Cheralyn Mitchell

English 1102
Mrs. Linda Hoffman
April 9,2014

Note to Reader: In this paper I have revised my introduction. I developed a combination between my
leads 1 and 3. I also tried to revised the paper as a whole and make it less as a research paper and more
of inquiry paper. I included more personal experiences and tried to create a tone that was less
informative and more conversational. I think my second draft is better than my first I found it easier to
change the tone and more interesting to write. Question to the reader: Is this paper now more of an
inquiry paper than a research paper? Is it interesting to read or what can be added or fixed? How can I
develop a stronger conclusion?

How does the media affect the body image of adolescents?

It is estimated that 8 million Americans have an eating disorder. 7 million of them are
women the other million are men. (SCDMH) Does this surprise you? The number of people developing
body image issues and eating disorders are rising. As the expansion and usage of media continues to
rise, negative body image is becoming more prevalent and is now a common concern. I know we are all
well aware about the issue of how the media plays a role on body image. But what we fail to realize is
that the media has such a strong impact on our everyday lives without us even being aware of it. Even if
it is something simple like what to wear, or a new hairstyle, or the type of brands we like to buy all these
things are factored by the media. More often than not we use some form of media to guide us in our
daily lifestyle. Usage of the media has become so coherent with the lives of Americans we become
desensitized to real life and stuck with these image ideals. We are taught at a young age that an
attractive man or woman should look this way. Or act this way. On a daily basis we s see about 3000
ads. Whether it be flipping through a books or magazines, looking at the television or just riding in the
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car passing billboards. We receive so many underlying messages we have become overly exposed and
used to them. The media is sending mixed signals, ideals, and body image messages all over
everything. This has become an issue for everybody but especially for the female youth and adolescents
group.

As the expansion and usage of media continues to rise, body image issues are becoming
more prevalent and are a common concern. I know we are all well aware about the issue of
how the media plays a role on body image. But the media has such a strong impact on our
everyday lives without us even being aware of it. Even if it is something simple like what to
wear, or a new hairstyle all these things are all factored by the media. More often than not we
use some form of media to guide us in our daily lifestyle. Usage of the media has become so
coherent with Americans lives as a culture we become desensitized to real life and stuck with
these ideal images. An attractive man or woman should look this way. Or act this way. On
a daily basis Americans see about 3000 ads daily between books , magazines, billboards,
television , computers etc. We receive so many underlying messages we have become overly
exposed and used to them. The medias is sending mixed signals, ideals, and body image
messages all over everything. This has become an issue for everybody but especially in female
youth and adolescents.
About a quarter of the population in the United States is made up by youth. Therefore young
people are seen as main targets.Young people make up about a quarter of the population here
in the United States. Which is why th The media likes to target youth. The youth of today will be
influential tomorrow. h So the media findsbecause of thei ther susceptibleness of younger
Comment [CM3]: I fixed my introduction
and combined the two leads that were said to
be the best from the last peer forum
submission.
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people to make them the perfect choice. Studies show that when children hit adolescents
around (12-13) theirWhen children hit adolescents their body is making serious changes and
causes them to be more vulnerable and sensitive to the environment. Adolescents is the stage
in life in which physical changes occur and the person is no longer considered a child but as a
transitional period from childhood to adulthood. During this time the child undergoes puberty
and start developing new social behaviors and patterns. Now everything starts to matter there
is no more just throwing things on and not caring about appearance. I remember when I was
growing up around age 13 and 14 one of the most commonly done thing between my groups of
friends was comparing sizes. As girls growing up we would compare ourselves to each other as
far as sizes, and body shapes go and then we would compare ourselves to the things around us
like magazines, or the people on television. My friends and I would wonder our bodies were
different, why one of us might have a more developed body while the other had very little
changes. But comparisons and different growth rates This is actually quite common among
many young girls and can also be a factor that leads to many issues such as body dissatisfaction,
low self-esteem, poor body image and / or the development of eating disorders. One finding
discovered that young girls were more afraid of being overweight than getting cancer, a nuclear
war or losing parent.
So, how exactly does the media affect the body image of young women? The media can
affect a person in several ways. A study done by the. I read about a study done by the National
Anorexia Nervosa Association shows thatthat 69showed 69 % of girls between 5
th
- 12
th
grades
believes that women in magazines influence their idea on what the ideal body is. While 47% say
they would like to lose weight after viewing images of the women in the magazines. How is it
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possible that we are able to target the origin of these false beliefs but yet we still believe it? Its
because we are constantly seeing these images on a regular basis of these beautiful people who
fit into this ideal. These beautiful perfect people are in actuality just models. The tTruth is
most models in magazines are way below the healthy BMI. The average US model is 511
weighing and weighs about 117 lbs while the average US woman is around 54 and 140 lbs140
lbs.( USA TODAY) . ThaThere is a t is a dramatic difference and contrast between what we see
in the media and what we see in reality. The media sends out the Tall and Slim is the ideal
body message. Meanwhile for most young people that body shape is not even attainable. This
body type is said to only be present in about 5% of woman. Young girls are buying into this
ideals because they want to be what is considered beautiful. If the media is showing tall and
slim women as hot and being pursedpursued by men. Than and most attractive than thats
what the goal for these young women are.
I personally was shorter in height all throughout school up until 10
th
grade. It wasnt
until I was in the tenth grade n 10
th
grade I began tthat I really started to grow. o grow taller
and I hated it. I was already naturally skinny and now I would be tall to go along with it. Even
though the media shows tall and skinny as the ideal I did not like it. Now that I am older I like
my size but as a younger teen I did not feel comfortable being tall and skinny. So not every
young adolescent girl may view the media the same way. Of this same study less than 18% of
young girls do not agree with the idealhave the same effects as it is usually portrayed. There
are research studies that show different ethnic groups have slight different effects from the
media. A repot analysis done on young adolescents show that African American girls can
develop low body image from the media ideals but are slightly less likely too. Growing up with
Comment [CM4]: Added more personal
experiences tried to stay away from listing just
facts
African American family members I can see this as true because in my family being tall and
skinny wasnt the beauty norm but rather being curvaceous and heavier was what was seen to
be ideal. Most of the women in my family are on the heavier side except for a few. I find this
quite interesting and almost a direction change for this study. Why are African Americans
slightly less vulnerable to body image issues from the media? Studies cannot show a concrete
answer but thinks it is relatable to African Americans being more open and accepting to
differences in comparison to other racial groups.
body.
So, EEven though there are few people certain groups of people who do notare less
likely to conform to the ideals of beauty in society there is a vast majority who does. Dieting
sales have nearly doubled as the years go byin the past years. Children as young as 9 and 10 are
said to have been on a diet at least once. Ads all over with catchy phrase lines like Lose weight
with this pill in 30 days. The media is increasingly using sales pitching tactics all over the
internet on dieting. All over the web are little pop ads about dieting, taking pills, buying special
supplements. In magazines there are loads of articles on quick ways to lose weight and ways to
achieve the ideal body. The media has been sending messages for years if you are not thin for
women or if you are not muscular for men than you need to lose weight, you need to fix these
problems. Usually when these diets fail people take several measures some look into surgical
procedures like gastric bypass surgery, and other surgeries where stomach sizes can be shrunk
and llosing oosing weight is promising. While others may take apart in unhealthy eating
disorders which is more common in youth since surgeries are not really an option.
Many young girls have become accustomed to eating disorders to ideal and thin look.
The main three eating disorders are anorexia nervosa, bulimia, and binge eating but there are a
lot of other eating disorders like starvation etc. Anorexia is usually when a person forces
themselves not to eat or to eat very little. This occurs to the point in which the body becomes
use to receiving very little food and take this as its norm. This becomes and extreme problem
because most people who develop anorexia drop at high levels below the normal size. This has
been seen to cause #1 death of mental disorders. Bulimia another extreme eating disorder is
where the person takes part in over eating what is the normal amount of food for a person
their size or overeating more than what they would typically. This is followed by vomiting what
was just ate back up or the improper usage of laxatives to remove the food that had been
consumed. Binge eating which is very similar to bulimia but without vomiting or laxatives is the
purging or over indulgence of food. This includes eating a lot more food than what should be
eaten or what would normally be eaten and can often lead to obesity. Binge eating is usually
followed by feeling guilty about over eating. A reason why eating disorders are such an issue for
adolescences is because this a time when the body is making hormonal and growth changes.
During this time the body needs proper nutrition to ensure that these things may occur when
eating and nutritional supplement is interrupted it can lead to many more serious issues.
Through all of this what we have failed to see is that most people who do develop body image
disorders from increased exposure to the media usually do look for an alternative method to
alter some form of them like the ones listed above ( surgeries, dieting. Etc. ). And even with
doing this deep down they are still not completely satisfied with themselves because they will
never be able to fit perfectly into the medias ideal of beauty. No matter how much money is
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spent, or how many diet plans are done the underlying problem is still there and is wreaking
havoc on our nation. Information/paragraphs to be added
- Body image disorders variations among different cultures
- Eating disorders in different cultures
- Personal experiences in my family
- Final paragraph/ conclusion of research


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Cheralyn Mitchell
Engl. 1102
L. Hofmann
3/25/14
Works Cited

Heese-Biber, Sharlene Nagy, Stephanie A. Howling, Patricia Leavy, and Meg Lovejoy. Racial
Identity and the Development of Body Image Issues among African American Adolescent
Females. N.p.: The Qualitative Report Vol. 9, Mar. 2004. PDF.

Stice, Eric, Diane Spangler, and W. Stewart Agras. "Exposure to Media-Portrayed Thin-Ideal
Images Adversely Affects Vulnerable Girls: A Longitudinal Study." Journal of Social and Clinical
Psychology 20.3 (2001): 270-288. 29 Apr. 2009

Hellmich, Nanci. "USATODAY.com - Do Thin Models Warp Girls' Body Image?" USATODAY.com -
Do Thin Models Warp Girls' Body Image? N.p., 26 Sept. 2006.

Nelson, Ashley. "Health Psychology Home Page." How Does African American Culture Affect
Body Image Percention: AshleyNelson. David Schlundt Phd, 16 Apr. 2009.Web

Fitzgibbon, Marian, and Melinda Stolley. "Eating Disorders and Minorities." PBS. PBS, 01 Dec.
2000. Web. 26 Mar. 2014.

Signs of Eating Disorders: Types and Symptoms." WebMD. WebMD, 01 Jan. 2000. Web. 10 Apr.
2014.
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