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Tanya Vargas
Trina Sotirakopulos
English H 1102
14 December 2015

Americas 1950s sex icon Marilyn Monroe once confessed, Boys think girls are
like books, if the cover doesnt catch their eye they wont bother to read whats inside.
Even more than half a decade ago, attractiveness and the need to be attractive was a
concern for women to obtain in order to reel a man in. The value placed on women
standards of beauty in our country and countries across the world alike, is extremely
high. Sexy sells, large corporations know it, men and women realize it. It grabs the
attention of consumers and potential couples. Concern for ones own appearance is
normal and the need to be more attractive has its benefits. Research shows that there is
a beauty bias. Attractive children have more friends and hold potential for greater
expectations. Attractive adults have a better odd of receiving a greater paying job. The
biases towards beauty are favored (Mirror, mirror). Who wouldn't want the benefits of
being attractive over the other end of the spectrum? This may seem like a
straightforward answer, yet various factors are incorporated as to why women would
naturally strive to be more attractive. The dominant sources coming straight from

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influential media and deceptive advertisements. Negative body image in young women
is the build up of insecurities deriving from these sources and takes a toll on its
audience.

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Young women today, rely heavily on magazines for how-tos on beauty, fashion
and relationships rather than to take advice as highly of that of their peers (Body
Image). Headlines tell extremely influential, insecure women step-by-step on how to look
her best and how to get the perfect man. Because of the media, the nation has become
accustomed to extremely rigid and uniform standards of beauty (Mirror, mirror).
Progression towards displaying thinner models through advertisements and magazines
has increasingly gone up from being 8% thinner than the average woman, to weighing
23% less in the past 20 years (Body Image). This striking difference has been created
through time along with societys change in ideal beauty. It has caused a huge gap in
what the audience of women considers to be ideal and what is attainable for them.
Research has shown that it is actually achievable by less than 5% of the female
population (Mirror, mirror). Ann Shoket, the editor-in-chief for Seventeen magazine, has
realized this crisis in teen body image. She addresses the hypocrisy of magazines trying
to tell women to follow through a variety of steps to change themselves while also
attempting to persuade women to embrace themselves for who they are as a whole.
She states in her article Minding the Media: Teen Magazines," While its our goal to
help girls to look great, our mission is empty if they dont feel great too.
Advertising has been directly correlated with creating insecurities in its audience.
Simply mundane and unrelated objects become desirable and relevant products that a

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woman convinces herself she needs, all by the power of advertising (Trampe). In a
series of studies conducted by Debra Trampe, Diederik A. Stapel, and Frans W. Siero,
the variable of self-activation was put to the test in the face of advertisements. Self-

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activation defines to be how a person views themselves based on how they encode
information. Results from one of the studies conducted is as shown.

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This study focused on the type of product studied and whether or not it being advertised
or not would affect a womens self-evaluation. This graph shows that the eye shadow
was the most influential product that produced the lowest self-evaluation. The study
classified eye shadow and products alike to be enhancing items in which builds up the
beauty of a person rather covering up flaws like problem-solving products (deodorant)
would. In this study, it was proven that enhancing products when advertised, produce
the lowest self-evaluation among women. Enhancing products play into ones
insecurities, much like bone-thin models do, and in turn, make women feel vulnerable.
On the other hand, this is good for advertising because its what is needed to persuade
a potential buyer to purchase the product. A reliance on a product that enhances beauty
is a sure sell in order to buy into a womans negative body image of herself. While
boosting body image through this enhancement, it was needed to be brought down to
begin with. The problem with is, is that the world is surrounded by advertisements every
which way. Wheres the path to a positive body image, wheres the path that leads to
happiness within oneself?
In another article written by Ann Shoket, How Girls Think About Themselves Is
Shifting, but Theres More to be Done," she points out how much smarter young women
in the US now are. Teen pregnancy is at an all-time low; drug use, smoking and alcohol
abuse are down; and were even seeing that girls are more focused on being fit than

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thin (#strongisthenewskinny). Young women are taking a stance in positive
empowerment and embracing their differences. About a year ago or so, a trend dubbed
the thigh gap gained followers. Soon after, backlash was resounding across the media
to address that not having a thigh gap was okay, If Beyonce doesnt have a thigh gap, I
dont have a thigh gap! (Shoket). Relating back to the strong is the new skinny
movement, it is brought into question as to whether or not its positive or altering for a
young womans self esteem. Along with societys changing ideals of beauty, new
movements such as this one come about. Working out should be a positive action to
take part in, one in which a person is working towards the goal of obtaining a healthier
body and mind set in the long runright? Jennifer Walters, author of Is Strong the New
Skinny Really Sending a Good Message?, questions the movements intentions.
Although seeming harmless, even helpful in motivating our obese-growing country, can
create negative affects. People strive for good, whether its to feel good, or perhaps to
even feel empowered and confident in who they are. The problem with this movement
that Walters brings forth is that if one is already happy with themselves, with how they
look and feel and are healthy overall, just because they arent toned and defined as
societys ideals have come to be, they arent enough to be accepted as they are. Along
with changing societal ideals, creates greater dissatisfaction with oneself because now
theres a goal thats yet to reach they werent after in the first place.

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For my field study research, I conducted an e-mail interview with my Psychology
professor, Ken Gray. I came to him for answers for his years of experience and
credentials in his study. I asked him the question if the media directly has a huge impact
on our perceived body image, he answered, Absolutelyresearch goes back many
decades showing how media depictions of what is beautiful are strongly related to how
people view their own bodies. Low self-esteem that comes from low-body image can
contribute to mood disorders, such as persistent depressive disorder, or even major
depressive disorder. Avoiding social situations because someone is ashamed of their
body can lead to loneliness (which contributes to both low self-esteem and mood
disorders)and contribute to eating disorders. He then goes on to say, Major
depressive disorder is a major risk factor for suicide, and people can die from eating
disorders too. So, it would not be an exaggeration to say that at its most extreme, it can
lead to, or at least contribute to, death. Recognizing this last statement, the effects of
influences on negative body image cant go unnoticed. Three quarters of young women
are said to be unhappy with themselves (Shoket) so essentially, drastic measures have
to take place in order to prevent to extremes. With this all being said, I asked for the
counter, if there are any positive ways to effectively boost a persons self-perceived body
image. Professor Gray answered personally by mentioning how he never allowed

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his daughter to own a Barbie doll growing up and an effective way to minimize the extent
of negative perceptions derived from media would be to control ones exposure to it. He
mentions that media is generally bad for teenagers, that there are unrealistic depictions
of beauty, health, relationships, etc. In reference to all the answers I received up to this
point, they have seemed to correlate to the rest of my findings from my research, until
the last answer I received.
I wanted to know, can a person truly and completely be happy with themselves,
personality and appearance in all. His response was a yes, but that it wouldn't be a
good thing. That shocked me, isnt that the goal were all trying to achieve? His
reasoning made me look at the situation differently. Gray points out the lack of
motivation with a satisfactory level of happiness. Striving to improve oneself is essential
and that the real goal should be, humility with some mindfulness. I have to say that I
completely agree with this conclusion. It is unrealistic to imagine that a person would not
truthfully change anything about themselves to make them happier. As social beings, we
need to constantly rearrange priorities and create new goals to work towards and obtain
and in the end, gaining the satisfaction that its achieved. Humans werent made to be
perfect, there is always room for improvement.
Overall, media and advertisements possess a hold on self-body image, majority
of the time being negative. Advertising has found a deceitful way in order to sell its

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products through poking at womens insecurities and thorough the use of yet skinnier
models. The world wants to see change towards accepting oneself for who they are,
without changing a thing. On the other hand, realistically work towards improving
oneself for personal benefits and not everyone elses. Work needs to be done in our
country and around the world in how women are depicted. Women of all shapes and
sizes are equally important and equally beautiful. Self-esteems need to be boosted,
perhaps through a reverse display of an array of women, making sure to point out
positives in not only their appearance but their personality as well. The health of women
is at risk with exposure in what we have today of the media. So share a little love,
embrace who you are and always work towards what you want for yourself.