Holly Blackstead

4/13/17
Com 280
Body Image in Media
Every day we are exposed to a variety of advertisements. We are shown visuals of cars,

vacations, clothing, etc. What we sometimes don’t notice is the way advertisements affects our

perspective of the human body. We are constantly shown images on television, in magazines,

and online of males and females. There images usually consist of muscular men and skinny

beautiful women. After being exposed to these images over time we eventually form a false

sense of what a perfect body is supposed to look like. This unrealistic portrayal of men and

women is unhealthy and can cause insecurities in all people.

Media is part of our everyday lives influencing us in ways we may not expect. According

to Athena du Pre in Communicating About Health “Media consumers are consistently urged to

believe that their skin, weight, breath, clothing, and teeth are ‘problem areas’ requiring vigorous

and immediate attention-at a price” (p. 273). This is shown in all sorts of advertisements for

beauty products. The ads claim that getting the product will solve any problem you have, along

with making you happier. The phenomenon is known as pathologizing the human body.

Pathologzing the human body is when natural, normal bodily functions are portrayed as

strange and something to be “fixed”. The media influences people to believe they can fix their

“unnatural” body functions when they buy products. Teenagers are particularly at a high risk to

be targeted by companies. Teenagers are at risk because of the multiple physical changes they

are going through. These physical changes can easily cause insecurities. Marketers may take

these insecurities as an opportunity to target in order to make profit. One physical change that is

shown heavily in media is acne.

 Acne is a heavily advertised body function in media today. Acne is a normal problem that

many teenagers go through during puberty. In media acne is shown as something that is

undesirable and something to fix. One company that is shown daily on the media is Proactiv.

Proactive will use well known celebrities to sponsor them and appear in their advertisements. For

example Julianne Huogh in featured in one of their many ads. Julianne is not a teenager and has

near perfect skin. Teenagers are led to believe that if they buy Proactiv that their skin will look

like Julianne’s. This is definitely an unrealistic expectation, a woman in her late twenties will

obviously have clearer skin than a thirteen year old girl.

The unrealistic expectations shown in the Proactiv commercials can cause young girls to

develop even more insecurities about their skin. This is even more prevalent if the girl buys the

product and does not see the results she wants. She may believe there is something wrong with

her. Overall this Proactiv commercials are a clear representation of patholgizing the human body.

Proactiv claims that acne is unnatural and not normal, then tries to convince teenagers that they

can fix their acne when they buy their product.

Overall I agree with the theory of patholigizing the human body. I do think advertising

companies can create insecurities in people and even target people’s insecurities. To further the

research on the theory I think it would be interesting to see people,with high media literacy,

reactions to the advertisements. Would these people’s skepticism protect them from feeling

insecure about their body functions? Or are these images powerful enough to make people who

are already skeptical to advertising feel badly about themselves?

The research could be conducted if a group of randomly selected people are the same age

were taken to a media literacy class. Then another group of randomly selected people of the

same ages would not be taken to the class. The two groups could watch an advertisement aimed
at fixing a particular body function, for example acne, and then answer questions regarding the

ad. The questions could be “Does this ad appeal to you?” “Does the ad make you feel bad about

your appearance?” “Would you buy the product?” “Do you want the product to help change your

appearance?” The answers could then be reviewed to see if there was a difference in responses

from the group in the media literacy class. The results would then indicate if a consumer’s media

literacy level affects advertising ability to influence their perceptions.

All in all media has major influence over consumers’ perceptions of themselves. Media

has the power to make people feel uncomfortable about their body and want to change

themselves. Advertisers can target consumers’ insecurities in order to gain sales. Pathologizing

the human body is a real thing in advertising and can have negative effects on people particularly

teenagers. I have skepticism that people with high media literacy levels would be able to combat

this theory, and criticize advertisements. I believe this would be an interesting theory for research

and could be done easily.