The main aim of my research is to find out how and in what ways the media influences young girls idea of the ideal body shape. I will present them with pictures of celebrities from magazines
The Media plays an important role in influencing young girls on the ideas on the ideal body shape.
I have chosen to study and research this statement as I believe that the media puts pressure on young girls to conform to to the idealistic images constantly portrayed in the media. ‘Slimming’ articles along with related television programmed has increased. The number of young girls within this age span that develop eating disorders has increased in the last thirty five years. I feel that the media and its ideal of super slim models and celebrities that dominate the media affect me.
Concepts and context
I intend to tackle the issue head on and first of all ask the question what is the relationship between the media and eating disorders. Vaughnhan and Fous conducted a study looking at the amount of time that girls were exposed to media and the development of eating disorders. They used 374 girls ranging from 12-14. They were surveyed twice at different times, each being one year apart. The girls were given the same survey both times which contained questions regarding the amount of time they were exposed to fashion magazines and TV. They also included questions that would reveal symptoms of have eating disorders. After obtaining the results from these surveys they were able to com up with some possible conclusions. The results showed that the girls who had increased their exposure to fashion magazines from the first survey to the second had also increased signs of eating disorder symptoms, and visor versa. The evidence from this study suggest that there is a definite link between developing eating disorders and the media. Results also imply that girls become influenced by the media and can develop a complex about their bodies from a young age. From this we can see that media has a direct effect on young girls which could lead to eating disorders. Girls/women predominantly strive to be perceived as attractive to the opposite sex. I want to see if within the last fifty years the ideal body image has changed. Is the ideal woman sown as slim, attractive young etc.? Garner, looked into this when he assed the height , weight and body measurements of Playboy centrefolds and miss America pageants from 1960 to 1979. He found that the percentage of the average weight of the models had decreased. In 1960 the average weight of playboy models were 91% of the average mean, but by 1978 the mean weight of the models had dropped to 84%. It would be interesting to see id this trend continued, from my own observations of women used in the media today, when the normal size for a model is a size 6, I would believe that they had, from looking at various popular fashion magazines. This would suggest that the statement ‘thin is in’ used in these magazines is true. Both studies suggest that the concept I lay out, that women’s ideal shape that they strive to be is directly influenced by the material they read, is very much true.
