Lewis 1 Jennifer Lewis Professor Bain-Conkin Writing and Rhetoric April 15, 2013 Social Media and Body

Image It would be a bold claim to put the blame for distorted body images on adolescents. Idealistic portrayals of bodies are plastered throughout our daily lives forcing the idea of perfection upon us through magazines, commercials, advertisements and a plethora of other forms of media. Social media, more specifically, has given women the chance to compare themselves to their friends and friends of friends, whereas the images portrayed in the media has always been seen as idealized versions. Difficulties with body images have been an impending issue for a long time and the influence of the media seems to have exacerbated the process. The media, ranging from advertisements and Facebook to music videos, has cause women to have distorted body images which leads to eating disorders and other mental issues. Does size matter? (Clune) A variety of universities have attempted to discover the effects of social media on body image, although it is a hard association to prove or disprove. The joint effort of Dr. Helga Dittmar, of the University of Sussex, and Emma Halliwell, of the University of the West of England, resulted in a study of precisely how - and why - ultra-thin media ideals used in advertising have a negative effect in making many women feel dissatisfied with their own bodies (Clune). Dr. Dittmar has said that previous research has already proved such, but that she wanted to further prove this point. She said, Body dissatisfaction can produce extreme body shaping behaviors, such as

Lewis 2 eating disorders. Women and girls can't help being exposed to ultra-thin models in advertising, whose body size is unrealistic and unhealthy. There is good evidence already that exposure to these unhealthy models leads a large proportion of women to feel dissatisfied with their own bodies. We still know little about who is most vulnerable, why or how these effects occur, and how we can best protect body esteem. This is what we are examining. " (Clune) These low self-esteems results in food deprivation and an increase in exercise, which has caused over 7 million women Americans to develop eating disorders (South Carolina Department of Health). With todays access to the internet, women are allowed to visit weight loss sights that are not very different from those of thinspiration ones. The small difference in the sites has caused people to drastically diet rather than trying to lose weight in a healthy way. This importance the media has placed on looking a certain way has caused women to obsess over these ideal bodies that do not even exist. The findings of Dr. Dittmar and Ms. Halliwell have exemplified the effects of the media that matriculates into the internet and surfaces on social media sites. The media has portrayed an ideal woman who has thighs that do not touch, completely flat stomach, no love-handles, no cellulite, and a glowing radiance. It is forced upon women from birth starting from the Barbies and dolls that plague the youth. It is a scary idea that the people who are experiencing these eating disorders can look in the mirror and see themselves as fat. Unfortunately, I fell victim to the same issues that I know many others my age were experiencing. I had lost so much weight as a result of pneumonia and I still looked in the mirror and did not see the body I aspired to have. Ultra-thin models are so prominent that exposure to them becomes unavoidable and 'chronic', constantly reinforcing a discrepancy for most women and girls between their

Lewis 3 actual size and the ideal body. (Serdar) Society sanctions standards of what an ideal body is and forces the idea that in order to be pretty you need to have a body with the aforementioned characteristics. In the United States, ninety-four percent of female characters in the television programs are thinner than the average American woman with whom the media frequently associates happiness, desirability, and success in life. (South Carolina Department of Mental Health). Many of the models shown on television, advertisements, and in other forms of popular media are approximately twenty percent below ideal body weight, thus meeting the diagnostic criteria for anorexia nervosa (Dittmar, 781). Even commercials explicitly describe how to obtain these idealistic bodies, which makes them all the more desirable. Because the media plagues women with such bodies, it makes it seem as though these bodies are normal and able to be achieved (Serdar). The media has created such drastic ends of body images, causing overweight people to lose hope and average weight people to feel overweight. My sister, Christina Lewis, works at a photo-retouching company in New York City, who does the photoretouching of advertisements for companies such as Aeropostale and Coach. She is constantly reaffirming the idea that she is the one who makes the models look the way they are, although she does not like this aspect of the job. They are average looking people who are retouched to look skinnier and blemish-free and are made into billboards and posters. Because the bodies of these women are constantly being retouched and edited, it makes the ability to obtain such beauty less attainable. For example, the Victoria Secret Fashion Show, which consists of some of the most beautiful women in the world, is not a live production because it is edited and retouched to make the girls

Lewis 4 look even more beautiful than they already are. Photo-retouching has changed the way that media influences body image drastically because it has allowed women to be perfected in every aspect, which sets the bar even higher for women. Not only are these idealized perceptions of women affecting average people, but beautiful celebrities as well. Tabloids are filled with pictures of people saying things like, Baby bump? and How I let myself go which creates this emphasis on weight, forcing this as a leading aspect of what beauty consists of. Miley Cyrus tweeted a picture of an emaciated girl with a caption, By calling girls like me fat, this is what youre doing to other people (Enayati). Cyrus, by medical standards, has never been considered overweight, but the media has this idea that people need to be skin and bones in order to attain the body that is plastered throughout the media. The effect the media has on women of all ages and backgrounds is shocking. Demi Lovato is an example of a celebrity who has fallen victim to such desire, which resulted in her battles with eating disorders. She attended a rehabilitation center to get help, but has admitted to relapsing several times since leaving the center (Enayati). Although Demi Lovato, as well as average people, may not have been called out for being overweight, these images are forcing such ideals on women of all backgrounds. The media has attacked healthy weight people, which creates an atmosphere that feeds into the distorted body images. It is easy to look at adolescents and ride their issues off by telling them that their issues of body image is inane, but the truth of the matter is that these problems are influencing a large portion of adolescents. According the National Association of Anorexia Nervosa and Associated Disorders, Forty-seven percent of girls in fifth to twelfth grade reported wanting to lose weight because of magazine pictures. Sixty-nine

Lewis 5 percent of girls in fifth to twelfth grade reported that magazine pictures influenced their idea of a perfect body shape. Forty-two percent of first to third grade girls want to be thinner. Eighty-one percent of ten year olds are afraid of being fat (ANAD). These statistics illustrate how young people are beginning to take on these pressures at younger ages. Facebook, as well as other social media sites, is supposed to be for people eighteen years and older, however who is to regulate the validity behind the age of these internet users? Hence, people of ages younger ages are beginning to surf the web and engage in these social media sites. The increase in the distortion of body images among adolescents could be a result of the early usage of social media, although this association is difficult to prove. Dina Borzekowski, professor at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, said, Social media may have a stronger impact on childrens body image than traditional media. Messages and images are more targeted; if the message comes from a 'friend,' it is perceived as more credible and meaningful (Enayati). The problem with social media is that the people who are experiencing these difficulties with body images are the ones creating the media. Furthermore, social media has created an atmosphere conducive to eating disorders. The idea of thinspiration is plaguing the internet and creating the issues of distorted body images. Facebook allows users to compare themselves to their friends and friends of friends, which is causing women to have self-esteem issues. According to a study done by the University of Haifa, The more time adolescent girls spend on Facebook, the more likely they were to develop a negative body image and eating disorders (Enayati). It is so easy for girls to edit their pictures to make themselves look nearly perfect and upload them to Facebook, which simply exacerbates this problem.

Lewis 6 Facebook allows people to compare themselves to real people, which is something that the advertisements and television had never caused. Someone once told me, You never log off Facebook happier than you logged on. This aphorism stuck with me because it is true. You constantly are comparing yourself to the beautiful people and deriding the less fortunate. Facebook is not the only social media site causing such problems, but Twitter is as well. There is a Twitter account called Thinspiration that tweets pictures of abnormally skinny girls throughout the day. This account has 4,286 followers. @Thinspire_all has 8,702 followers and tweets inspirational quotes on how to lose weight. Although these accounts do not condone eating disorders, they post pictures of bodies that can only be accomplished by a lack of eating and an increase of exercise. Youtube has also created a forum for adolescents to lose self-esteem. For example, a Youtube user, HAHAOMGLOL111, put up a video named Perfect Dancing Girl (Hannah Montana) WITH EMBED, and people posted comments regarding her weight on the video. The effects of comments such as, Fat ass you cant dance I dance better, What a fucking fat prick, Nobodys perfect obviously are going to cause this girl as well as so many others to have such self-esteem issues. It is horrifying to see the comments that people can post on the internet about peoples body weight and website,s such as Youtube, are conducive to such actions. The most jaw dropping of the social media sights is Tumblr. If you search thinspiration on Tumblr, you will find a plethora of images and sayings promoting this distorted view of body images. Some of the quotes include, Not eating light makes your clothes too tight, Every time you say No, thank you you say Yes please to thin, Dont eat. If you want to see food, look in the mirror at your thighs, A pleasure to the lips adds pounds to the hips. It is sayings like this that

Lewis 7 create eating disorders and an unrealistic view of body images. Happiness is the space between your legs. Was this the aim of David Karp, the creator of Tumblr? Freedom of speech is one thing, but this freedom to preach hate is exactly what is causing these issues with body images. Social media sites are creating forums for adolescents to deride the average to less fortunate looking people and praise the most attractive. The younger the people looking at these sites is setting up a generation of people who are to experience a troubling amount of issues.

Not to be forgotten is the influence music videos have on body image. Single Ladies by Beyonce, High School by Nicki Minaj, and Chelsea Hotel No 2 by Lana Del Rey are a few examples of music videos that are filled with these idealistic and retouched bodies. These images flash through music videos as women in scandalous clothes move their bodies in ways that should not be permitted to be plastered all over the media. Amy Slater and Marika Tiggemann of Flinders University found that women who view music videos plagued with abnormally thin girls are more likely to feel a loss of self-confidence. (Serdar) Because these women are subjected to forcing their body to look a certain way and dressing provocatively, it creates an atmosphere conducive to the difficulties with body images. The music videos are retouched, which not only causes people in them to feel bad about themselves, but the ones viewing them too. The beauty of music is something that has never seemed to fail, but the music videos that are becoming part of them is attributing to the issues with body images. The variety of ways that the media imbeds the images of the perfect body has caused a change in the perception of beauty and the way in which women view

Lewis 8 themselves. This perception of beauty that the media has created has lead to an increase in eating disorders as well as decreased self-esteem. Photo-retouching has changed the way women are seen because it allows them to be completely flawless and create this idealistic image that is completely unattainable. These issues are not only affecting the average American, but celebrities are affected even though they are the ones that help attribute to the situation. The younger people are thrown into the media, the more it affects them for the rest of their lives. Social media, such as Facebook and Tumblr, has created a forum for real people to compare themselves and continue to obsess over the desires of attaining the ideal body. Studies have shown that the more often women are exposed to such media, the lower their self esteem and the more prone they are to eating disorders. The faster technology advances, the more of an issue this is going to become. It is everyones responsibility to help fix this issue in order to help the women who suffer everyday.

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Lewis 9 Works Cited "ANAD." Eating Disorders Statistics National Association of Anorexia Nervosa and Associated Disorders. N.p., 2013. Web. 16 Apr. 2013. <http://www.anad.org/getinformation/about-eating-disorders/eating-disorders-statistics/>. Clune, Maggie, and Jacqui Bealing. "Does Size Matter? Research Tackles Female Body Image." University of Sussex Press Office, 14 Sept. 2004. Web. 16 Apr. 2013. <http://www.sussex.ac.uk/newsandevents/pressrelease/media/media433.html>. Dittmar, Helga, and Sarah Howard. "Thin-Ideal Internalization and Social Comparison Tendency as Moderators of Media Models' Impact on Women's Body-Focused Anxiety." Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology 23.6 (2004): 768-91. Enayati, Amanda. "Facebook: The Encyclopedia of Beauty?" CNN. Cable News Network, 01 Jan. 1970. Web. 16 Apr. 2013. <http://www.cnn.com/2012/03/16/living/beauty-socialnetworks/index.html?_s=PM:LIVING>. "South Carolina Department of Mental Health." Eating Disorder Statistics. Web. 16 Apr. 2013. <http://www.state.sc.us/dmh/anorexia/statistics.htm>. Serdar, Kasey L. "Female Body Image and the Mass Media: Perspectives on How Women Internalize the Ideal Beauty Standard." Westminster College: A Private Comprehensive Liberal Arts College in Salt Lake City, UT, Offering Undergraduate and Graduate Degrees in Liberal Arts and Professional Programs, including Business, Nursing, Education and Communication. Yamamiya, Y., T. Cash, S. Melnyk, H. Posavac, and S. Posavac. "Women's Exposure to Thin-and-beautiful Media Images: Body Image Effects of Media-ideal

Lewis 10 Internalization and Impact-reduction Interventions." Body Image 2.1 (2005): 7480.