Media's Influence On Adolescent Body Image

The values and perceptions of what it means to be beautiful, sexy, handsome, and fit in our society have changed considerably with time; through the development of new media and technology. The media’s influence on appearance, perpetuates a belief system about the importance of being thin, and associates a negative stigma with individuals whom are either overweight or obese. The internalization of this belief system has been identified as a keystone for the development of body dissatisfaction in children and pre-adolescent dieting motivation (Hayes, S., TantIeff-Dunn, S. 2010). Through the use of an extensive literature review, I intend to report on effects that media have on adolescent and pre-adolescent perceptions of body image. The individual, …show more content…
For these overweight populations of adolescents and young children, the media, especially thin-ideal media, can potentially result in stigmatization, marginalization and even social discrimination from their peers at an early age. Due to the fact that children spend close to six hours a day viewing television (Bissell 2011), each child respectively, is exposed to a variety of diverse content, processing their meanings differently. Therefore, children whom of which are obese, interpret messages differently than average-weight or skinny children. Social researchers Bissell and Hays, have highlighted that it is during childhood when positive characteristics are often assigned to figures considered to be physically attractive, and negative characteristics assigned to overweight or obese characters (2011). For obese children, these characteristics are internalized and reflected upon due to personal self-comparison with the positive (fit) characters in their favorite movies or television show. In contrast, when average-weight children evaluate themselves compared to the ‘evil’ obese