Photo Credit: daniellehelm (Flickr)[/caption]The media has a huge effect on girls and their body images. It proclaims that being thin and perfect is the only way to be anyone of significance and forces young women to look like computer-generated images. A primary result of this is bullying--people are bullying girls because their body image “doesn’t measure up.” Society deceives girls into believing there is a perfect image of what a young woman must look like. This pressure to look like a Barbie doll can have an extremely negative impact on a girl's body image in today’s generation.
During teen years, girls begin to compare their appearance to other girls and to what the media advertises. Doing this only make their self esteem deteriorate. Being surrounded by fake perfection stimulates the desire for girls to reflect the images they see all around them: on T.V commercials, in magazines, on the Internet and even in public. Even before teen years, girls who are between the ages of 9 and 10 try to lose weight because they don’t look the way that they want to look. One study reports that about 53 percent of 13-year-old girls are unhappy with their bodies and have at least one thing that they would change if they could. This number increases to over 78 percent by the time they reach the age of 17.
Eating disorders often are paired with body image issues. Girls want to look perfect so they want to be skinnier. Researchers have found that about eight million Americans have an eating disorder, seven million of those being women and one million being men. This is a sad fact, because many people are either hospitalized or end up dying because of these diseases. 95 percent of people with eating disorders are between the ages of 12 and 35.
Fashion magazines have a particularly powerful effect on how girls view themselves and their bodies. These magazines contain a powerful message: “If you could just lose those last 10 pounds, then everything would be perfect. You would have the perfect body, the perfect relationship, and the perfect life.”
In closing, every form of media focuses on being perfect and having the perfect body. Teen girls are deceived into thinking that this is the normal, when in reality it is quite the opposite.
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