Media Culture Influence On Body Image

Adele Laurin Blue Adkins once said, “I’ve never wanted to look like models on the cover of magazines. I represent the majority of women and I’m very proud of that”. In her quote, she explained that most young girls and women are dissatisfied with their own body image since they do not resemble celebrities and models. In a study, Groesz, Levine, and Murmen (2002) found that media culture influences their body image (Green & Pritchard 2003: 216). In western society, media culture or popular culture, under the influence of mass media, is constantly bombarding women with advertisements and messages of “ body perfect ”. According to Dittmar (2009), ““ body perfect” refers to the ideal of ultra thin, and whose media models are typically underweight” (p.1). Mass media are a powerful medium used by the ruling class to manipulate individuals and groups in society. Without a doubt, media are an unavoidable presence in our everyday life, and it seems that people can’t have control over it. …show more content…
For instance, many young girls and women imitate the behavior of celebrities and thin models from the media 's. This could be understood by Cooley’s concept of the looking glass self. It states that how a person creates its self- image through how others perceives us. For example, advertisements of thin celebrities and models shown on television reflect a woman’s ideal body image or perfect body in society. [Appendix 2] Sadly, “ the use of women as sexual objects in ads is normalized” (Gudekli & Celik 2014:6136). What they don’t know is that, mass media puts a lot of time to recruit thin models, and then more hours spent on Photoshop to edit them. Therefore, the women’s ideal image of “ perfect body” is manufactured and commercialized that anyone can attain it without much