Media Images Essay -- Body Image, Beauty

I confess that I am one of those women who look forward to monthly magazines telling me the forward-looking months facade of beauty. Starting at a very young age, women are convinced that in order to be happy, accepted, respected, successful, sexy or delightful they must fit a special(a) mold that society has formed for them. The media defines the accepted and changing representation of beautiful and perfect that women feel they must achieve. As mentioned in the video kill Us Softly 4, were told that women are acceptable solely if theyre young, thin, white, perfectly groomed and polished, plucked and shaved. Any deviation from this is not pattern or acceptable. This standard of attractiveness for women that is portrayed in the media is not only unrealistic, but unattainable by close to women. This ashes type that we con in advertisements as acceptable or desirable is one that less than 5% of American women have, agree to Juan-Hwan & Lennon (2007). Women engage in a simili tude between their bodies and these unrealistic images on beauty. There are so many an(prenominal) images of beautiful women, which heap try very hard to mimic. These images are all over and hard to ignore as the average woman sees 400 to 600 advertisements per day. According to Millard (2009), denote heavily influences beauty standards and that women in particular compare themselves with models patronage the gap between retouched perfection and reality. (p. 147). These standards emphasize unrealistic body types and because most women are not gifted with the ideal body size and shape, conforming to these ideals of female beauty is difficult. These messages of ideal beauty are difficult to ignore. Millards article on Doves Real Beauty grounds stated the followingWhen... ...of beauty and women are oppressive in that they loan to the limitation and restriction of women. In advertising, women are portrayed as being inferior which is false and objectifying. The obsession with t hinness, the ideal image of beauty and conquest of women are all public problems that affect us all, man or woman. Inner beauty is forgotten and deemed unimportant in our society. The problems leave us with nothing but a shallow, depressed, miserable, unrealistic society with standards that leave people feeling inadequate and rejected. The media should give a more realistic body type for women to look up to. Women need to work together to serve change attitudes, and neutralize the negativity that society and the media create. We can refuse to conduct the media so seriously and try to challenge the idealistic images in advertising and their demeaning messages.