Media
promote distorted body images
By Ramon Torres
On-line Forty-Niner
Many
students experiencing body-image dissatisfaction
concern health professionals because of
the prevalence of distorted body image among
women.
This may be fostered by their constant self-comparison
to extremely thin figures promoted in the
media.
Psychologist Jennifer Gosselin of Counseling
and Psychological Services at Cal State
Long Beach said that one of the most direct
links to problems is the development of
eating disorders, such as bulimia — characterized
by episodic, uncontrolled binge eating followed
by feelings of guilt, depression and self-condemnation.
“And also, it just impacts relationships;
I mean, every aspect of the person’s life
is affected by how they perceive themselves,”
Gosselin said.
“And we live in a society where physical
appearance is such a big part of people’s
identity, especially for women.”
Silvia Prag, a double major in sociology
and Spanish, said that there are people
who have this problem that find it difficult
to get support from family and friends.
“It would be wonderful if students with
this kind of problem could talk to someone
about it and get the proper help,” Prag
said.
Advertising images have also been recently
accused of setting unrealistic ideals for
males.
Both adult men and boys are beginning to
risk their health to achieve the well-built
media standard.
Teen People magazine found in a survey that
27 percent of the girls felt that the media
pressures them to have a perfect body.
According to mediascope.org, a poll conducted
in 1996 by the international ad agency Saatchi
and Saatchi found that advertisements made
women fear being unattractive or old.
Psychologist Judy L. Prince, also of Counseling
and Psychological Services, said depression
and low self-esteem from body-image dissatisfaction
are related to isolating one’s self and
feeling bad.
“I think it is helpful to look at the problem
from a broader social perspective,” Prince
said. “I believe there are a lot of societal
and cultural forces that influence us to
behave in a certain way.
“Media really influence how we view ourselves,
how we defined success, how we define beauty
and I think these forces are really powerful.”
Dissatisfaction with their bodies causes
many women and girls to strive for the thin
ideal.
Mediascope.org reports that 75 percent of
“normal-weight” women think they are overweight
and 90 percent of women overestimate their
body size. Girls aged 11 to 17 consider
it important to be thinner, while girls
as young as 5 have expressed fears of getting
fat.
Prince said that Counseling and Psychological
Services is planning to have a discussion
group next semester for women who experience
body-image dissatisfaction.
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