How Media, Advertising and Celebrity Culture Affects Female Body Image

by kgjxx (student)

Research Project Kayleigh Giles-Johnson

In this essay we will be exploring the subject of body image, looking at which outside influences contribute to the high rate of body dissatisfaction from both psychological and sociological viewpoints, taking into account a range of evidence varying from statistics to studies in order to draw a conclusion. Firstly we will define the meaning of body image and look at the way in which the ideal has changed in recent years, before analysing the effects of media, advertising and the accompanying celebrity culture on body dissatisfaction in females. I will then apply this information in order to explain why it is that some people suffer body image related mental illnesses such as anorexia, bulimia and body dysmorphia.

Body image refers to an individual’s own perception of the aesthetics and sexual attractiveness of their own body and facial features. The ideal has changed over the years with the preference of modern culture being a slender, toned figure and delicate, symmetrical features. In the 1800’s the idealised form was still voluptuous and plump, as we can see from some of the art from that time, for example in Renoir’s Blonde Bather of 1881 (Plate 1). The idealisation of slimness in women dates from the 1920’s which is argued to be the outcome of successful marketing by the fashion industry, becoming the standard of cultural beauty in the industrialised affluent societies of the twentieth century (Grogan S, 1999, p.14). In Western culture, slenderness is generally associated with happiness, success, youthfulness and social acceptability. Non-conformity to this idealised body image is regarded as resulting in negative social consequences, such as physical unattractiveness and low sexual desirability. Being overweight may hold other negative stereotypes, such as being perceived as lazy or having no self-control, whereas slenderness may symbolise personal order and a sense of self-denial in the face of plenty (Grogan S, 1999, p.6).

Body dissatisfaction is a person’s negative thoughts about his or her own body. Women have always been encouraged to change their shape and weight to conform to current trends and it is often argued that failure to do so leads to self-criticism, feelings of guilt and lowered self-worth, a strong effect amongst women due to the cultural pressures of the idealised body shape. Body dissatisfaction is the norm in western women from as young as eight years old (Grogan S, 1999, p.3) and research has concluded that the majority of women are dissatisfied with body weight and shape. Psychology Today’s 1997 Body Image Survey has concluded that for the past three decades, women have been preoccupied with how they look and are more discontent with the shape of their bodies now than ever before. 56% of women said they were unhappy with overall appearance, with an overwhelming 89% wanting to lose weight (www.psychologytoday.com). The silhouette technique (Stunckard et al, 1983) is the most widely used measure of body dissatisfaction in which the participant is presented with an image of a range of body shapes and asked to choose one representing her perception of her own body size and one representing her ideal body size. Out of 25 of my female college peers asked to choose out of the nine silhouettes on the scale, many appeared to exaggerate their perception of their own body shape and an overwhelming 94% were unhappy with their current figure and chose a slimmer example as their ideal body shape, and only one person chose a larger shape as their ideal.

The influence of media

The ultra-slender ideal body image portrayed by the media is typically reported as 15% below the average weight of women. Approximately 90% of the female models are below average weight (Vaughan & Fouts, 2003). Because of the usage of such slender models, psychologists have suggested that the media can affect women’s self-esteem by becoming a reference point against which unfavourable body shape comparisons can be made. A commonly adapted theory to explain media effects on body image is that of Festinger’s (1954) Social Comparison Theory – the idea that conformity can be explained in terms of the need to evaluate our beliefs in opinions by comparing them with other people’s (Gross, 2010, p.428). This means that we seek the need to self-evaluate by comparing ourselves with other people, driving ourselves to achieve more should we feel we do not measure up to the standards set by their example. In the case of body dissatisfaction, this theory would predict that the media will set a standard of ideal body image by which women will determine their own social and personal worth based on how they “stack up” against models or actresses (www.psychologytoday.com).

This is a preview of the whole essay

We can see the extent of how television and media can change the way women think about themselves by looking at Becker's (2004) study of Fiji, a country which was recently a media-naive population until the introduction of television in 1995. Prior to the 1990's, anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa were thought to be rare or non-existent among ethnic Fijians (Becker 1995, cited by Becker 2004). In Fijian culture, it had always been acceptable and even attractive to have a heavier body shape; however the arrival of television affected these cultural traditions negatively by causing women to aspire to the idealised body shape of the actresses seen on the shows. Dieting was previously a foreign concept, however in a 1998 survey 69% said they had dieted, as well as 15% admitting to having induced vomiting to control weight - compared with just 3% in 1995. Girls who said they watched television three or more nights a week in the 1998 survey were 50% more likely to describe themselves as ''too big or fat'' and 30% more likely to diet than girls who watched television less frequently. Strong cultural identity is thought to be protective against eating disorders; there was only one case of anorexia nervosa reported on the island prior to 1995, however since the arrival of television it was found to be increasingly common. Women interviewed by researchers expressed the influence that many shows, including Xena the Warrior Princess and Beverly Hills 90210, had on the way they perceived their own body image:

“The actresses and all those girls, especially those European girls, I just like, I just admire them and want to be like them. I want their body, I want their size. I want myself to be in the same position as they are” (Becker, 2004, p.546).

It is generally agreed that there are more pressures on women to be thin than there are on men. Silverstein et al. (1986) found that out of thirty-three television shows, 69% of female characters were 'thin' as opposed to just 18% of males, and only 5% of the females were 'heavy' compared to 26% of males. Silverstein et al. concluded that: “…present day women who look at the major mass media are exposed to a standard of bodily attractiveness that is slimmer than that presented for men and that is less curvaceous than that presented for women since the 1930’s. This standard may not be promoted only in the media and it may not even originate in the media, but given the popularity of television, movies and magazines… the media are likely to be among the most influential promoters of such thin standards” (Silverstein et al, 1986, p.531).

In another content analysis, Garner et al. (1980) studied the ideal feminine image as presented by Playboy Magazine and the Miss America Pageant from 1959 to 1978. The mean weights of women in these groups were significantly less than the mean weights of the general public (Myers & Biocca, 1992). Playboy centrefolds were found to weigh 9% less than the average for their sex, age and height - and during the 20-year period, the weights for both centrefolds and pageant contestants declined while the weight for the general population actually increased. Furthermore, since 1970, pageant winners weighed significantly less than the other contestants, suggesting only the thinnest were seen as the most ideal and therefore favoured to win.

Advertising

Thousands of advertisements contain messages about physical attractiveness and beauty, reaching millions of women every day. Marketers frequently use females in advertising that are slim and attractive - the use of these idealised models therefore set unrealistic standards of beauty for women. A study by A. Chris Downs and Sheila Harrison from Sex Roles: A Journal of Research found that one out of every 3.8 television commercials has a message about attractiveness in it. They determined that viewers receive roughly 5,260 advertisements related to attractiveness per year, or around fourteen a day, of which 1850 are specifically about beauty. The average female has already received around 250,000 commercial messages by the time she is just 17 years old (www.healthyplace.com). It has been suggested that watching even thirty minutes of television advertising can alter a woman’s perception of the shape of her body – the first stage of this being that “the young women generate, absorb or reinforce a mental representation of the ideal female body” through viewing idealised models (Myers & Biocca, 1992). Based on these ideas, the amount of commercial messages an individual will receive in their lifetime can severely alter the way they think about their own body.

Silverstein et al. (1986) found that, in a study of four women’s magazines compared to four men’s, the total number of advertisements for diet food aimed at women was 63 whereas there was only one for men. For the total number of articles on non-food, figure-enhancing products, the total in the women’s magazines was 96 while the men’s total was 10. This shows that advertisements with a focus on image, shape or beauty are aimed primarily at women and their insecurities about body image. “Advertising most often represents some ideal future self to the viewer in the process of selling a product that will aid the individual in attaining this ideal future self. It can influence behaviour such as dieting, exercise and the purchase of cosmetic products” (Lautman, 1991, cited by Myers & Biocca, 1992). By using images of idealised models, advertisers can use this to their advantage by suggesting that the product or service they are offering can extend this same standard of beauty to the consumer through their purchase. By playing on insecurities, such as a bad complexion in the case of a make-up advertisement, and showing a model with perfect skin, this would then encourage the viewer to purchase this product. “A remunerative strategy for marketing health, beauty and fashion products, for example, is to create a “gap” between the consumer and the ideal, and then to promise (and sell) the solution in a product” (Becker, 2004, p.534).

However, it has been argued that women are in fact aspiring to impossible standards of beauty due to the shocking trend of image manipulation and photo editing, to give models unnatural standards of beauty and body shapes not even fully possible to achieve. This unrealistic form is consistently represented across almost all media forms - along with blemish, wrinkle and even pore-free skin – as a result of digital manipulation as an “industry standard” that is openly endorsed and defended by magazine editors (www.beautyredefined.net).

Women will often see these images of blemish-free, smooth-skinned, skinny models without knowing the extent of the editing and manipulation that has gone into the photo, aspiring to this level of perfection and buying into the product with the hope that they too will look the same. For example, many a mascara advertisement will feature the model with exaggerated, long lashes which are claimed to be the result of the product. However what many women do not realise that it is with the help of false eyelashes, and much digital editing, that this unrealistic effect is achieved. Many celebrities and models are given a “digital diet” for the purpose of their advertising campaign or magazine cover to show their body at its best. In 2010, Britney Spears allowed unedited photos of her photo-shoot for American fashion firm Candie’s to be released alongside the airbrushed versions to show the true extent of image manipulation in the fashion and beauty industry. In the images, (see Plate 2 and Plate 3) we can see that Britney has been slimmed down in the arms, legs, and waist to give an overall slimmer effect. Her legs, which were previously bruised and blotchy, are now flawless and smooth-looking with a lighter tone to them. Her buttocks are lifted and reduced in size, whilst cellulite is removed and the area left looking toned and smooth.

The celebrities featured in many of these fashion and beauty advertisements are argued to be themselves responsible for starting unhealthy trends to do with image. In the 1990’s, a fashion look termed ‘Heroin Chic’, characterised by pale skin, dark circles under the eyes and a waifish, almost emaciated figure, became popularised with its usage by high fashion brands and models such as Kate Moss. Beginning with images such as Moss’s then current advertising campaign for Calvin Klein (Plate 4), the look was said to glamourize heroin usage by associating the resulting unhealthy appearance with the ideal standard of beauty. The trend ended with the death of a photographer through heroin overdose, resulting in the fashion industry declaring it “passé” and bringing back the healthier-looking “sexy model” the following season. The way celebrities and the fashion industry begin and maintain trends could have a detrimental effect on society – applying the Social Comparison Theory, women who seek to live up to such dangerous standards of beauty as ‘heroin chic’ could very well use such measures as drug use to attain that image. A recent poll has found that 67% of girls feel under pressure to have perfect bodies like celebrities (http://news.bbc.co.uk), making them one of the most influential aspects that could affect women through both media and advertising.

Heinberg and Thomson (1992) looked at the issue of body image comparison groups and which people women are most likely to look at for influence. They asked 297 people to rate the importance of six different groups, ranging from particularistic influences such as family and friends to universalistic such as celebrities, US citizens and classmates. The most important were found to be friends, followed by celebrities, then family. We can see from this study that celebrities are seen to be rated equally as important as classmates and more influential then close family. For women, those with eating disorders were more likely to compare their image against a celebrity body. Grogan et al. (1996) carried out a study in which 200 college students were asked to nominate their body image role models. Of the 16-19 year-old females, 10% cited fashion models as their role models, 5% cited actresses, 3% sportswomen and just 3% family, with similar results for the older female groups up to thirty years old. These results suggest that celebrities do provide body image role models for a significant proportion of men and women under forty (Grogan S, 1999, p.107).

We have seen from Becker’s study the negative effects that media can bring; by comparing oneself to the idealised images we see on television or in magazines, a distorted body image can be developed, causing many women to strive for the thin ideal. The number one wish for girls aged 11 to 17 is to be thinner, and girls as young as five have expressed fears of getting fat. Some researchers suggest depicting thin models may lead girls into unhealthy weight-control habits, because the ideal they seek to emulate is unattainable for many and unhealthy for most (www.healthyplace.com). As a result, disordered eating habits can be developed.

“Body image distortions may occur because of the psychological pressure that results from the contrast between the internalized ideal body image and the objective body shape. As ones internalized ideal gets further away from ones objective body shape, the individual may experience a kind of self-loathing that exaggerates the perceived “deformity” of one’s objective body shape. This is supported by the observation that anorexics and bulimics, individuals who pathologically pursue an extreme internalized ideal, experience the greatest body image distortion” (Myers & Biocca, 1992).

Anorexia Nervosa and Bulimia Nervosa are mental disorders, characterised by food restriction and purging respectively, and an irrational fear of gaining weight, which come from this distorted view of body image. Bruch (1992) suggested that anorexic women showed a marked distortion in their size perception, perceiving themselves as fat even when very thin. This is also a main trait in Body Dysmorphic Disorder (BDD), in which the person perceives themselves to be extremely overweight or unattractive, even if the reality is very much the opposite, to the point of which they are unable to lead a normal life.

Researchers have suggested that culture does play an important part in the development of eating disorders. It is generally accepted that anorexia and bulimia are more common in countries that value slenderness and less common in those who are generally less aware of this cultural value - as we could see in the study of Fiji, where plumpness was previously the cultural norm and eating disorders only began to surface after the arrival of television. When people move from cultures that value plumpness to those where slimness is valued, they become more likely to develop problematic relationships with food (Rosen, 1990, cited by Grogan S, 1999, p.168).

In conclusion, we can see that media does have an important part to play in how modern women perceive themselves, their weight and their looks, and has many different affecting factors ranging from the way people think to the cultural traditions around them. The evidence is there that media, advertising and celebrity culture can have a negative effect on body satisfaction. From television shows which inspire us to be like the characters we see on screen, to advertisements which encourage us to live up to the standardised ideal of beauty, we can see that these can have a negative effect on both physical health and mental attitude of females, leading to such a high rate of body dissatisfaction and resulting mental disorders. The process for change is likely to be a slow one; the media is a formidable force, and one that is not likely to change easily, but we only can hope that in the future the idealised form will be one that is healthier and more attainable for women to achieve.

Plate 1

Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Blonde Bather, 1881

Source: http://www.wikipaintings.org/en/pierre-auguste-renoir/blonde-bather-1881

Plate 2

Plate 3

Britney Spears for Candie’s

Source: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-1265676/Britney-Spears-releases-airbrushed-images-digitally-altered-versions.html

Plate 4

Kate Moss for Calvin Klein

Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/images-of-kate-moss-that-define-her-career-2012-11?op=1

References

Books and Journals

Becker, A. (2004) ‘Television, disordered eating and young women in Fiji: Negotiating body image and identity during rapid social change’, in Culture, Medicine and Psychiatry 28: 533-559.
Grogan S. (1999) Body Image: Understanding Body Dissatisfaction in Men, Women and Children, London: Routledge
Gross, R. (2010) Psychology: The Science of Mind and Behaviour, London: Hodder Education
Myers, P. and Biocca, F. (1992) ‘The elastic body image: The effects of television advertising and programming on body image distortions in young women’, Journal of Communication, 42, 108-33.
Silverstein, B., Peterson, B., and Purdue, L. (1986) ‘Some correlates of the thin standard of physical attractiveness of women’, International Journal of Eating Disorders, 5, 898-905.
Stunckard, A.J., Sorensen, T. and Schulsinger, F. (1983) ‘Use of the Danish adoption register for the study of obesity and thinness’, in S.Kety (ed.) The Genetics of Neurological and Psychiatric Disorders, New York: Raven Press
Vaughan, K.K, & Fouts, G. (2003) ‘Changes in Television and Magazine Exposure and Eating Disorder Symptomatology’, Sex Roles, 49, 313-320.

Websites

Eating Disorders: Body Image and Advertising,

Retrieved from:

http://www.healthyplace.com/eating-disorders/main/eating-disorders-body-image-and-advertising/menu-id-58

[Accessed 15th April 2013]

Social Comparison Theory,

Retrieved from:

http://www.psychologytoday.com/basics/social-comparison-theory

[Accessed 30th April 2013]

Do Celebrities Affect Your Body Image,

Retrieved from:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/cbbcnews/hi/newsid_4140000/newsid_4148800/4148861.stm

[Accessed 1st May 2013]

Psychology Today – Survey Says: Body Image Poll Results

Retrieved from:

http://www.psychologytoday.com/articles/199702/survey-says-body-image-poll-results

[Accessed 9th May 2013]

Photoshopping: Altering Images and Our Minds

Retrieved from:

http://www.beautyrefined.net/photoshopping-altering-images-and-our-minds/

[Accessed 10th May 2013]

Bibliography

Books and Journals

Becker, A., (2004) ‘Television, disordered eating and young women in Fiji: Negotiating body image and identity during rapid social change’, in Culture, Medicine and Psychiatry 28: 533-559.
Becker, A., Burwell, R., Gilman, S., Herzog, D., and Hamburg, P. (2002), ‘Eating behaviours and attitudes following prolonged exposure to television among ethnic Fijian adolescent girls’, British Journal of Psychiatry, 180, 509-514.
Grogan S., (1999) Body Image: Understanding Body Dissatisfaction in Men, Women and Children, London: Routledge
Gross, R. (2010) Psychology: The Science of Mind and Behaviour, London: Hodder Education
Martin, B., and Xavier R. (2010), ‘How do consumers react to typically larger models? Effects of model body size, weight control beliefs and product type on evaluations and body perceptions’, Journal of Strategic Marketing, Vol. 18, No. 6, October 2010, 489-501.`
Myers, P. and Biocca, F. (1992) ‘The elastic body image: The effects of television advertising and programming on body image distortions in young women’, Journal of Communication, 42, 108-33.
Silverstein, B., Peterson, B., and Purdue, L. (1986) ‘Some correlates of the thin standard of physical attractiveness of women’, International Journal of Eating Disorders, 5, 898-905.
Stunckard, A.J., Sorensen, T. and Schulsinger, F. (1983) ‘Use of the Danish adoption register for the study of obesity and thinness’, in S.Kety (ed.) The Genetics of Neurological and Psychiatric Disorders, New York: Raven Press
Tucci, S., and Peters, J. (2008), ‘Media influences on body satisfaction in female students’, Psicotherma, Vol. 20, no. 4, 521-524
Vaughan, K.K, & Fouts, G. (2003) ‘Changes in Television and Magazine Exposure and Eating Disorder Symptomatology’, Sex Roles, 49, 313-320.

Websites

Body Image, Media and Eating Disorders,

Retrieved from:

http://ap.psychiatryonline.org/article.aspx?articleid=50181

[Accessed 1st May 2013]

Eating Disorders: Body Image and Advertising,

Retrieved from:

http://www.healthyplace.com/eating-disorders/main/eating-disorders-body-image-and-advertising/menu-id-58

[Accessed 15th April 2013]

Social Comparison Theory,

Retrieved from:

http://www.psychologytoday.com/basics/social-comparison-theory

[Accessed 30th April 2013]

Do Celebrities Affect Your Body Image,

Retrieved from:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/cbbcnews/hi/newsid_4140000/newsid_4148800/4148861.stm

[Accessed 1st May 2013]

Psychology Today – Survey Says: Body Image Poll Results

Retrieved from:

http://www.psychologytoday.com/articles/199702/survey-says-body-image-poll-results

[Accessed 9th May 2013]

Photoshopping: Altering Images and Our Minds

Retrieved from:

http://www.beautyrefined.net/photoshopping-altering-images-and-our-minds/

[Accessed 10th May 2013]

How Media, Advertising and Celebrity Culture Affects Female Body Image

This is a preview of the whole essay

Document Details

Related Essays

How does the media represent female bodies?

'Society affects how people perceive themselves, Body Image awareness still...

To what extent does the Media affect body image in teens and their percepti...

Popular American Culture - Beauty in the Media. America heavily relies on...