Media Exposure and Male Body Image
We are all used to seeing the "ideal" man just as much as the "ideal" woman in America. Men are taught that they need to be powerful and masculine and this coincides with body image and preference for a certain body type. Men who constantly obsess about muscularity tend to use steroids to speed up their "bulk". When it comes to media exposure and perceived body image, women and men are not very different from each other in their reactions towards bodies they see on television and the like, "...men who were exposed to muscular male images collected from magazines and TV commercials displayed higher body dissatisfaction immediately after the exposure compared to men who were exposed to neutral media images"( Anschutz et al. 309). The "ideal" for men may be to be bulky and muscular but when you analyze male characters in media there is a vast array of body sizes in television programs, magazines, and the like. Men are more able to step outside of the "ideal" box than women. Unfortunately characters of different body sizes are oftentimes type-caste if they are shown in movies (for example, heavy men are usually the "funny guys"). The fact that men are able to be all over media in different shapes and sizes and women are not is the biggest problem though. Black Women and Media Exposure When compared to white women black women are not as prone to being overly concerned with their body images. "Research suggests that Black women are less likely to rely on others’ approval, less likely to idealize dominant (White, thin) norms" (Dal Cin & Greenwood 222). It may quite possibly be because the thin ideal is a westernized and predominantly the white aesthetic in media that black women do not show as much concern about their body surveillance and image when compared with white women. When black women were asked what they thought their "ideal" media character would be that they looked up to, it was usually a curvacious or heavier black woman (Dal Cin & Greenwood 230). One has to wonder what a black woman feels when she is seeing her body portrayed in rap music videos. Do black women accept the nature of the women being objectified in rap videos as the "norm" of their culture or do they internalize the images and deeply feel horrible about women and young girls of their ethnic group? |
Media That Promotes Positive Body Image
Not all of the body image pages are meant to bring everyone down by bringing up the negative obstacles that people face. There are certain forms of media out there that are trying to enforce positive body image aesthetics. There were media outlets who did studies exposing women to more realistic body shapes and they called these women that they portrayed on screen, in magazines, and the like as "real women". "To the extent that images of average-sized models focus viewers’ attention on their own bodies, it may trigger a fear of fatness among female viewers" (Smith & Swami 154). Perhaps the social conditioning that women have experienced their whole lives when it comes to the "ideal" woman in media provokes these triggers. It becomes a shock when a woman is exposed to a "real woman" when all she is used to seeing is the thin ideal. The study done exposed women to a variety of clips from British television shows that depicted women as being naked and promoting positive affirmations about body image while showing this to the audience. The study raised important dilemmas with promoting positive body image in television programming. For instance, one researcher criticized Dove's campaign for women in all shapes and sizes because they "espouse an acceptance of diverse physical bodies while simultaneously reflecting many traditional beauty standards and practice" (Smith & Swami 163). Maybe the study done can suggest to us as a society that we much re-condition people to think outside of the thin ideal and be more accepting of their bodies by infiltrating not only "average" or "heavy" sized women in media but, all sizes (including thin women) because every single person has a different body and no body should be excluded because of this. |
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