The Media's Influence on Body Image
Are the girls and women we see in the media as perfect in appearance as we are led to believe? Do these "perfect" females truly exist? Do they set an appropriate and obtainable example for girls and women to follow? If not, what are the consequences of not being able to live up to the ideals they create?
There is a price to be paid for the clarity we now enjoy in computer monitors, high definition TV, print, and photography. Modern high resolution imagery captures greater detail than was possible in the past, allowing the smallest detail to become obvious to the naked eye. In addition, the camera tends to emphasize "imperfections," especially when a flash or bright lights are utilized. As a result, makeup and special camera techniques are frequently required to allow women to appear "natural" on film, or in electronic media. These factors should be taken into consideration when viewing the images on this web page, and in the media in general.
The advertising images in popular magazines are created solely to sell merchandise. They are designed to motivate the viewer to buy the products and brand names presented. Girls, teens, and women want to look like the models they see in these images. They don't want to look like the girl next door, they want to look and be perfect. They are compelled by social pressures to buy the merchandise that will allow them to look like these young, attractive, popular, glamorous, and sexy women. What girls and women aren't told is, the merchandise presented doesn't come with a professional makeup artist and image editor. In reality, no one looks like these women, not even the models themselves.
Here are a few examples of models with and without makeup.
I do not believe the women shown above would be considered unattractive, even without makeup. Makeup merely allows them to conceal blemishes and accentuate their facial features. I also believe these are examples of "the girl next door," rather than supermodels. We are likely to meet women on a daily basis who look similar to them, with and without makeup. As attractive as they are, they still aren't "perfect," at least by today's standards. Lets see what a little photo manipulation can produce after the makeup artist and photographer have done their jobs.
Here are examples of images before and after computer editing
In the images shown above a real woman has become a cyber woman. Computer animation in the past lacked the ability to create and show detail, which resulted in computer generated women being too perfect, i.e. they lacked wrinkles and blemishes. They looked obviously fake. Today, we remove the details from images to create perfection. The imperfect has now become perfect, the desired. Open the latest copy of any popular magazine and look at the women in the advertisements. Do you see wrinkles or blemishes, or is their skin and shape "unnaturally perfect"? If you buy and use the products they endorse will you be just as perfect as they are, can you be as perfect as they appear to be?
The following images allow us to compare how this woman sees herself when she looks in a mirror versus how we see her in the media. Which images more accurately represent what you see when you look in a mirror? Will you ever resemble her media image?
Would the Real Madonna
Please Standup!
In the image shown on the right, more than a little photo manipulation has been used to sell a product. Will the product deliver the advertised results? Does Madonna actually use their product, or have they merely paid for the rights to use her image? Has she even seen the advertisement? Doesn't Madonna look like a mannequin in the altered image; too perfect? Do you want to look like a mannequin, or a real woman?
If this is how the public perceives you, would you perhaps be motivated to undergo plastic surgery? I don't know that Madonna has or would have plastic surgery, I am simply making a point. If you idolize her, what would you be willing to do to be just like her? What does it do to your self esteem if you aren't as perfect as she appears to be? What is the price for being a "material girl?"
Misrepresented Role Models
The publishing and movie industries are less than subtle about altering the appearance of the women that adorn their magazines covers and movie posters, as demonstrated in the following examples.
Despite Keira Knightley's popularity and fame the media in the United States hinders her ability to be a positive role model for teenage girls and adult women with equally small breasts.
"Computer trickery: Keira's UK promotional material reveals her flat
chest and right, in the US version, she boasts a fuller chest""Keira Knightley is furious because her breasts are always made bigger on American movie posters.
The 'Pirates of the Caribbean' star, who has always insisted she is happy with her modest assets, says she is sick of seeing herself on the front cover of magazines and in ads with digitally blown up boobs.
She said: "I don't have any t**s, so I can't show cleavage. But you're not actually allowed to be on a magazine cover in the US without at least a C cup because it turns people off.
"Apparently they have done market research and found that women want to see no less than a C cup on other women. Isn't that crazy? So they make my t**s bigger."
The 21-year-old actress' chest was famously enlarged for the 'King Arthur' posters, in which she played Guinevere.
Keira said: "Those things certainly weren't mine. I remember we had an interesting discussion when they said, 'We want to make them slightly larger and you'll get approval', and I was like. 'Okay, fine. I honestly don't give a s**t'." (Bang Showbiz)"
The article quoted above was originally published on July 14, 2006. Source
In reality the size of Keira's breasts is somewhere between the two extremes shown above. In the photo on the left her breasts have been compressed by her costume and on the right they are digitally enhanced. The three images shown below more accurately reveal the size of her breasts, though I believe she is below her ideal weight in these images, which may result in her breasts being smaller than they otherwise would be. Despite the small size of her breasts I believe she looks surprisingly buxom in a series of video captures from one of her films, during which she revealed her bare breasts. The apparent size of a woman's breasts is greatly dependent on how they are presented to the viewer.
Here is a second example involving Emma Watson, the actress who plays Hermione Granger in the Harry Potter movie series. Note how her right breast has been slightly enlarged in the image shown on the right.
Here is how she truly looked at the beginning of 2008:
So why is it that movie producers are more than willing to cast teenage girls and adult women with small breasts in their movies, and the public is equally willing to go see them, yet the advertising community says these women don't receive the public's "approval?" Why do we frequently see actresses with small and even tiny breasts in scenes featuring nudity, and celebrity image databases feature these same women, if no one wants to see them and their modest breasts? Doesn't the popularity of Goldie Hawn and her daughter Kate Hudson over the past 40 years stand in stark contrast to their claim?
Kate Hudson and Goldie Hawn in 2005, Kate on the Cover of
People Magazine April 2008, Candid Photo of Kate Jogging in 2007Despite Kate's beauty and popularity she too was electronically enhanced in a 2008 promotional movie poster for the film Fool's Gold.
A comparison of Kate Hudson's media and natural images
The misrepresentation isn't limited to the movie industry. At first glance, how large do Kelly Ripa's breasts appear to be on the following magazine cover?
Now see how large her breasts truly are.
Based on first impressions, you may have believed Kelly has large breasts. On the magazine cover her top and chest have been digitally modified to give the illusion of significantly larger breasts. The truly interesting fact is, this modified image is used to attract the attention of women, this is a magazine directed at women. Her "digitally enhanced breasts" are being used to sell a product to women. Is it true, as Keira states above, that American women are turned off by breasts that are smaller than a C cup? Or do large breasts simply attract a woman's attention equally as well as men? Are women equally guilty of ogling large breasts? If so, women are influenced by society just as much as men. In this instance, perhaps to an even greater extent, as breasts are symbols of womanhood.
It isn't only the size of Kelly's breasts that have been altered on magazine covers, but also her belly button, as illustrated on the three magazine covers shown above and below.
Which of the following are her actual belly button?
The two belly buttons shown on the right are her actual belly button, she has an outie. The other two are her "digital innie belly buttons," which appear on the Shape Magazine covers. So do the readers of Shape Magazine dislike outie belly buttons whereas the readers of Fitness Magazine like them? It appears the readers of Fitness Magazine are also more comfortable with and accepting of small breasts. While both magazines are altering her photographs, when you compare them side by side, Shape appears to be doing it to a much greater degree; observe the size of her smile and darkness of her tan. Do the readers of these two magazines have different tastes and expectations, or do the publishers?
You might believe it would be nice to have breasts that are just like Barbie's, and choose to get breast implants. You have seen photographs of celebrities in magazines before and after their enhancement surgery, and their new look may be very appealing to you and others. Several celebrities are famous for their augmented breasts. What we usually don't see are public examples of what happened to Tara Reid.
What is wrong with Tara's appearance in the photo of her in the white bikini top? I would say she looks very attractive, and I am sure many would agree with me; only 25% of men value large breasts, to some degree. Didn't she appear in the popular movie American Pie when she had these small breasts, and obtained a celebrity status? Why would an attractive woman want and get larger breasts? What compelled her to undergo breast augmentation surgery?
In the photograph on the left the overly large cups of her top have been spaced far apart to give the illusion of greater cleavage and larger breasts. If you look closely you will see her breasts are smaller than they first appear. Note how the black bikini top is actually smaller than the white one, even though her breasts are much larger in that image. Another example of manipulation of reality. By having the surgery she may have been trying to live up to the public image the media had created of her. If a young woman wants to be as popular as her, will she be motivated to undergo augmentation surgery?
The photos shown below reveal what is hidden by her black bikini. As she has since publicly admitted, her first augmentation surgery had some undesired results, as indicated by the amount of scarring around her areola. Did her larger breasts truly make her more perfect? Until the "wardrobe malfunction" she admitted to neither the surgery or the undesired consequences. Why would she admit to being less than she is perceived to be by her fans and the media, as less than perfect?
As the following photographs reveal, less than ideal results from augmentation surgery are not as rare as plastic surgeons want us to believe. Yes, implants do make your breasts larger, but does this automatically make them better than they were before?
Is having larger breasts of greater importance than the resulting shape of your breasts, the direction that they point, the location of your nipples and areola, their sensitivity to stimulation, and the amount of scarring? Is their size, or more accurately, the size of the bra that conceals them, the only thing of importance? Has society programmed men and women to believe they should want Barbie's unnaturally large, firm, and shaped breasts? I read one woman's comment where she said she didn't want implants that gave her breasts a larger yet natural appearance, she wanted and got breasts that are unnaturally round and firm; they look as if they are made of plastic. Many if not most adult film stars have acquired breasts that look like Barbie's, as they are too large for their frame, defy gravity, and are unnaturally firm. What does this say about our society, rather than the individual women who undergo breast augmentation? What message are we sending to our children and ourselves?
While we may want to run out and burn every Barbie doll in sight, this doll, and others, are merely representative of popular social expectations of women in American society. I don't believe the Barbie doll would have become so popular if young girls hadn't already wanted to look like "her" at the time the doll was first produced in 1959; Marilyn Monroe was a popular and buxom actress at the time.
At a young age girls are already aware of social ideals, or at least the media's representation of it. I talked to one young girl who already knew why boys liked one particular photo of Britney Spears, it was one of her wearing a cleavage producing top. The doll your daughter wants or plays with may reflect what she wants to look like when she is an adult, as this is what society expects of her. Can she ever live up to this expectation?
If Barbie's measurements were increased to adult size she would be 6 ft tall, weigh 101 lbs, measure 39" at bust, 14" at waist, and 33" at hips, and wear a size 4 dress. The average American woman is 5 ft 4 in tall, weighs 163 lbs, measures 36-37" at bust, 29-31" at waist, and 40-42" at hips, and wears a size 11-14 dress. The ideal weight for a woman who is 5 ft 4 in is 114-151 lbs, depending on frame size. Are you closer in size to Barbie or an average woman? There is a huge difference between the fantasy represented by Barbie and the reality of the average woman. What does this do to the self esteem of girls and women? Source 1 Source 2 Source 3
Bad Hair Days
The following images are often presented in an attempt at putting down and belittling actresses and models. Some seek to prove they are less than us, to knock them off their pedestal. I present them so we can see they are the same as women in general, that they too have bad hair days, don't always or never dress up to go to the store or gym, have menstrual cycles that cause acne, and simply have bad moments and days. They are normal people some choose to idealize rather than admiring their skill or natural beauty. In many cases they fall victim to the same media that we do, of their own public image. What do you more closely resemble, their real or media image? Taking into account the information presented above, which image are you more likely able to be able to copy? Or should you be your unique self, valued for who you are rather than who they appear to be? As the tabloids are quick to point out, their lives are no more perfect than our own.
http://seehere.blogspot.com/2006/08/celebrities-without-makeup.html
Click on Their Photographs to Learn About Each Celebrity
A comparison of Jessica Alba's media and natural images
