. HydroxyCut sharing their

pills and stating youll look fit and feel great, and even Slimquick stating you can lose weight

faster. All these Television commercials state that all these certain pills or meal plans help you to

lose weight fast but they never state the side effects or harm these certain remedies can do to

your body. The television advertisements always state the things we all want to hear but never

the things we actually need to hear and need to know.

Researchers have found that ongoing exposure ideas can shape and distort our

perceptions of reality female bodies that just happen to be airbrushed and plastic surgery-

enhanced. Its not surprising that our media- driven culture, our views of what women should

look like are warped (Walker 10). The cosmetics and beauty products industry makes over

$43 billion a year, and it spends $1.5 billion on advertising everything from hair dyes to cellulite

cream. Plastic Surgeons dont only target the rich, they also target middle-class; in the U.S., 86%

of patients are women (Walker 5). People dont just choose to do plastic make overs

because famous people have them done or because everyone else is doing it some people
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choose to do it because of fear of their age, discrimination, and or rude remarks made by a

spouse, parent or boss. Some People choose to do it with internal feelings too; dealing with

depression, shame in themselves, the wish to alter a specific feature they hate about themselves,

and even a look that will help with career advancements. Consider that in 2008 the Legion of

aggressively promoted make-over solutions to remedy our failure to live up to feminine ideas has

gone far beyond more cosmetics, exercise regimes and diet programs. The fixes now offer

include liposuction, stomach stapling, anti-cellulite creams, breasts, butt, cheek and chin

implants, Botox and collagen injections, chemical peels, face lifts, and labia surgery (How The

Media Keeps Us Hung Up On Body Image).

Our individual experiences also affect how we feel about our bodies. If we have

experienced violence or abuse, we may feel unsafe in our bodies. If we have experienced racism,

been ridiculed because were in a wheelchair, or been made fun of because we have a big nose,

we may dislike, mistrust, or even hate our bodies (Walker 4). A distorted body image mostly

occurs when someone is convinced by others that they are unattractive, over weight, and have

several physical flaws. These images often lead to feelings of having a negative body image

about yourself that can affect oneself health and well-being. Researchers have discovered that

those with a negative image about themselves are more likely to suffer from feelings of isolation

and depression. A negative body image can cause a risk of someone taking extreme measures just

to achieve the body type they feel they should have. We may respond to hurtful experiences by

wanting a perfect body, thinking that if we looked like a supermodel, we would be shielded

from discrimination, become successful, and find love. Or we may respond by abusing our

bodies with promiscuous sexual behavior, excessive exercise, alcohol or drugs, binging on junk

food, or starving ourselves (Walker 4).

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For many women, the main reason to improve our appearance is to attract and win the

approval of men. We have been conditioned to think we must compete with each other for male

attention-and to get attention and provoke envy in other women (Walker 7). The women in

our society used to fret about a bad hair day and now women are taking the extreme in envying

one another with bad body days. Jealousy can affect your body image. Women can get so caught

up in comparing themselves with other women and picking apart their every flaw. Some women

may think that they need to improve their image for men, but if we think about it, men go

through the same thing with body image and trying to improve their appearance, to win the

approval of women. The message that we should keep quiet and look sexy for men is so deeply

woven into fabric of our society that we barely notice it (Walker 8). Little research has

attended to the effects of media exposure on males body image. Mass media are believed to be a

pervasive force in shaping physical appearance ideals and have shown to negatively impact

females body image. The current experiment exposed 158 males to TV ads containing either

ideal male images or neutral images that were inserted between segments of a TV program. The

results of the experiment indicated that participants exposed to the ideal image advertisement

became significantly more depressed and had higher levels of muscle dissatisfaction than those

exposed to neutral males (The Impact of Media Exposure on males Body Image). Women

seem to compare their self to models, people they want to be or famous people; men seem to

compare their self to the male heroes in the movies who save the day, the ones who have the

large muscles and appear strong all the time. The media doesnt just have the women

brainwashed of what they all should look like but also our men in our society. Men are so

focused on trying to meet the unrealistic standard of a male that they being to develop

insecurities around their physical appearance just like women do. The media targets women by
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wanting them to lose or trim or tighten, whereas for the men its adding inches or

bulking or building. The media doesnt just affect women but also our men.
Many teens suffer from what experts call negative body image- they dont like their

bodies. And theyre letting their thought about their bodies shatter their self-esteem, their sense

of how valuable they are as people (How to Make Peace with Your Body). As a teenager,

your body is going through a lot of changes and so does your image of yourself. People with

negative body image see themselves as a differently from who they really are. Teens with

negative body image seem to develop eating disorders, depression, and low self- esteem. Nearly

two of every five teens who replied to a nationwide survey that appeared in USA Weekend last

year said they would feel better about themselves if they lost weight or among boys bulked up.

The survey, published his past May, discovered that nearly seven out of 10 respondents said they

felt either somewhat satisfied or not at all satisfied with their looks (How to Make Peace

with Your Body). No matter how old you are or what gender you are, this media driven society

is making everyone unsatisfied with their body. It wouldnt be easy to go out in a city or a town

and actually find someone that is satisfied about their body and cant find a flaw with

themselves. In this Media- driven age, it seems most people are dissatisfied with their bodies.

Recent studies show that kids early as third grade are concerned about their weight. With body

shapes rapidly changing, teens are the most vulnerable. During teen years, there is a lot of

pressure to fit in. Girls, in general, tend to be overly concerned about weight and body shape, say

psychologists (How to Make Peace with Your Body). Kids that are in third grade should not

even be thinking about their body shapes and about their weight. When we are younger that is a

time of playing with our friends, staying up late, and eating anything we want. Not worrying

about our weight, watching what we are eating, and caring about what the other kids are saying.

Among younger women and girls, says Bear, eating disorders have the highest mortality rates of
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all psychiatric disorders. Girls affected are 12 times more likely to die than those who are not,

and disordered eating has become the third most chronic illness in adolescence (How the

Media Keeps Us Hung Up on Body Image). Some people think that the best way to change how

they feel about their body is to make the choice of having an eating disorder. Eating disorders

arent always a chosen thing; people have developed eating disorders because of depression,

bullying, abuse, and many more reasons but sometimes people think thats the easiest way to lose

weight, and its not. Having an eating disorder can cause extreme trauma to your body that you

may not even know about. Quantifying the incidence of eating disorders remains a challenge,

says Bear some studies suggest that the rates of anorexia stabilized in the 1980s, while those

of bulimia continue to increase. The affected population is also changing; many women in the

midlife who previously had no history of disordered eating now appear to be developing

problems (How the Media Keeps Us Hung Up on Body Image). Eating disorders can have

short term and long term effects on your body, both kinds of eating disorders can kill you. Other

Research has shown that the more social media you use, the higher your body image concerns

are. Logging onto social media sites frequently throughout the week put you at a higher risk of

developing eating and body image concerns. Participants who spent the most time one social

media throughout the day had 2.2 times the risk of reporting eating and body image concerns,

compared to their peers who spent less time on social media (Greater the Social Media Use,

higher the Body Image concern). When our society spends a lot of time on social media they

tend to see a picture and begin studying every inch of that persons body, flaws or what they

have. Jealously beings to hinder their body and they begin comparing everything that one person

has to what they dont have for themselves. Social media combines many of the visual aspects

of traditional media with the opportunity for social media users to interact and propagate
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stereotypes that can lead to eating and body image concerns, said the study published in the

journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics (Greater the Social Media use, higher the

Body Image concern). People tend to compare themselves with how many likes or comments

they get on a picture compared to what everyone else gets on their picture. Everyone can admit

to judging and comparing their self with at least someone on social media, even if it was their

best friend or sibling. 27% of teens who reported feeling stressed out about how they look when

they post photos online and 22% of teens that reported feeling bad about themselves when

nobody likes or comments on photos they post (Teens Body- Image concerns on Social

Media).
Every Person in our society all has different definitions of having the perfect body

image, or with the medias definition of beautiful being super skinny. We all have different

perspectives of the way our body should look and be like. Body Image isnt about being

skinny, having the nicest butt, the abs, the toned body, the prettiest hair, the biggest boobs, and

the long lean legs. The same goes for men; its not about the guy with the biggest arms, the one

that is more bulky, or the one that everyone wants to be like. Your parents can play a huge role in

how you feel about your body. Parents can play an active role in nurturing positive body image.

The sad truth is that many girls learn to hate their bodies by watching and listening to their

mothers diet and talk about their bodies. Mothers need to teach their daughter that power is

about what dreams and goals she accomplishes, not about her looks (Our Bodies, Ourselves).

No matter what the media brainwashes or defines as a perfect body, you are you. You only get

one body. Take a look at your hands, your feet, and your stomach. Close your eyes and feel your

breath flow in and out. This is the body that you were born with and this is the body that youll

die with. Theres no escaping it (Walker 17).