Media has a serious influence on body image and it makes people feel pressures to look a certainway. The media tells people that their value is based on how they look on the outside. Society tells people that they need to be thin or in shape in order to be loved, accepted and successful in life. How people perceive themselves can become distorted which could lead them to engage in detrimental behaviors when they feel they don’t measure up to the impossible goal that is set in front of them. These risky behaviors could be anything from eating disorders, cutting, drug and alcohol abuse, bullying, and even sexual addictions.
It’s been proven in studies that media is a huge contributor to negative impact on self image. There are different TV shows, movies, magazines, and websites on the internet that bombard teens with images about how their bodies should look. The big issue is that these expectations are unrealistic. All of these images are photo shopped and air-brushed versions of models. Sadly, teens believe the lies and begin to take unhealthy measures in order to try to try and make them selves look the way the media tells them they should look.
All of the ads shown in Killing Us Softly were terrible and very degrading to women. I was disgusted to see how the media make woman look especially compared to men. I don’t understand why that is allowed or socially acceptable at all but it really needs to stop.
The media personally doesn’t affect my identity because overall I am happy with who I am. I do see it affect a lot of people though and it’s sad to see. I have a friend who constantly says she is fat, even though she weights around 110 pounds. I hate to see that kind of thing because it just reminds me of how much media is influencing people to want to be thinner. The media should help people be happy with who they are and what they look like rather than make people feel like they are not good enough. If there are going to be ads that make people feel that they need to be skinnier they should make them appropriate and motivational. Degrading woman and making people feel like they are ugly or fat is just wrong. Having more positive and appropriate advertisements would make people a lot happier and healthier. I don’t really notice this issue affecting anyone around me on campus but I’m sure like anywhere else that it does. People are affected by this allover and it’s very sad.
