The media has changed the way beauty is seen, then the readers or watchers start to think differently of themselves. This bothers me because over the years that the media industry has grown, the more damage they cause instead of doing the opposite. I think this affects everyone, especially teens. Most reality tv shows, celebrities, new music all objectify how the perfect girl is suppose to look causing girls to want to look like that, curving or a certain height. That causes more insecurities not only for females but also for males too.
I know many girls that look up to these celebrities to the point where they want to look like them and start hurting their bodies many stop eating to lose weight, others inject their lips because if they don’t have kylie jenner lips then no one will like them. I’m not saying changing yourself up is bad but changing because others are telling you is not right. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder they say and I think it’s true everyone is their own person and is beautiful in their own way. If the media wouldn’t come out so hard on different types of bodies and would add more variety to their models and would think more about who their content is going toward there could honestly be a huge change.
I believe this problem started to make more awareness as soon as the use of social media started growing. Social Media has lead to a increase in body shaming, I mean even our president is a part of this. “Body shaming is humiliating, with often painful, long-term consequences,”. This messes with younger generations minds it affects their confidence. “Overweight characters are often the butt of jokes on TV sitcoms,” she told Healthline. “This makes body shaming the norm.” This supports that the media has used weight as a their joke. I believe this effects and affects both in positive and negative ways, starting with it effects overweight kids to lose weight or helps them build a wall against bullies which can be a pro and con. It affects people by making them insecure, and pushing them to self harm at times or serious sickness. This problem is going to take years to solve the stereotype of models and how a “perfect” body is.
Although model industries and the media are trying to clean up it’s going to be really hard, many have grown with this mind concept. Starting with models who turned to anorexia to stay a perfect size now that illness is stuck with them and who knows they could pass it down. Many might not agree that body shaming in the media exist because they are blindfolded to the situation many consider it “simply bullying” and it is but it goes far more than that.
Body shaming on social media has been known to mess with girls self esteem meaning that it affects the way they think about themselves. “Body image is a big problem in our society, and can lead to depression, social anxiety and eating disorders.” (Heather R. Gallivan). Studies actually show that many are not happy with their bodies so pointing out flaws on social media really does make things worse. Now mostly it’s teenage girls and boys that read most of these social media accounts so the problem starts with them. “Over 60% compared themselves to fashion models,and 46% used fashion magazines as a body image to strive for!” (Heather R Gallivan). As young adults they start looking for ways to identify themselves and if the media idolizes the perfect body as a size 0-1 and a 5’10 height it gets frustrating for them if they are not those measurements and that’s when the trauma starts.
Body shaming is something we try to prevent although everyone has their own opinions we can teach kids that it’s okay to be chunkier or skinnier than your friends, also we can teach self love because it all starts with the person itself. It’s actually a great thing that the media started showing plus size models so girls understand its okay not to be a size 0 everyone is beautiful in their own way.
Society has a cruel way to point out flaws but if you love yourself whatever society classifies you as you won’t care and the people that truly love you don’t care either. My solution would work because like that were teaching them young to love themselves and to not pay so much attention to what the media does or what gets people more likes or views.
