Media Images and Bodies: A Toxin Taking Hold

It seems as though there is a lot of debate about media image. I feel the media affects the concept of beauty for women especially. I feel like that affects me a lot and that is very frustrating. I'm sure that other people feel the way I do and I would really like to see what other people have to say.



The Media Image Is Unrealistic:

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  I find myself mentally comparing myself to actors and models. I know this is unhealthy, but it still happens.
  • This is a really silly thing for me to do because it's obvious that actors and models are paid to have a better appearance than everyone else.
  • They are also paid to represent products which are geared toward making normal people look like famous people, and I'm reasonably certain they don't have to pay for those products.
  • People like Gwyneth Paltrow and Christina Aguilera have bodies that look amazing, but they are also given an incentive to look like that and are given personal trainers to spend several hours a day helping to sculpt their bodies.
    
  • Half of the media we see is probably in paper form and the body images we look at on the covers of magazines are airbrushed beyond belief. It is amazingly easy to erase things using photoshop in order to make things appear more "attractive".
    
  
  
  

Why comparing yourself to Media Images is Unhealthy:

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  We don't have the resources that they do.
  • They have money, people, and time to make themselves glamorous.
    
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    They are given contracts for expensive products in the hopes that their wearing that product will make others buy it.
    • Which also means that if something goes wrong with that product, like breaking out around the face, they probably have someone to help cover that.
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    Just because the media says that these people look good, doesn't mean that they are healthy.
    • You don't know what that woman has gone through and is going through in order to maintain her body. I would not be surprised if many people are underweight, or are not getting enough nutrients in some way in order to achieve that "perfect image".
      
    
    
    
  
  
  

Some things to keep in mind:

• We don't know the amount of chemicals that these women introduce into their body in order to maintain your appearance.
  
• Think back to the 60s and beyond when women like Sophia Loren were full figured and gorgeous. Do you think that she was starving her body?
• As we have progressed since that time, why has the image of a woman's body shriveled so much? Do you consider that to be healthy?
  
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  Do you consider what you put on your body to be healthy and natural for you? Sure it might make you feel gorgeous because some famous person recommends it and it is socially accepted as attractive, such as makeup, but is it something that your body is going to accept into it naturally or will it make your body react badly?
  • One of the things I have been batting back and forth: a lot of pregnant women stay away from chemicals so that they don't harm their baby while pregnant. If it's not something you would use while you're pregnant, should you really be using it when you're not?
    
  
  
  

What about you? How do you feel the media has been affecting your body image? How are you protecting your body from societal demands?



What about this woman? Doesn't she look healthy and full and obviously very proud of her body? There is nothing anorexic or twig-like about her. She plays Joan Holloway from Mad Men.