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Makenzie Vogt
7 March 2014
Kim
AP Prep

A teenage girl gets home from school and is excited to find that her favorite magazine,
Seventeen, has arrived in the mail. She takes the magazine to her room where she drops her bag
and settles on her bed to read. As she flips through the pages of the magazine, a black and white
fitted dress catches her eye. While looking at the dress and the model in it, she decides that it
wouldnt look as good on her, because she doesnt have the small figure that the photographed
model does. She gets up off her bed, walks over to her mirror, and tugs at her stomach while
wishing that she could be the same size as the model in the dress.
This girl is just one of many teenagers across America who struggles with a negative
body image.
These struggles with body image are the building blocks of much deeper, more serious
internal struggles. Body image pains that start simply as small dissatisfactions or discomforts
with appearance and weight, have the ability to quickly turn into much larger battles with self
image.
Self image is a personal internal dictionary that is used to describe the characteristics of
the ones self. The words that are chosen to describe these characteristics develop into personal
representations of assets and liabilities as they are seen by the individual himself (Fostering a
Positive Self-Image).
Today the internal dictionaries in teenagers are being chipped away at, causing increases
in depression and eating disorders. The chisel being what teens grow up with and see everyday in
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magazines, on TV, in movies, and in advertising. Although it isnt the only factor with a
negative impact on teenagers self image, media and societies standard of a perfect girl, play the
most prominent roles.
In America today, the importance of physical appearance is emphasized and reinforced
early on in the most impressionable stage of a childs development (Serdar). In childhood,
society's image of a perfect body are already integrated into a childs mindset through popular
toys, such as Barbie and Ken. The standard of beauty that young girls come to value is Barbie
while boys come to value Ken. With her leggy, busty figure and body that would make it
impossible for her to stand up if she were actually a young adult, she sends the message that for a
girl to be socially accepted she must be thin, well endowed, and glamorous (Starr). For boys,
Kens tan, barrel chest, and enormous neck sends the message that to be found acceptable in
society, they must have a solid, athletic build (Croll). For boys, they are not only affected by the
Ken doll, but also the Barbie doll. By seeing the societal standard for a girl in a Barbie, they
grow up with the idea that the girl they should have the desire to be with, should have that
appearance.

Source: Croll
For adolescents, this is only the start of medias display of the perfect body. As they grow
older, they will find that media will continue to interject these messages through other avenues
including television shows, commercials, and stores.
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Robin Lewis, on behalf of the CEO of Abercrombie and Fitch, Mike Jefferies, states, He
doesnt want larger people shopping in his store, he wants thin and beautiful people. He doesnt
want his core customers to see people who arent as hot as them wearing his clothing. People
who wear his clothes should feel like theyre one of the cool kids(Wright). The medias
publishing of such attitudes projects a negative message to impressionable girls. These sorts of
messages are internalized by teenage girls and have the ability to cause issues with body image.
Some people many argue that by only carrying these sizes, retail stores and media are
promoting healthy body sizes. However, according to information that was introduced by
William H. Sheldon PhD in 1940, there are three different body types or somatotypes (The 3
Somatotypes). The first of the types being Ectomorphs, people with this body type are long and
lean with little body fat and muscle. These people generally have a difficult time gaining weight.
Then there are the Endomorphs who have a lot of body fat and muscle and who gain weight
easily. As noted by Colby, these individuals arent necessarily overweight, they are just heavier
and rounder individuals. Finally, the Mesomorphs are people who have strong, solid, athletic
builds. According to Colby, these people arent underweight or overweight and they can gain and
lose weight with little to no effort. According to Sheldon, people are born with one of these three
body types or a combination of two, based on skeletal frame and body composition (The 3
Somatotypes). Due to this, an individual can be completely healthy, but still not fit a size six.
With that being said, this is an invalid argument because depending on the body type that an
individual possess, there are different standards of healthy body sizes. In actuality, with retail
stores like Abercrombie only carrying certain sizes, they are promoting unhealthy lifestyles
because customers with larger body types internalize the fact that they cant fit the clothes and
then they end up dieting, which in some cases, can progress into eating disorders.
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In America today, reality shows are just another form of media. This generation of
teenagers has more access to reality television than any generation before. These reality shows
consist mostly of young, rich, beautiful girls with small figures, 94 percent of which are below
average weight (Chernoff). Teenage girls who are exposed to this type of media are being taught
that the key to being recognized is not having integrity, intelligence, or a good work ethic, but to
be a certain size and to look a specific way. As if the messages that are sent during the show
arent enough, viewers are bombarded with messages about how they should look during
commercials as well. Jim Steyers, CEO of Common Sense Media, a nonprofit organization that
critiques media puts emphasizes on this subject by stating that By the time a girl is 17, she has
seen more than a quarter-million messages about what she is suppose to look like (qtd. in
Chernoff).
Societal standards of beauty are presented in all the forms of popular media discussed
above, but none have quite as severe an impact as that of models. Today, on average, models
weigh 23 percent less than the average woman, yet they have come to set the standard of beauty
(Chernoff). The media, providing almost constant exposure to images of models who fulfill the
unrealistic standards, making it seem as if it is normal to live up to the ideal (Serdar). The
problem that is faced by many teens is that of the near impossibility to meet the criteria that the
media uses to define beauty. With all the pressure from the media to match societys ultra-thin
standard of beauty, body image struggles have the potential to develop into battles with self
image and/or eventually eating disorders.
Over the past few years, womens body sizes have grown larger while societal standards
of body image have become much thinner (Serdar). As an effect, some teens have started to fall
victim to potentially life-threatening tactics, including anorexia and bulimia, in order to
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transform themselves into what society defines as beautiful (Romo).
Anorexia often begins with an emotional reason. People who suffer from anorexia are
trying to use food as a way to fill emotional needs such as love, belonging, or to ease loneliness
(Smith 15). People with anorexia become stressed out when they are around food because they
feel tempted to eat, but are afraid of getting fat. If they do not eat, the result is weight loss but, if
they do eat, they feel regret and defeat. These are the types of feelings that commonly result in
depression (Smith 15). As a result of having nearly constant exposure to what the media
considers attractive, some teenagers will overlook all these mental and physical consequences in
an effort to achieve societys idea of a perfect body.
As the second most common eating disorder among teens, bulimia nervosa is yet another
repercussion of societal standards of body image (Teen Bulimia Statistics). Bulimia involves
binge consumption of food that is compensated for by extremely dangerous and unhealthy
dietary habits, the most common of which is vomiting. Teens with bulimia will eat large and
excessive amounts of food, but in effort to stay thin, will vomit, fast, use laxatives, or exercise
vigorously to force all the food they consumed out of their system (Smith 16). Actions like these
have the ability to quickly develop into a habit that has long term effects. These effects can range
from dental problems to stomach ulcers or, in extreme cases, death. Unfortunately, some teens
mistakenly believe that this disease is not a serious issue. As a result, they continue bulimic
actions for months or years, destroying their mental and physical health in the process (Teen
Bulimia Statistics). A teen with bulimia is usually not overweight. They are just extremely
obsessed with being thin due to messages constantly sent through media.
Some people many argue that peers and parents play a larger role than the media in the
development of battles with body image, self image, and/or eating disorders. They might argue
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that parents can cause the battles due to them being overly concerned about their childs body
weight or that peers can cause them due to the pressures they evoke to look a certain way. In
some ways, this argument valid, but does not seem to take into consideration, how media is
impacting those individuals as well. Peers are being impacted by media both first and second-
hand. They are being impacted first-hand by the messages that are sent through forms of media
including televisions and advertising, while being impacted second-hand through their parents,
who have been affected by media in their own way. While this argument is correct, they failed to
recognize the fact that everything is traced back to the media and societies standard of beauty in
some way.
With the aggressive progression of our need for communication, the medias influence is
more widespread than ever. It has disguised itself as a norm of everyday life and has engulfed
itself as part of our culture (Romo). Although these advertisements and societal norms that were
discussed above have become just another part of the world we live in, they are instilling this
ideology in our society and in the generations beneath us, and we are letting them. It is these
portrayals in our society and media that are driving teenagers everywhere to have struggle with
body image, self image, and/ or eating disorders.