Effects of Advertising on Our Body Image Term Paper

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advertising aims to convince us to buy things, ads seldom portray people that look like us. The billboards, the commercials, the polish, the panache, the beauty products that promise a drink from the fountain of youth all offer, in what ever form they choose a chance at a viable, workable self-esteem. But these offers are intangible and indeed elusive. One can usually only attain the skinny legs and the full voluptuous lips by plastic surgery or starvation. Most women who are featured on the cover of major magazines are altered. Either made lighter, darker, thinner or larger in breast size. These "false body images," do not accurately portray the general population, and in the end does more to damage self-esteem than its claims to resurrect it.

The average female fashion model wears sizes 0-4, while the average American woman wears between a size 12 and a size 14. Over the years, many designers have asserted that they only choose thinner models because the clothes look best on them, as if their creativity and artistry are not adequate to look gorgeous or sheik on the majority of the population. But studies show that the majority of people tend to trust what they see. In such an environment, the average person can easily confuse a photo shopped image as being a truthful depiction. The constant barrage of unrealistically skinny images can stir up feelings of inadequacy, anxiety and depression. It can even lead to the development of eating disorders like anorexia and bulimia.

The reality is that 91% of women surveyed on a college campus had attempted to control their weight through dieting.

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22% dieted "often" or "always." 86% report onset of eating disorder by age 20; 43% report onset between ages of 16 and 20. Studies show that Anorexia is the third most common chronic illness among adolescents. 95% of those who have eating disorders are between the ages of 12 and 25. 25% of college-aged women engage in bingeing and purging as a weight-management technique. The mortality rate associated with anorexia nervosa is 12 times higher than the death rate associated with all causes of death for females 15-24 years old. Over one-half of teenage girls and nearly one-third of teenage boys use unhealthy weight control behaviors such as skipping meals, fasting, smoking cigarettes, vomiting, and taking laxatives. In a survey of 185 female students on a college campus, 58% felt pressure to be a certain weight, and of the 83% that dieted for weight loss. This is a far cry from the 1950's, when advertisement was less about body image and thinness, and more about an idea of beauty that reflected the majority of the population.

There are many factors that contribute eating disorders. Social factors, such as professional models and what the media portrays as beautiful to cultural pressures that glorify thinness and place value on obtaining the "perfect body. The psychological factors include a quest for perfection, Low self-esteem, and feelings of inadequacy or lack of self-control. All of which are exploited by the barrage of advertising that constantly litters the highways and magazine covers.

Susan Bordo wrote a moving piece called "The Empire of Images in Our World of Bodies." Bordo writes "When television was introduced.....

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"Effects Of Advertising On Our Body Image" (2012, April 19) Retrieved June 26, 2025, from
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