Body Image Issues

Body image issues — issues involving the ways we perceive our physical appearance — have become a major area of concern in the twenty-first century, particularly for pre-adolescent and adolescent girls. In a society that focuses much of its attention on looks, many young girls feel dissatisfied with their bodies, often resorting to methods of dieting in order to appear slimmer. These methods can often be dangerous and, in some extreme cases, precipitate eating disorders such as bulimia nervosa and anorexia nervosa. It is largely believed that the media is the main contributor to young girls’ body dissatisfaction, due to its tendency to label thin figures as “ideal” and larger figures as “unflattering” or simply unhealthy, however, research …show more content…
Ferguson claims this is because viewers of media are able to draw a line between fictional media and reality; additionally, even though social media involves interaction with other humans, rather than fictional images, because we tend not to see social media peers on an everyday basis (or in some cases, at all), social media interactions are often less poignant and impactful than interactions with real-life peers. The questionnaire concluded that real-life peer competition strongly predicted body dissatisfaction and eating disorder symptoms. The distressing effects of bullying, social comparison, “inter-female competition” for love interests, and peer pressure often led girls to consider restricting their calories, vomit, or refrain from eating as methods of losing …show more content…
Girls who watched more television and engaged in reading women’s magazines, where gender-role stereotyping and an emphasis on slimmer female figures are fairly commonplace, had more dissatisfaction with themselves in comparison to girls who just watched and read things orientated towards children and pre-teens. However, media exposure was found to be more short-lasting and temporary in comparison to peer influences, as both preadolescents and adolescents typically do not experience high levels of media exposure. Because young children most of their time in school, classmates have a more direct impact on how they regard certain aspects of weight and appearance through peer discussion and peer imitation. Additionally, the girls indicated high knowledge of dieting and most suggested that those who are overweight should diet. Fortunately, however, none of the girls expressed a desire to resort to extremes — refraining from eating and throwing up, for example — to lose weight. Rather, they said that “healthy eating” was an appropriate way to lose weight, which is much different than what older girls discussed in the previous two