The Influence Of Media On Self Image

Does media and the influential people of today’s society give the right impression of what one’s own self-image should be. Try turning on the television, standing in the checkout line at your local grocery store, or look at any social media feed without seeing what media wants one to believe is the perfect body image. In a time in American history where obesity is a severe issue should media be giving the notion that one must have a certain body figure or look a certain way to have a positive self-image. Although media does have some positive benefits that may affect a person’s self-image, the negatives far outweighs the positive. According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, “body-image is a subjective picture of one’s own physical appearance established by both self-observation and by noting the reactions of others”. The idea of media having an effect on one’s self image has been an issue since the early twentieth century, starting in the 1920s during the silent film era, then moving on to World War II with pin-up models, to Barbie and J.I. Joe’s. In 2014, Victoria Secret ran an ad that they portrayed as “The Perfect Body”, with ten tall very thin beautiful women standing in a row wearing …show more content…
Turn on the television and the audience will be bombarded with people that have unachievable looks to the normal person, look at magazines and it is full of both men and woman that have been airbrush and photo shopped to give them a look they truly don’t have, or even look on your social media feed and it is full of beautiful people or people giving their unbiased opinion of what one should look like. The world is already a horrible and mean place and it is ashamed that such a great tool is used in such a mean way even if that is not its