Can you please revise this? Tell me what I should change? Thanks!
How Media Affects Body Image
By: Bryce R
I Glance in the mirror and snarl at what I see, Why can’t my teeth be gleaming white? Why can’t my skin be completely acne free? The struggle to be perfect is greatly affecting people, but why? That’s how this all began; I wanted to find out what is causing such a meltdown in people across the nation. I wanted to know what is causing people to not be comfortable in their own skin. I am a victim of this too; I am constantly comparing myself to celebrities, so I knew that the media had something to do with it. I am hoping to find out exactly what is causing low self esteem, and what we can do to stop it. People need to feel comfortable in their own skin, because they are perfect the way they are.
I started my search by going to the amazing search engine Bing. I typed in the search bar “How does society affect body image.” It quickly returned back thousands of resources. I used the handy preview tool to preview each website to make sure they were reliable sources. The first website I stumbled upon gave me quite a bit of information, but wasn’t very in depth or specific. I knew it was reliable because it is run by a Body Dysmorphia Organization. I scrolled down to their resources section and found a perfect website to use. It was filled with amazing in-depth information about how the media was negatively changing the way people view themselves.
I gathered a great amount of information from the website and it saved me quite a bit of time. Considering how knowledgeable and in-depth it was, I had to see their resource list. They had a variety of different resources, so it didn’t take me long to find a reliable website. This website surprisingly wasn’t as good due to its disorganized paragraphs, but still gave me some decent information. This was my last stop researching how media was affecting body image because I had so many important and in-depth information already. I was lucky I found so much great and specific information. This made my life so much easier.
Body image is how you picture yourself and how you feel others perceive you, particularly physical appearance. Unfortunately, negative body images are increasingly becoming more and more common every year. What is causing this decrease in self confidence is still being investigated, but many people are claiming the media is involved in it. There are some other theories involving childhood trauma, drug use, and parents who criticize the way their children look or dress. (“Body Dysmorphic Disorder,” 2011)
The pressure to be perfect is worse now than ever before. The media is constantly portraying the “Perfect Body.” This usually includes having bright white teeth, clear skin, being skinny, and having perfect curves. There is one big problem though; the average human is not supplied with all these “perfect” traits. Here’s where the big problem is; people are constantly comparing themselves to celebrities with “perfect bodies”. When they realize they don’t have the “perfect body” that’s when their self esteem starts to drop and they obsess over fixing those (“Body Image Issues, 2009).
Ever since the invention of the television and magazines, the standards that make you an “attractive” person have significantly increased. People generally now think they have to have every single flaw corrected in order for them to be perfect. They want the celebrity body, not the average body. Since the average person does generally not posses all these “perfect” traits, they start to feel extremely insecure about themselves. They want to be as attractive as the people on the cover of magazines; I mean who wouldn’t want to be? Being attractive is becoming one of the hardest things to do with the standards so high, and people are becoming more and more shallow (“Effects of the Media on Body Image,” 2009).
The media tries to tell people that if they look good, they have it all. Magazines are constantly bombarding women by telling that if they can just 15 pounds, they will have an amazing life including a great career, attractive mate, and wonderful kids. This information is obviously false, although more and more women are starting to believe it’s true. With women feeling this way, the cosmetic industry is obviously going to be very happy. Women will start buying products that help them lose weight and fix their flaws, spending an extreme amount of money in the process. Thus, the cosmetic industry will gain a great amount of money allowing them to target even more people (“Beauty and Body image in the Media” 2010).
The media gets people to think they are always in need of a cosmetic "adjustment" and that the human body is an object made to be perfected. More and more people are starting to judge themselves by the cosmetic industries standards. Plastic surgery is becoming extremely popular and the cost is lowering, allowing more and more people to get the procedure done. They are getting their face cut into and redesigned to the way they feel they "should look" Problem is, Plastic surgery tends to look extremely bad when they turn older (“Effects of the Media on Body Image,” 2009).
Although there is no clear answer as to why negative body images are becoming so popular, media seems to be the most believable one. With the pressure to be perfect worsening, it isn’t a surprise the cosmetic industry is booming. Several organizations are trying to get the message across to people on how media can negatively affect people, but the task seemingly seems impossible. I will now have a much different perspective on the media, but even I am becoming a victim of this horrible negative body image madness. Let’s just hope that people will realize how the media is winning, and help win this battle over body image.
so much information; so many pieces of information
perfect body," that's when, etc.
"if they can just 15 pounds," = they can just lose?
life, including...
"cosmetic industries standards." = industry's standards
"task seemingly seems impossible." = a bit redundant?
On the whole, well done!
Sra