Media Affects Women in Our Society

Imagine yourself being surrounded by mirrors on all four sides with bright lights flashing on your body from head to toe.

Would you feel happy that all your unique features are being highlighted or would you try to conceal them, thinking that they are all flaws that bring you down? You slowly start tracing them all unconsciously with the tip of your finger, lingering on the places that you would rather forget and finally ending with a heavy sigh leaving your lips. How many of you out there are honestly happy with the way you look?Be it that pimple on your forehead or that scar you want to hide or the shape of your eyes/ face/ body you want to change so badly simply because it is not good enough for you- but ask yourself this, good enough compared to what? You might say that the average women of today are slimmer, taller and prettier and it is not bad to want these qualities for yourself. I agree, however, it is indeed bad to want these at the expense of your dear life. The main question still remains what makes you vulnerable to these yearnings in the first place?Only one thing crosses your mind- the media. Media creates unrealistic expectations of our bodies that most of us cannot ever achieve.

It tries to manipulate our thoughts into thinking that our bodies or features are not good enough; that they need to go through several transformations in order to fit in or get accepted in our everyday society. Women go through extreme measures just to make themselves look like the models or the actresses on televisions, magazines, billboards, internet etc.According to the media, women are not given value if they do not portray a certain image, for example if they are not a certain size, they are not presentable. Eventually, their way of thinking also gets affected from these messages that the media are so successful in depicting. They go through physical and mental challenges to try and overcome what they are not happy with. Another wrong concept that the media tries to influence is that being thin and being beautiful are correlated.

“Being skinny” or having “a perfect body like a model” is not the same as being beautiful.According to the Are you feeling better about your body image? : Self-disclosure and psychosocial benefits in Dove’s “Campaign for Real Beauty” online discussion forum (2009) beauty is defined as a flexible concept that is malleable and changeable. A large woman can be just as beautiful as a size zero model posing for a magazine. In today’s culture, women’s bodies are “looked at, evaluated and always potentially objectified” and thus the belief that only physically attractive women get attention in any circumstances comes to light.

In an article by Gemma Lopez-Guimera et al. (2010) it is seen in a report of the Kaiser Family Foundation that 4. 29 hours is the average time spent watching television among 8-18 year olds in a typical day and an approximated 33 million 12-19 year olds spend more than $ 175 billion on magazines per year in the United States. In another survey, it has been stated that with the increased amount of exposure to the images of models and actresses, the self loathing in an individual increases as well.

Their confidence level drops and so does their efficiency rate.They are constantly thinking about how to reduce weight or how to look flawless and flicking through magazines to look for articles named “5 ways to reduce that belly fat” or “ways to look beautiful”. These affect teenagers more than the adults although adults are not very far off from such impacts. As a teenager myself, I can vouch that the feeling that consumes us when we see these “perfect images” is not a happy one.

I have struggled myself with weight loss and having a clear skin throughout most of my life, thinking that these features would make me acceptable.I would look at other girls with flawless skin, thin waist and long legs and get depressed for several days, cut back on my meals and experiment with make-up. Within months, I developed an eating disorder where I would mostly starve myself half of the day and avoid sugary foods, rice, etc. Ultimately, I got left with very few choices that were evidently not enough for a healthy diet. Not only did my hair started to fall out whenever I combed or shampooed, but my skin condition worsened. Drowsiness and sleepiness continued 24/7.

However, I was not able to continue my initial plan on losing weight; I caved in after a few months due to several reasons. Now I think that, maybe it was a blessing in disguise which stopped me from being anorexic. Anorexia is defined as an eating disorder characterized by excessive weight loss, irrational fear of gaining weight and a distorted body self-perception according to the Wikipedia. Bulimia is another eating disorder where an individual consumes a large amount of food only to get rid of it through vomiting and excessive exercising.

More and more women are developing these habits as we speak to look thinner and more attractive. According to Susie Orbach (N. D) in 1995, a television channel started broadcasting imported US shows in Fiji. Later in 1998, it was found that 11. 9% of Fijian girls were over the toilet bowl with bulimia. In Shanghai, the thigh is broken down to extend the leg by 10 cm and in South Korea, to westernize the look of the eyelids, girls are having a double eyelid slit operation.

To them, re-constructing their bodies is a means of “modernizing” themselves.Women in the third world countries are mostly influenced by the way other women represent themselves in the US. For countries like the Unites States, cosmetic surgery and laser treatment are the cure to everything starting from a minor scar removal to reducing fat, enhancing fairness, restructuring of a nose or even the shape of a face etc. These operations are extremely expensive, have surgical risks and may also have psychological impacts on the patients themselves.

When a patient goes under laser treatment, his/her genes are forcefully altered to remove a scar or reduce fat.These treatments often lead to diseases like cancer, etc. Ask yourselves this- is it still worth the risk? Nowadays, these practices are spreading all across the world, encouraging women everywhere to pursue such activities in order to compete with the actresses and models. Billboards with fairness advertisements can be seen almost everywhere once you step out of your house in Bangladesh.

What’s worse is that these products actually work and makes you look fairer than before! However such miracles often come with a price tag attached to it, which is, at the expense of your skin in this case.Once you start using such products, continuing it is the only option since your skin condition will only start to get worse if you stop applying it. Foods with 98% fat-free are gaining popularity day by day. One of my friends actually had positive results after just over a month of having Kellogg’s Special K cereal which is a low fat, high fibre content.

Watching these advertisements on the television atleast 20 times a day will bound to convince you to try out one of these products for yourself. Even their motto will influence you: Look special, Feel special, Be special.Air-brushed models are on the cover pages of every magazine these days. Their images are being photoshopped to make them look skinnier (if that was even possible)! Their eyes wider, lips pouty and not to mention those incredibly high cheekbones- most of them are done with the simple click of a mouse to make them look “picture perfect” to the world.

Even though most people know about these methods, they fail to acknowledge that these images are not real and that these models don’t even look like that themselves! However, the sole blame should not be forced upon the media only. According to Alyssa Pitura (N.D) a survey was conducted at a small Midwestern university in the United States where out of the first 100 replies, 93 replied that they were influenced by the media and 77 stated that the media influenced their body image. Then they were asked to what extent on a 1-6 scale, 1 being the lowest, 6 being the highest, did the media influence them on their body image. Majority responses were in the middle which shows that although they know that they are being influenced by the media, they are unsure as to what extent. This indicates that the media themselves should not be held responsible for the impacts on women’s bodies.

It is the people around you, including your family, friends, peers, teachers, etc, who influence you on a greater level than what you would conceive. For me, the people in everyday life made me question myself rather than the media. If somebody always points out that you are “fat” and in front of everyone else at that, it would obviously leave a deeper scar than a television commercial. You would do anything in your power to prove them that they are wrong to have judged you or looked down on you simply because you don’t meet a certain criteria.Thus begins all the attempts at making yourself look good in front of them even if you’re happy with the way you are. On the other hand, marketing people justify their points by saying that they are only trying to help people feel good about themselves, be it in terms of confidence level or fairness, people are getting benefitted through their products.

Looking good and feeling good are almost the same thing- you would only feel good on the inside if you look good on the outside and again the confidence level comes in.For example staying healthy is mandatory; if you are overweight, you are susceptible to various diseases, etc. Maintaining a proper diet and staying fit is always beneficial. There are certain careers like flight attendants and front desk receptionist that require you to look a certain part, starting from your height to the smartness you radiate when you’re among others.

So, being beautiful and thin also has its perks after all. At the end of the day, all I’m trying to say is that everybody has flaws they wish they could hide.However, these imperfections shouldn’t stop you from going after your goals or that it should put you to shame. Inferiority-complex only comes out when you start doubting yourself. You should only try to break all the mirrors that reflect your image as ugly or undesirable. Once you start seeing yourself as a unique human being with fine skills and other praising attributes, those around you will also start believing in you and your views.

So better start working on those positive thinking messages from now. I’ll let you in on a secret! Believing in yourself is the first key to unlocking hidden glow from underneath your skin.