How the Portrayal of Women's Sexuality by the Media Does Affect Young Girls in Reality

While there have been numerous studies on body dissatisfaction and low self-esteem among young girls, most research has avoided the complexity of asking and answering the question involving possible influences that the media might have on these negative behavior among young girls, more specifically Hollywood's mass media. The main purpose of this paper is to offer an explanation for the influences that mass media have on a young girl's behavior such as depression, eating disorders and even death; and to suggest that something must be done to avoid the absurd portrayal by the media, of the "ideal women body image". Data collections for this informative paper consisted of book excerpts, journal, magazine and newspaper articles, videos, and interviews with some young women around the New York City. The interviews provided insight on what these young women are learning from the media, and what is currently their thought about the way they should appear. The explanations used to explain the association between the media and the way young girls are presenting themselves also revolves around the issues of inequality and gender roles.

How much is the media responsible for the personal downfall of a young woman? The media's perspectives infuse an idealized body image in women, and it negatively impacts these women. Silvia Knobloch and Josselyn Crane use another journal article by Grabe, Ward and Hyde from the Psychological Bulletin which states that "[Media has] been linked to numerous pathological problems, including depression…and eating disorders". Across movies, magazine, and television programs, thinness is consistently emphasized and rewarded for women, and thin television characters are overrepresented while overweight characters are underrepresented (Grabe, Ward & Hyde, 2008). These images of "beauty" portrayed by the media mostly affect little girls.

Body image dissatisfaction does not occur in the blink of an eye. These perceptions develop relatively early, emerging among children as young as age 7 years, and appear to exist across diverse levels of body size and race (Grabe, Wrad, & Hyde, 2008). The name calling, the bullying, it can all be linked to the negative effects of the media. When children, especially little girls, realize that other children who are heavier are being made fun of they automatically fear to look like them. This can also be caused by peer pressure, which in later years hurts the child not only physically, but also psychologically and emotionally. Within the psychological issues comes body dissatisfaction, or eating disorders such as anorexia and/or bulimia. In 2006, a CNN reported stated that the typical models in the media are twenty percent under weight. A person who is fifteen percent underweight is deemed to be anorexic (American Psychiatric Association, 2000). Children are very vulnerable, and when it comes to Television it is very