The Effect of Body Image From The Media Towards The World

     What is body image? The phrase refers to an individual’s emotional attitudes, beliefs, and perceptions towards their own body.  The role of the media plays an immense role in shaping the minds of individual’s view towards body image, and it is getting worse every day.  The mass media carries a sense of darkness and immorality due to its constant manipulation and brainwashing people. Our world is gradually turning into a cult, where we, as followers, are controlled by mass media.

     Half a century ago, when technology was not as influential and popular, thoughts about body image were not as serious as it is today in the technological era where the media plays an even larger role. The media has already set up expectations of how men and women should be represented. As men and women are frequently exposed to the media they tend to pay more attention towards their body image due to media’s recurrent displays that targets on how they should act and look.

       Men and women are represented differently in the media. For men, they are expected to act macho, protecting as well as financially stable. They are often the leader of the family, and give out all the decisions as well protect their loved ones. They fit the roles that are associated with money and protection. They are usually successful businessman with money, policeman and soldiers who are masculine and provide some sort of protection to the community or country. 

    

     However, women are portrayed completely different. They are portrayed as fragile and caring. In most cases, they are the one who listens or complete tasks given out by men. They fit in the role of housewives, nurses, and fashion models. Women tend to have a higher expectation compared to men since they don’t have to be financially successful so all of the focus is based on their appearance as it is the only thing that counts. Women are limited to their appearance, unlike men who have money as an extra advantage. Even though men do not meet the expectation of fitting in the so called “perfect” appearance but if they are financially successful, this will balance out or cover up their imperfect physical appearance.

 

     The media has been manipulating both men and women since the day it was created. In the 21^st century, males are expected to be physically fit with a muscular body and be financially successful. Women are said to be slim and good-looking. These goals that the media sets for us can be unrealistic, especially for the average people. Not all of us can achieve what the media wants us to be and this would heavily impact the body image of each individual. In some cases, men and women endure extreme measures and mental illnesses just to reach the ideal appearance and or physiques that the media and society expect them to be. It is evident now that plastic surgery has become much more popular and common during the past few decades for both men and women. When technology comes in handy, the act of plastic surgery has become much cheaper and simple to do. This has encouraged more people to do plastic surgery as well as promote the importance of appearance in society. Paediatr Child Health indicated that for the past few decades increasing rates of eating disorders such as anorexia and bulimia cases in adolescent girls were developed as a result of increasing amount of media exposure.

     Speaking for myself, the reason why people are heavily brainwashed and manipulated by the media is because they are everywhere and there is no way we can get rid of it unless the world ends. Personally, I would admit that I am already affected by the media because it affects how I view my body and appearance. I am insecure with my body as I often feel scrawny and want to build some mass to “fit” in. This affects my everyday life as I eat four to six meals a day in order to gain weight, and have been working out since last summer. I am looking forward to improving my physique to look more muscular due to media’s representation of men. I also try to improve my physical appearance by getting braces, gelling my hair, and getting tanned.

     From my own experience, I decided to purchase an acne face wash because when I came across the Mentholatum ad that described the product’s benefits it quickly caught my attention since I have acne on my face and I wanted to get rid of it to improve my appearance.  Also, when I saw an ad promoting Invisalign (clear teeth aligner) on the internet, the ad hit me hard as I always wanted to have a perfect smile. I imaged myself smiling again after as they will be well aligned and be able to impress both myself and others. So I asked my parents about getting my teeth fixed and they agreed to bring me to an orthodontist and got me braces. This shows why ads have the ability to alter the minds of people causing them to purchase their product or service in order to enhance their physical appearance.

     From what I have seen, the Mentholatum acne face wash product and Invisalign product falls in the Esteem section of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs because without these products we would still survive. But most importantly these ads provide the need of our self-esteem of improving our overall look that how we and others perceive us.  In order to feel and look better, we rely and need those products. I chose to experiment with these products due to the fact that I am not confident with my body and wanted to change it. To change that, I would need something that can solve the problem about my low esteem on my appearance in which is the reason why I purchased the following products so I could enhance my look and feel more confident.