Media Contribution to Body-Shaming (Essay Sample)

Media Contribution to Body-Shaming
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Introduction
The world today revolves issues that affect people’s livelihood. One of the most talked-about issues that affect people’s lives is the topic on body image. The average person constantly endeavors to have a good-looking appearance, be successful, and also remain happy. It is from such popular yearnings that the media defines the image considered by many as perfect. Consequently, human beings fall for the media’s perfect image with the notion that they need to follow such images in order to be happy in life. At times, the media plays a positive role by encouraging people to remain healthy. However, there is also a downside that normally manifests itself as body shaming.
Media Contribution to Body-Shaming
In the modern world, the media portrays the ‘thin ideal’ as the best image. Different types of media such as TV commercials and talk shows, magazines, and movies all define attractive women as those that are ideally thin. There are constant tips in the magazines today about losing weight and attaining a slimmer appearance. Reality shows, such as America’s Next Top Model, have become the new type of craze for the ideal body shapes. The women in such shows are a reflection of the ways in which the social standards of beauty have attained morbid levels (Vargas, n.d.). Despite the women featured possessing thin bodies, they continuously continue to engage in weight loss discussions such as strenuous exercising, detoxification, and dieting.
It is unfortunate that young women consider models and other celebrities with thin bodies as role models. The media today does not even have a definition of a normal-sized woman. As such, even the young generation becomes exposed to such representations at an early age. The immediate access to such types of media creates disharmony to those without the thin ideal body image. Those who compare themselves with the thin models and celebrities are bound to have some form of guilt as they consider themselves to have a negative body image. They end up developing low self-esteem which becomes unhealthy both mentally and physically (Grabe et al., 2008).
Body shaming has become one of the most frequent topics on the media today. Criticizing of one’s physical appearance seems to have been accommodated as a norm in the society. The frequent use overweight characters as the basis to tell jokes only goes to prove this. Quite interestingly, nowadays, men are also becoming victims of the same impossible scenarios initially imposed upon women (Brodeur, 2015). Such an act is bound to have some very serious repercussions. Irrespective of the form taken by such criticism, there is always the shame of judging people by their physical...