media now plays an important part in the development of a teen’s body
image.
CARD 3:
The visual image is by far the most impressive image. How many times
have you seen a fuller bodied person on the front of a magazine or
newspaper. Not often. Teenagers, particularly girls, are attracted to
and buy magazines that are full of beautiful, thin male and female models
and strive to be just like them. However, the images can be misleading,
as little do teenagers realise, that these pictures are regularly digitally
enhanced, to make the models appear thinner and therefore perfect.
CARD 4:
Again, on the television, how many times are larger people portrayed as figures of fun and the thin people as being smart, bright and intelligent.
Even the story lines are often written in such a way so that the thinner
person is usually accepted by the in crowd and the larger person is
only accepted because they are with that person.
Although in these pictures models may look fit, and healthy they aren’t. According to medical standards they fit into the category of anorexia,
due to the fact that they are maintaining a weight, which is 15%
below their expected body weight.
CARD 5:
The world of entertainment is also a very powerful media. Singers,
actors and actresses are all portrayed as being young, and very thin.
CARD 6:
Such as the Cheeky Girls portray very unhealthy figures and diets
to young, vulnerable children; they only claim to eat slices of melon and vitamin supplement pills. Is this a good image to put across to the younger generation? Shows like “Model Behaviour”, where watched by 1 out of 5 female teenagers in the UK. This shows that the media is very power and manipulative tool in today’s world.
CARD 7:
Although girls are more likely to be affected by body image, boys are
at risk as well.
Research shows that 47% of men are concerned with their body size
and diet or exercise in an attempt to redefine their natural body shape.
CARD 8:
A photograph in a magazine doesn’t create obsessions with weight
and diet, they can certainly make them worse, but at the end of the
day these emotions come from inside the person and not a magazine
or a model.
CARD 9:
The media need to find a real concept of beauty that is based on
the diverse shapes of the female race. Magazines and the fashion
industry should provide readers with more realistic models, with
figures that boost their confidence rather then crush it!
CARD 10:
So who is to blame? Perhaps we should look at the role we
ourselves play before we start placing all the blame on the media.
We may have forgotten that as much as a cliché as it sounds, “It’s
what’s on the inside that counts.”
