Cranston, Hannah, and John Iadarola. "What Is The 'Perfect' Female Body?

" and The

'Perfect' Male Body? YouTube. YouTube, 24 Jan. 2016. Web. 03 Mar. 2016.
The authors of this source are Hannah Cranston and John Iandarola. They made a video
on YouTube in January 2016 based on a poll taken on a lingerie website where people voted on
the perfect female and male body. The main point of this video is to show the difference
between what women and men think to be the ideal body. Although both bodies that were picked
were ultimately unrealistic, there was still quite a difference between what the men and women
chose. Cranston was noting women generally chose a smaller frame, on both the men and
women. The women chose very small features all over, and the survey used celebrities as
comparison bodies. The majority of the features that were picked by the women were very petite,
such as Emma Watsons hips, and Gwyneth Paltrows stomach. The men chose a slightly thicker
frame for the women, even though it is still a bit unrealistic. This proved true when the surveyors
evaluated the male body as well. Men seemed to choose a bigger body, with a larger frame and
shoulders. Women still chose a lean male, but the frame was not as large.
The purpose of this video was to evaluate results from a poll that was taken on the
website. This source can be seen as semi-reliable, because it is very recent and based on an
anonymous poll. However, as stated in the video, we do not know the options that were given to
the surveyors, and that could affect the outcome greatly. The authors of this, Cranston and
Iadarola, made this video to show what the beauty ideals are of women today. Cranston notes
that all of these bodies are quite unattainable for most people, and only a handful of people really
look like either of these perfect bodies.

I will used this in my research to show that even as relevant as last month a poll was
taken regarding beauty ideals, and it proved that the preferred body is a very small frame. It is
usually a very lean body with low fat that isnt necessarily realistic. Im sure that if this poll was
taken 30 years ago, the results would be drastically different. I believe this is due to the great
pressure to be skinny and look like a super model has had a huge impact on America, causing
everyones perfect body to be a unrealistically skinny figure.
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ZbA-xIhEYw, https://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=96Yi0aBn8iQ)
Milkie, M. A. (1999). Social comparisons, reflected appraisals, and mass media: The impact
of pervasive beauty images on black and white girls' self concepts. Social Psychology
Quarterly, 62(2), 190-210.
This is a book written by Mellissa Milkie, published by the American Sociological
Association, and it focuses on the impact of the media on young womens self-image. The author
talks about how social comparison through the media indirectly affects self-esteem in girls. She
also states that young girls of minority might even face more of a challenge, because they too
dont associate with these popular beauty standards. The writer wrote this to publish the findings
of research done based on social comparison and the role media has in this.
This source is credible for multiple reasons. Firstly, researchers completed content
analysis and experimental studies to support their findings for this book, and that is where a
majority of the data comes from. It also contains citations to other sources, for missing
information they didnt find themselves. It is also published by the American Sociological
Association in the Social Psychology Quarterly. This will be useful in my paper because it shows

a comparison of young girls of different races and the effects of the media on each of them. It
also is supported by scientific research, so I know it will be reliable. This again shows how
harmful the media can be on the development of young women.
(http://www.jstor.org/stable/2695857?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents)
Schooler, D., Ward, L. M., Merriwether, A., & Caruthers, A. (2004). Who's that girl:
Television's role in the body image development of young white and black
women. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 28(1), 38-47.
This is a journal written by multiple women, and published in the Psychology of Women
Quartely. The authors publish their findings on a study done with black and white women, and
the connections between TV watching and body dissatisfaction. This study also places a heavy
emphasis on race, and how that takes part in the self-esteem issue women have. The participants
were told to watch mainstream TV that was black-oriented or white-oriented and see how it
affected their perception of themselves.
This piece was written to study how the media and TV watching affects a womens selfesteem and view of herself. It even takes it a step further and divides it into race, to see if that is a
factor in it. Since it was written by the Department of Psychology at the University of Michgan,
it focuses a lot on body self-esteem differences between black and white women. This source is
reliable because it is a published study that was done by psychologists, and they have cited all of
their sources. They even gave a direct link to all the data they got their information from. I will
be using this information to see the role that race plays in body image and how much something
as simple as watching an hour of TV a day can affect a womens self-esteem.
(http://pwq.sagepub.com/content/28/1/38.abstract)

Serdar, Kasey L. "Female Body Image and the Mass Media: Perspectives on How Women
Internalize the Ideal Beauty Standard." The Myriad: Westminster's Interactive
Academic Journal. Westminster College, n.d. Web. 03 Mar. 2016.
This is an article on the Westminster College website written by Kasey Serdar. The thesis
of this article is the effect that mass media has on women is almost detrimental. It discusses
theories such as the Social Comparison Theory and the Cultivation theory and how the media is
the cause of these. The article is saying that there is such an unrealistic and unhealthy beauty
ideal that is projected in the media today, and it is only getting worse. The word beautiful in
America is now based on what 1% of the population looks like, and thats not an attainable
standard. The writer is writing this article to show the audience how much effect the media has
on beauty and body image, and it has turned into an unhealthy obsession.
This source is very credible. Although I dont know the date it was written, almost
everything that she wrote is cited. The author used multiple citations in every area of her work,
and most of them come from scientific studies and journals. When I see such sources, I know
that I can count on them knowing what theyre writing about. She also backs up her claims by
scientific evidence and theories. This article will be very useful for me in my research. This is a
prime example of my thesis; how is media affecting the populations view on body image and
ideals. It has lots of sources to back up the data as well.
(http://www.westminstercollege.edu/myriad/index.cfm?parent=...&detail=4475&content=4795)
Spettigue, Wendy, M.D., and Katherine Henderson, PhD. "Eating Disorders and the Role
of the Media." Journal of the Canadian Academy of Child and Adolescent
Psychiatry (2004): n. pag. US National Library of Medicine. Web. 19 Mar. 2016.

This is an article written by two doctors, Wendy Spettigue & Katherine Henderson, in for
Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychology. This article provides insight on the role of the
media in the development, prevention and treatment of eating disorders. It says that ultimately,
media does contribute to the development of eating disorders in young men and women. The
article states, A number of studies have documented the trend of increasing thinness in Playboy
centerfolds, Miss America Contestants, and fashion models between the 1950s and the 1990s.
During the same period there has been a significant increase in weight in American and Canadian
women, thus creating an ever increasing discrepancy between the media ideal and the actual
body size of North American women This is very relevant to my article because that is precisely
the main topic of my article- how body image is affected by the media. This is credible because
they have cited all of their sources, and they are mostly scientific journal entries. It also touches
on many studies and surveys that have been done to support their claim.
I think the authors wrote this article to bring awareness to kids and parents that what they
see in the media is unrealistic and unattainable. If the media is causing so many self-esteem
problems that people are developing eating disorders, it has clearly become a problem. I dont
think many people are aware of how toxic the media can be.
(http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2533817/)
Tiggemann, M., & Mcgill, B. (2004). The role of social comparison in the effect of magazine
advertisements on women's mood and body dissatisfaction. Journal of Social &
Clinical Psychology, 23(1), 23-44
This is a paper written by Marika Tiggemann and Belina Mcgill, from the School of
Psychology at the University of South Australia. This is a published study on the role of social

comparison processes in womens responses to pictures of thin models. The study consisted of
showing multiple women pictures of very thin models and then compared the participants body
satisfaction from before showing them the pictures to after. The purpose of this study was to see
how magazine advertisements have an effect on how women perceive themselves. Although the
point of the ad might be to make someone feel good about themselves and potentially want the
product, it may end up doing the opposite and hurting the womans self-esteem. The articles
states, This model maintains that current societal standards for beauty inordinately emphasize
the desirability of thinness, and thinness at a level impossible for many women to achieve by
healthy means. In fact, the gap between the average woman's body size and the ideal is now
larger than ever.
Although this was written about 10 years ago, I still think the data proves to be true. I
think that the media has only gotten worse with their advertisements, and body dissatisfaction is
at an all-time high. I think the audience for this would be anyone who is feeling bad about
themselves after looking at an ad of a skinny model, because I know it happens to many people.
The authors also cite all the sources they got their data from, including in-text citations. It was
also published in the Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology.
I will use the information from this paper for support in my essay that beauty ideals now
are almost unhealthy, and through the decades it has only gotten worse. Media is one of the
biggest contributors to body dissatisfaction and their ideals are unattainable.
(https://www.researchgate.net/publication/242576049_The_Role_of_Social_Comparison_in_the
_Effect_of_Magazine_Advertisements_on_Women's_Mood_and_Body_Dissatisfaction)

University of Washington. "Body Image & Nutrition." Teen Health and the Media.
University of Washington Experimental Education Unit, n.d. Web. 03 Mar. 2016.
This is a short article written by the University of Washington Experimental Education
unit. It comments both on healthy eating habits and the bad influence of the media in young
women. They write about how young girls get mixed messages from the media. On one hand,
they are getting ads for junk food and sweets, and then they see these stick-thin models and they
assume that is what theyre supposed to look like. They share with their audience that The
National Eating Disorders Association estimates that 81% of 10-year-olds are afraid of being fat
and between 5-10 million girls and women and 1 million boys and men are struggling with
eating disorders including anorexia, bulimia, binge eating disorder, or borderline conditions.
The purpose of this article is that while everyone should try to develop healthy eating
habits, its important to know that what is shown on TV is not the realistic body of a woman. The
audience is both teens and parents, because it discusses children as young as 10 years old. This
source is credible because it came from the University of Washington Education Department, so
I know that it was written by either professors or college students in the Education Department.
It also cites where the information is from, such as the National Eating Disorders Association. I
will use this data in my paper to express that media can have an effect on children as young as
10-years old, and it includes both young boys and girls. This influence the media has on
portraying an unrealistic body image on young children is extremely unhealthy.
(http://depts.washington.edu/thmedia/view.cgi?section=bodyimage)