What effect are advertisements having on young women’s perception of beauty? For as long as advertisements have been around, young women have been using them as a guide for what is beautiful. Media is constantly changing advertisements and using what they perceive as most beautiful to sell their products and services. What I want to know is how, in recent years, has this taken a turn for the worse? Why are young women basing their happiness on how they compare to the models in advertisements? What are these girls going through in order to meet the standarts for beauty that the media sets? Who else is being affected by these ads? By the end of this blogging assignment, I hope to have an answer for each of these questions.
There is a very high amount of girls suffering from eating disorders and self-harm, and in my opinion, media has a big role in the cause of this. You cannot flip through most magazines or even watch television for more than 10 minutes without seeing beautiful models that are very thin with long hair, flat stomachs, and long legs. Most young women, seeing this everywhere they look, believe that they will not be classified as beautiful unless they look the same as these models. I believe this issue is extremely important and significant in our culture today. The self-esteem of these young women is rapidly decreasing, all because they feel as though they do not, and will not be able to, meet the standards for what is beautiful, and need to change themselves.
Personally, I am very interested in this issue. In all of the magazines I read, there are numerous advertisements for clothing and makeup picturing only women who fit the standard that media has set for what is beautiful. Starting years ago, I began to feel bad about myself after reading magazine after magazine filled with ads such as these, because I know I do not look this way. It has also affected me to the point that I began working out much more than I used to, and watching what I eat. Although I would never go as far as to even imagine harming myself to look the way the models in advertisements do, many young women have resorted to exactly that. Over the course of my following blog posts, I hope to discover exactly how deeply young women are being affected by how advertisements portray beauty.
There is a very high amount of girls suffering from eating disorders and self-harm, and in my opinion, media has a big role in the cause of this. You cannot flip through most magazines or even watch television for more than 10 minutes without seeing beautiful models that are very thin with long hair, flat stomachs, and long legs. Most young women, seeing this everywhere they look, believe that they will not be classified as beautiful unless they look the same as these models. I believe this issue is extremely important and significant in our culture today. The self-esteem of these young women is rapidly decreasing, all because they feel as though they do not, and will not be able to, meet the standards for what is beautiful, and need to change themselves.
Personally, I am very interested in this issue. In all of the magazines I read, there are numerous advertisements for clothing and makeup picturing only women who fit the standard that media has set for what is beautiful. Starting years ago, I began to feel bad about myself after reading magazine after magazine filled with ads such as these, because I know I do not look this way. It has also affected me to the point that I began working out much more than I used to, and watching what I eat. Although I would never go as far as to even imagine harming myself to look the way the models in advertisements do, many young women have resorted to exactly that. Over the course of my following blog posts, I hope to discover exactly how deeply young women are being affected by how advertisements portray beauty.
This is a really interesting topic to write about. I agree with everything you have mentioned and I do think that this issue has taken a turn for the worse. All of these advertisements are setting a terrible example for girls between the age of 13 and 20 because these are the years where I feel like girls are the most self-conscious about themselves. Little do they know, beauty isn't just about what’s on the outside but what’s on the inside as well and I think this is what people forget about when they see these advertisements on beauty.
ReplyDeleteYou present a lot of background ideas making it easier for me to want to discuss. I agree that you can't view any media source without being bombarded with "beautiful" women. Honestly, on a side note, I am a male and greatly dislike makeup and perfume. In my opinion perfume smells like gasoline. As for the self esteem issues go, I recently heard that this can be brought down just by not getting certain nutrients in your daily meals.
ReplyDeleteI feel that the fact that you started exercising and watching what you eat can lead to very healthy habits. However, many diets out there will tell you to stop eating certain fuels i.e. carbs. Carbohydrates and glucose are actually, if I remember correctly, quite important in working out and being healthy.
Anyway, I will probably continue reading your blog for I am interested in the topic myself. Good luck!
I couldn’t agree with you more. I’m sure you’ve seen pictures such as this one of models of our generation vs. past generations. The only constant in nature is change and beauty is one of them. If you also see on TV now is more clothing companies are taking women of actual shapes and sizes. this picture!
ReplyDeletehttp://villainouslyvintage.files.wordpress.com/2011/12/338450-154705-marilyn-monroe_large.jpg
Just check out this commercial…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GU8qSYyen0E
but the problem is we as a culture are not recognizing these things fast enough and are still deeply effecting those 13 year old girls who are beautiful already and don't need to change who they are.