Media has become an all encompassing, inevitable part of modern life. From films and television to social media and billboards, the media is a constant part of our lives and its influence is unavoidable. While the media certainly has merit, it also has serious issues, particularly in its representation of women. Starting from a very young age women see unrealistic, idealized images of women in the media. Young girls view unrealistically beautiful animated princesses in media aimed at children, and the unrealistic beauty standards continue through adulthood. While it may be easy for an adult to look at Cinderella, for example, and think “Of course I do not look like her, she’s a cartoon, a drawing of someone’s fantasy,” what about a picture of a model in a magazine that has been digitally altered to be perfect? What about the celebrities on television who are all thin and beautiful and have had makeup artists, hairdressers, and stylists spend hours making them look their very best? It is very easy for women to fall into the trap of comparing themselves to these idealized women shown in the media. As Julia Wood writes, “media’s unrealistic images of men, women, and relationships encourages us to see ourselves, by comparison, as inadequate” (244). When the media only shows women with one rather uncommon body type and presents digitally altered photos in magazines and billboards, it leads women to believe that that is how women should look and if they do not look like that there is something wrong with them.
Several theories show how the idealized versions of women shown in the media can hurt women. The first is social comparison theory, which states that we compare ourselves to others and upward comparison (comparison with someone we find superior in some way) is correlated with depression (Serdar). The media offers constant sources of upward comparison and sets a standard for women to aspire to that is impossible to attain. The second theory that explains how woman are affected by the idealistic media representations is cultivation theory. This theory states that the idealized version of women is so prevalent in the media that woman start to believe that is reality and lose sight of the fact that that version is unrealistic (Serdar). When woman constantly see examples in the media of tall, thin, women that conform to the traditional ideals of beauty, they believe that this is what women look like and that they are inferior because they do not look like that.
Women are exposed to unrealistic representations of women from many sources including movies, television shows, music videos, and magazines, but the representation of women through advertising is particularly detrimental to women’s self esteem and body image. Wood write, “When we see perfect bodies in magazines and on television, we may feel our body is not good enough... Advertising plays on that insecurity by telling us that if we buy a certain product or have a certain procedure, we will look better” (241-242). Advertisements purposefully make women feel inferior to the women promoting the products so that they buy the merchandise in an attempt to make themselves more like the women in the advertisements. Of course that is not possible, as the women in the advertisements are chosen for their “ideal” body type and then digitally altered to be even more unattainably perfect. The women shown in most magazines have been airbrushed to have wrinkles, pores, and blemishes removed, slimed down, and often even had their facial and body proportions changed. This practice is so prevalent and troubling that “The American Medical Association recently announced it was taking a stand against image manipulation in advertising, stating that alterations made through processes like Photoshop can contribute to unrealistic body image expectations, eating disorders and other emotional problems” (Diller). The media’s representation of women and the unattainable beauty standards created by that representation is a serious issue, but there is hope. As Julia Wood writes, “Media messages encourage us to measure up to impossible ideals. When we fail, as inevitably we must, we feel bad about our bodies and ourselves. Accepting media messages about our bodies and ourselves, however, is not inevitable: Each of us has the ability to reflect on the messages and resist those we consider inappropriate or harmful” (243).