Women: What is beautiful according to Media?

The appeal of thin, sexy women in the media sells clothes and image. However, women’s representation in the media has pressured American teen girls to think they must be skinny to be considered pretty. As an article in “Reuters UK” states, “Almost nine in 10 American teenage girls say they feel pressured by the fashion and media industries to be skinny and that an unrealistic, unattainable image of beauty has been created.” The article talks about how teen girls want to see models that are real-size. The article found that three-quarters of 1,000 girls said they would be more likely to buy clothes if they were modeled on normal-sized women. More than 80% of teens girls said “they would rather see natural photos of models rather than pictures that had been digitally altered or enhanced.” The media sells celebrities and models, which influence peers, also play an impressive part in affecting the way teens feel about themselves. The media continues to display women in a certain light because they know the society keeps buying this image.
In class, we have discussed portrayals of minorities in media. Media is reflecting the images that society wants—thin, sexy women. This absolutely corresponds with the reflection hypothesis because the media is presenting what society keeps approving, which is the physical portrayal of women to be stick thin and perfect. The ideology that the media leaves for society is that there are only a few things that make women beautiful: skinny and perfect.
If we know this is something the media sells, why do we buy it? If women know we do not need to be (because it is impossible) completely perfect to be considered beautiful, why do we still demean ourselves to succumb to these lies? We must realize that many images in the media are meant to make us buy certain ideologies—not be content in our current situations. We have to make sure we do not buy into the negative images media seems to portray. We must acknowledge that all images in media are digitally enhanced to make women want to become the image. This is a problem for all women, but nothing seems to be done in the media. The closest thing to “normal” images is Dove commercials, where real-size women are portrayed. So, what will it take for the media to accurately reflect the way women look? Will it ever? Is that the goal of the media?
Only time will tell…

http://uk.reuters.com/article/idUKTRE6104Q420100201

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=1731400614466797113#
For an example of Dove's countercultural images of women

--Betsy