Body
image refers to how an individual perceives his or her own body and appearance.
It is a well-established fact that mass media provides attitudes of beauty and
beliefs about weight, which has a significant influence on society’s aesthetics
of body image. Mass media’s portrayal of body image is often unrealistic,
resulting in individual dissatisfaction, and it is related to an increasing rate
of eating disorders and weight-control behaviors, especially among women and adolescents.
The ideal body image conveyed by mass media has a larger influence on younger
adolescents, who are easily influenced and more vulnerable than adults,
therefore resulting in anorexia and/or bulimia. For example, the clothing store
Victoria Secret, displays all their products with sexy slim models targeting teens and
adults. The ad tries to associate beauty and confidence feelings with the
product. http://www.victoriassecret.com/
Television is a major type of mass media,
which has a powerful impact on society’s adopted attitudes and behaviors. The
majority of “ideal” body images are conveyed during adult drama time
allocations. For example, in Desperate
Housewives, each female character was assessed as a beautiful, sexy and
slim figure (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nxvMgCpgiYM). The strong emphasis of thinness in this show
will have a impact on the women who watched it. For
male characters that are husbands of the women in this episode, most of them
are muscular, fit and attractive. This series will affect male viewers by causing
them to think that this type of body image will attract women; therefore they
will increase their effort to build body shape and stay lean. Another TV series
The Middle is a family-oriented adult
comedy. The characters in the series are parents with three kids at different
age groups, from pre-school to teen. The story is suitable for both teens and
parents to watch. In this show, the body images of parents are an average-sized,
typical middle-aged man and woman, and the children are neither too fat nor too
skinny. In addition, they have lots of scenes to encourage
exercise, e.g. marathon prize-giving event, bicycling and playing basketball. Compared with two series, The
Middle depicts more realistic, encouraging, and appropriate body images. During adult drama, a high frequency of advertisements (90%) involved
slim, sexy, and attractive body image. Age groups influenced include teens, young adolescents and
adults, especially females who are more susceptible to feel the pressure to be thin. The type of television program determines the type of commercials aired
during the allocated time slot.
Mass media
has a powerful influence on food consumption and the ideals of body
image adopted by society. The likelihood that television audiences will model the behaviors
exhibited by televised media streams is high, as a
result, it is important to sustain and support beneficial information about
healthy eating and exercise. All the viewers from different age groups should
increase their awareness through accurate
and effective judgments on the televised body
images of unrealistic physical beauty. In addition, parents should also pay attention
to the types of television programs are exposed to their children, especially
teens, as well as become fully aware of all the eating behavior
information presented through the television.
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