Body Image Stereotypes

The media has a bad habit of creating the stereotypical body image for both females and males. It affects men and women differently on how they perceive the body image. So how does this affect us, and how do men and women differ when it comes to the media’s perception?

For women, the media and models usually set the standard for the stereotype of how a women’s body image should look like. The stereotypical woman is portrayed to be a tall, thin white woman with blonde hair. There are some women that look like this but it’s really not the standard image of a woman because most woman really don’t fit that stereotype even though the media makes it seem like they do because that’s what the media makes them think. Beauty magazine are one of the worst offenders because they put a lot of articles in them that tells woman what they should look like and how they should obtain that image. This also puts a lot of pressure on women who don’t look like this and think that they have to. The body image that models give to women is very unnatural, very hard to obtain and extremely unhealthy. Seeing this type of image, this causes a lot of young women to develop bad eating habits and become anorexic (Serdar, 2012).  

            The media not only affects women on body image but also men. The media also portrays men with an unrealistic stereotyical body image. There are shirt less men with perfectly fit bodies with a six pack chest, not a single hair on their chest and the perfect hair. Typically, this is not how the average guy looks. Usually people don’t think that men are affected by media body image but they are and it puts a lot of pressure on men as it does women. However most men won’t go to the extreme of eating disorders like anorexia like women, they are more concerned with the hair on their body, their odor and their muscle mass.  Magazine and advertisements are a major contributor in this, even on a deodorant commercial for men you don’t see your average Joe, you see a shirtless guy with the perfect cut body (Carefair.com, 2006).

Reference Page

Carefair.com. (2006). A man`s body image and the media – muscle isn`t always the "it" thing.

Retrieved from http://www.carefair.com/Men/Mans_Body_Image_1798.html

Serdar, K. (2012). Female body image and the mass media: Perspectives on how women

internalize the ideal beauty standard. Retrieved from

http://www.westminstercollege.edu/myriad/index.cfm?parent=2514&detail=4475&content=4795