The Effects And Influences Of Mass Media On The Perception Of Beauty
Abstract
This informative research paper reviews body image and its different spectrums, going into further detail about how easy an external subject can influence a person's perception of their own body. The main external subject that will influence a person's body image is the media and how it is manipulated and altered to seem more appealing to its intended audience. How media is edited and manipulated is also a focus that will lead into how unachievable beauty standards can affect an individual and a society as a whole.
The Effects and Influences of Mass Media on the Perception of Beauty Contemporary society has made it nearly impossible to find an aspect of media that has not been altered or manipulated in any way. In an attempt to make media seem more appealing to it’s directed audience, it is molded and manipulated whether this be something as influential as a critical news story or something as miniscule as a random social media post. Seventy-eight percent of media is reported as “manipulated”, while only thirty-six percent of media can be seen as accurate (CITATION).
Media manipulation, specifically photo altering, can be predominantly found throughout the beauty industry. The model that the beauty industry displays is one containing unachievable features, projecting unrealistic beauty ideals onto society and those viewing it. The manipulation of digital media has become such a prominent issue in modern society that it has produced unrealistic beauty standards while simultaneously bringing the number of mental health issues and eating disorders to a head. Body Image Body image can be defined as the feelings people have about the way that the look. These feelings are heavily influenced and extend towards how a person believes another person views them. Body image focuses in on a person's basic physical appearance. The most common attributes that society weighs in on are body shape, skin color, hair color and texture, and facial features. Societies various reactions to a person's physique can produce a positive or negative body image. A person who possess a positive body image does not accept external influence when it comes down to how they feel about their bodies and generally feel good about their overall appearance. Somebody who carries a negative body image is not satisfied with how they look. A deeply embedded negative body image can lead to physical and mental health issues. Negative feelings stem from the opinions of family and friends, but mostly the media. Body image is heavily influenced by film, television, and social media. A 2015 report by Common Sense Media found that a person's consumption of mainstream media puts them at risk of developing unhealthy approaches to their bodies.
Women and men are seen as the subjects of the media’s objectification, which unintentionally reduces an individual's value to solely their physical appearance. Doctor Dina Borzekowski, a professor at John Hopkins school of public health notes, “ Social media may have a stronger impact on people’s body image than traditional media. Messages and images are more targeted: if the message comes from a friends it is perceived as more meaningful and credible”. Insinuating that while a person's perception of themself can be shaped by all areas of media, social media is the culprit for governing a person’s negative body image. Within the beauty advertisement industry lies the fashion industry. The fashion industry can be held responsible for producing the irritationional ideal that the only acceptable body shape is one that is thin and slender. The current media ideal of thinness for women is achievable by less than five percent of the female population. (K. Fox, 1997, p. 2) The general population often compares themselves to the images produced by the fashion and modeling industry. The corrupted ideas and concepts of what a typical body shape should be is placed into a viewers head. Without realizing that these ideals are unachievable, the audience compares themselves to it and becomes unsatisfied with their body image, resulting in a negative body image, all as a result of false advertising.
Manipulation of Media
Photo altering is when an image is edited, whether it be changes applied to small details or the overall aspect of the image. The idea of manipulating an image was introduced in 1860 by President Abraham Lincoln in a famous photograph where a composite of President Lincoln’s head was placed over southern politician, John Calhoun’s body. Photo manipulation can also be found in earlier history. Joseph Stalin was known for airbrushing his enemies out of photos. The idea of manipulating a photo so that it meets a standard unable to be produced by a camera and a subject has been carries through history into contemporary society. Though the simple idea has become more complex and almost unethical, it commonly be found in many aspects of modern media. (K. Czerminski, 2013, p. 1)
The leading application for digital photo altering is Photoshop. Creative retouching is a type of photo editing that can controversially be considered an art form and is performed through mainstream editing software, specifically Photoshop. Digitally altering images has achieved such a high level of popularity from the creation of Photoshop, that it can be performed on a mobile device through simplified editing programs that have been converted into apps. Those using Photoshop often view it as a tool aiding in the extension of an idea, which is in a sense, attaching it to a positive concept in an attempt to conceal it’s over-arching negative effects. The negative effects of digitally altering photos range from a viewers having misconstrued ideas of a certain subject to much more serious issues such as an entire society believing a false ideal produced by a digitally edited photo.
Furthering the concept of altered images, the majority of beauty advertisements have been edited to fit an unachievable beauty ideal, whether a company is willing to admit it or not. The beauty industry is extremely vulnerable when it comes to the blind interpretation of manipulated media because of its susceptibility to to current trends. Within the beauty industry, advertisements that are frequently found retouching their photos are hair care and mascara advertisements. These sectors of the beauty industry thrive in the retouching of their photos because the beauty ideal of having lengthy and full hair and eyelashes is unachievable with natural circumstances by majority of the audience.
Effects and Influences
Being that it as has been over one-hundred years since the first example of photo manipulation, it is a given that ideals and standards have fluctuated over the allotted time. From the 1900’s to now, a prominent beauty standard that has not done much shifting is the “ideal” women’s body shape. The standard body shape has been volleyed between two ideals over the past century. Initially, women were expected to have a smaller chest and shorter hair to portray a slender, boyish figure. Towards the beginning of the 1930’s fashion icon Marilyn Monroe shifted the focus towards women being full figured and having an hourglass look.
During this time period, women were expected to look their best at all times of the day regardless of their circumstances, this type of pressure can and will easily induce psychological issues such as body dysmorphia and severe anxiety. Monroe single-handedly shifting the ideal boy shape of women from being slender to have a full figure shows just how easily standards can be adjusted. In contrast to the constant fluctuation of beauty standards in the early 19th century, social media and other technological advancements have made it increasingly difficult for viewers to be in alignment with beauty standards that stem from social media trends. Instagram is said to have around 800 million users. Though it is impossible for all of their active users to be influenced by a single genre of posts, the audience reached by a single post is immense. Some examples of beauty trends that have been introduced through the misuse of social media are thigh gaps, bikini bridge, and ribcage bragging. All of the beauty trends birthed from social media are detrimental to not only a person's physical health, but also their mental health. In an attempt to conform to society's unrealistic and unachievable body ideals, society as a whole, but specifically active social media users take on hazardous methods and routines to seek an identical body shape to those of which that match the current standard or trend.
A study conducted by the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine revealed that young adults who use social media heavily are a lot more likely to develop negative body images and eating disorders. (M. Williams, 2017, p. 1) The development of an eating disorder will not only pose an extreme threat to a person's body, but will also negatively affect their mental state. A product of a fully developed eating disorder is body dysmorphia which can be defined as a situation where a person only notices their perceived flaws and solely focus on the negative aspects of their body. Body dysmorphia will affect each detail of a person's daily life, being that it’s side effects include depression and severe anxiety.
Industries similar to the modeling industry have zero shame when the prominence of eating disorders is brought into the public eye. In fact, they take pride in the unhealthy lifestyles of models by explicitly making a unhealthily slender body shape the required beauty standard for those that wish to succeed within the fashion realm. The beauty industry is a prime example of how influential manipulated media is on a society that is easily swayed by beauty standards that change frequently. The negative effects of manipulative and altered media have been present throughout the past century. Technological advancements such as different social media and photo editing applications have placed a focus on its many hazardous effects. The beauty industry has a heavy influence on mass media and must be regulated as a result of it’s abuse of power. The misuse and manipulation of media has become such a prominent issue within modern society that it’s long-lasting effects have not only produced unrealistic and unachievable beauty standards, but have placed an emphasis on mental health issues and eating disorders, putting modern society at risk.
