The Influence Media

The Influence Media 2

Several women around the world undergo from eating disorders, also self- induced semi starvation that is also known as anorexia nervosa, or a series of indulging and eliminating with laxatives, self- induced vomiting, or extreme exercise, which is also known as bulimia nervosa (Dunn, 1992). Various eating disorders individuals have agreed that persistent dieting is a direct outcome of the social pressure on females to accomplish a nearly unattainable thinness (Dunn, 1992). The media has been criticized for upholding and possibly even generating the emaciated standard of attractiveness by which the females are taught from childhood to judge the worth of their own bodies (Stephens, & Hill, 1994). Moreover, to further investigate the broader context of this controversial issue, this paper illustrates upon numerous issues that correlate with chronic dieting and the diet industry. It also considers the existing research that presents the several important aspects of regarding the nature of the connection between advertising and the body dissatisfaction. Furthermore, there is an exploration of the prevalence and the source of body dissatisfaction in females. In addition, from these distinctions, it will be shown that the media has a large impact on a women’s body image, and that the cultural ideal of a thin body is harmful to the American female’s body perception, which results in poor eating pathologies.

Body image can be defined as an individual’s subjective concept of his or her physical appearance as stated in Webster dictionary. The self- perceptual component consists of what an individual sees or things in body size, appearance (Shaw & Waller, 1995). A disturbance in the perceptual aspect of body image is usually reflected in a vague perception of body size, shape, and appearance (Shaw et al, 1995). The attitudinal element reflects how an individual feels about those characteristics and how the feelings encourage certain behaviours (Shaw et al, 1995). Disturbances in the attitudinal element usually result in disappointment with physical appearance

The Influence Media 3

(Monteath & McCabe, 1997). Perceptions about body images are shaped from a variety of experiences and begin to develop in early childhood (Monteath et al, 1997). It has been shown that children learn to favour body shapes by the time they enter school (Cohn & Alder, 1992). Gustafson, Larsen, and Terry (1992) had reported that 60.3 percent of fourth grade girls wanted to be thinner, and the desire for less body fat was extensively connected with an increase occurrence of weight loss related behaviours. On the whole, body size and image fear have been reported to be more common among females than males (Gustafson et al, 1992). Gender associated differences in suitable body size are shaped from a range of societal definitions of appealing shapes for males