18th November 2015- Media Pressure

Pressure from the media is a huge concern in todays society.

This documentary will be airing on BBC1.
The purpose of this documentary is because images of female bodies are
everywhere, with women and girls and their body parts selling everything from
food to cars.
Popular film and television actresses are becoming younger, taller and thinner.
Womens magazines are full of articles urging that if you can just lose those last
twenty pounds, you will have it all, the perfect marriage, loving children and a
rewarding career.
Why are these impossible standards of beauty being imposed on girls? The
majority of whom looks nothing like the models that are being presented to
them?
The causes, some analysts say, are economic: by presenting a physical ideal that
is difficult to achieve and maintain the cosmetic and diet industries are assured
continual growth and profits.
It is estimated that the diet industry alone bring in 60 million billion dollars a
year selling temporary weight loss, with 80% of dieters regaining their lost
weight.
Marketers in particular know that girls and women are insecure about their
bodies and are more likely to buy beauty products, new clothes and diet aids.
A whole media industry has developed around fuelling bod dissatisfaction.
At the age of three girls already prefer game pieces that depict thin people over
those representing heavier ones, while by the age of seven girls are able to
identify something they would like to change about their appearance.
These attitudes only get more powerful as girls get older. In one survey that we
carried out we asked 14-18 year olds if they would change anything about them
selfs, every single one of the participants we asked said they would defiantly
change something about the way the look ranging from body shape, hair, teeth,
spots, freckles and even some shocking answers such as Everything.

The effect of expose of these images go beyond influencing girls to buy diet and
beauty products.
It is vital that girls and women develop a critical understanding of the
constructed nature of media representations of womens bodies and the reason
why these images are perpetuated.

Moreover they need to be empowered to challenge these representations and

advocate for more realistic representations.
The reason for this is because girls exposure to these messages starts so
young, it is also vital that this education starts at an early age.
Teenagers are addicted to social media; they are being drugged in to looking a
certain way.
This uses the hypodermic needle theory which means that that media messages
are injected directly into the brains of a passive audience.
It suggests that we're all the same and we all respond to media messages in the
same way.
If society teaches us to be thin, we live up to this expectation and this then
becomes the norms and values of our society.
Teens are so emotionally invested in social media that a fifth will wake up at
night and log on this is how obsessed we are as teenagers with social media.
We constantly want to know what is going on around us, we want to be updated
with the new gossip from celebrities and as individuals we feel if we sleep we
will miss the opportunity of this.

We interviewed a male who was 18; we asked him as a victim of media pressure
do you think more people should be made aware of the effect on young boys. He
responded in a concerned manner that, people should be made more aware of
the situation as not enough is being done about it, he said the fact boys have to
face the struggle of needing to look a certain way due to the ideas of appearance
provide by the media, I have faced years of bullying for the way I look. i asked
him if this has affected him mentally he replied over years of constant bullying I
know suffer with depression. Constantly knowing I am not good enough. Its an
awful feeling and I think something needs to be done about it now.
Traditionally, most of the concerns about media and body image have revolved
around girls, but more and more researchers and health professionals are turning
their attention to boys as well.
A growing body of research indicates that although boys are less likely to talk
about their insecurities, they too experience anxiety about their bodies.
Cultural expectations that males have to be nonchalant when it comes to their
physiques makes body dissatisfaction in boys more difficult to assess, but there
is little doubt they are affected by the media representations of idealized
masculinity . However as advertisers are turning their attention to young men as
a lucrative demographic, It is unlikely that such representations are going to
disappear soon.

A study from 2008 found that young men were more self-conscience about their
bodies after reading the Lad magazines featuring photos of sexualized scantilycald women. Based on this belief, women often expect to find themselves in a
similar situation. This trend is usually found in womens magazines, where males
are presented as sexual objects.
Boys who are unhappy with their bodies are almost equally likely to be
concerned about being too thin as being too fat. It suggests that interventions
based on those that have been designed for girls may be less effective with
boys: for instance, researcher found that bodi-mojo which is a campaign based
on body image found that it was more successful with girls In comparison to
boys.

So tune in on Tuesday 8th December 9pm on BBC1 to find out more.