http://www.smith.edu/health/bygirlsforgirls/media.html
Media is a vast form of communication that permeates nearly every aspect of modern culture. Teenagers are exposed to all sorts of media outlets, from magazines, to television, movies and advertising to social media sites such as Facebook and Instagram. It's no secret that the media has an increasingly negative impact on how teenage girls measure their personal image. Teenage girls are often influenced by the sizes of supermodels and celebrities and think they have to be thin to be beautiful.
Teenage girls read many different varieties of fashion magazines. These teens see a celebrity or a young teen model close to their age and they want to copy their style and looks. Most of these celebrities are wearing skimpy outfits that are party outfits. Do we really want our teenage girls in low-cut, high-cut, skin-tight outfits? Young girls believe that these celebrities and models in the magazines look perfect when in reality they are photo shopped and airbrushed. The media is often convincing young women to question how they look making them feel insecure. These magazines and commercials make girls feel bad about their images causing them to get depressed with a low self-esteem. Magazines are not the only source that causes teens to have low self-esteem; television commercials contribute also.
What ever happened to the average looking girl? You pick up a magazine in the check out lane and all you see on the cover of the magazine are models with a perfect body, face, hair and always-dressed in revealing clothes. It doesn't help a girl's self-esteem when all she sees are these perfect looking models when the majority of us never look like that. I think we all can agree that fashion magazines and the media change the way teens act, dress and changes their personal life as well. These magazines and television shows have a huge impact because many of the teens look up to them.
Television commercials have all these thin sexy celebrities promoting diet pills leading you to believe by taking them you will look like them. This causes many eating disorders among teenage girls. I think that all young girls should be encouraged to see the beauty in themselves and to attain their desired weight by diet and exercise. Growing up, as a teen can be difficult enough without all this pressure to be someone we are not.
Katie,
ReplyDeleteI agree with your post about how media shapes teenagers self-esteem and expectations. I feel like there is pressure put on us girls especially, to look perfect and have a certain style. We glorify these celebrities, television commercials and magazines to how the girls are styled on the cover. We automatically want to change ourselves and to be more up to date with the trends because we feel we won't be accepted if we don't. For example, Kylie Jenner has been all over magazines, social media and television with her signature drawn in lips. There was a challenge on Twitter to hold your mouth up to a cup and breathe in to get the effect of big lips like Kylie Jenner. We shouldn't be wanting to look like someone else and idolize them for a look. Instead, we need to be accepting and celebrate all of our natural features. In addition, the "Teen Mags" article we discussed in class really described how women are looked upon to change and conform. Yet, men do not have as much pressure to look or act a certain way. We should all praise each other and not tear each other down for not looking a specific way.
I agree with everything you said in this post about media and how it affects teens and their expectations and standards of beauty. It is interesting how the media has its standard for beauty, but not even the models that portray it really look like that. Even the skinny models that portray the perfect female might not be that skinny. Maybe their hair isn't that perfect or there is a pimple on their face, but no one ever sees it thanks to the advanced technology that we have to make them look that way. People will always want what they can't have, but in reality, everyone is beautiful to somebody. Self love and accepting yourself is important, because no one will love you unless you love yourself. This goes everyone, young and old, male and female. Self love is the best love.
ReplyDeleteKatie,
ReplyDeleteI agree with your post. Media definitely shapes the self-esteem of teenage girls. I remember seeing a Twitter post of a side-by-side picture of Victoria Secret models before their make-up and after their make-up, and I can barely recognize them without. In my opinion, they don’t even look like the same person. I think a lot of teenage girls don't take into account the hours and the amount of people that are behind every celebrity/model's appearance. They have a hair team, a make-up team, a designer that dresses them, and on top of all of this, they have a team that goes through their pictures, blurring out any hint of imperfection. Hours and hours go into these flawless pictures we see on a daily basis.
In the “Teen Mags” article we discussed in class, Anastasia Higginbotham writes, “Girls are encouraged to love their bodies, no matter what they look like, by magazines with fashion spreads featuring only stick-thin, flawless-faced white models in expensive outfits.” I couldn’t agree more with this statement. Images of models are everywhere: TV shows, commercials, movies, ads and social media. Instagram and Twitter are extremely popular with teenagers and I personally think these two social networks are two of the biggest reasons self-esteem is a big issue with teenage girls. We are bombarded by “perfect” and are subconsciously told what “beautiful” should look like.
Katie,
ReplyDeleteI completely agree with you on how social media, magazines, and commercials all have become major parts in young women’s self esteem. I can relate on a personal level to feeling “not good enough” compared to all of the celebrities that teenagers idolize. While I went through this phase I did not know about the behind the scenes make-up and airbrushing that went on. I then took a Photoshop class in high school and learned how easy it was to manipulate an image. Most images, including senior pictures, have been edited to make a person look the best they could rather than looking like themselves. No one, even guys, seems to be satisfied with who they are naturally anymore. Everyone wants to be bigger, stronger, and faster if they are male or skinny, dainty, and perfect if they are female.
Like stated in the Teen Mags article “Girls are encouraged to love their bodies, no matter what they look like, by magazines with fashion spreads featuring only stick-thin, flaw-less faced white models in expensive outfits.” This gives off a standard that young girls look up to and desire to look like. If they change themselves, then they do not actually love their own bodies and who they truly are. This does not just happen in magazines now but social media now takes a major role in this. As social media becomes more prevalent in society, I fear that self-esteem issues will be on the rise. That means that growing up as a teenager will become harder to deal with and very few people will be able to see the beauty within them. With that being said, I think we, as the older women, need to be able to empower these young teenagers to believe in themselves and to see their natural beauty beyond just physical looks, make-up, and expensive outfits.