James 1 Tiffany James Dr.

McConnell Mass Communications II 30 January 2013 Negative Body Images Negative body images, has been a topic talked about years. There have been numerous studies done on how the media has caused women, men, girls, and boys to think negatively of their bodies and the way the look. And if anything the topic is probably tired and played out from how much people talk about it. However, it continues to be a hot topic among Americans, but not everyones opinions are the same. Authors Shari L. Dworkin and Faye Linda Wachs talk about how advertising targets people and gets people to think that their idea of healthy and beautiful is the only idea of beautiful they should have. Dworkin and Wachs say that, instead of reiterating long held subject/object dichotomies that tend to analyze the situation from the position that men are given the status of subjects while women are objects, we rely on Frigga Haugs concept of the subject-aspects-within-being-as-object. Subject-aspects-within-being-as-object according to Haugs refers to how women experience identity, subject-hood, and pleasure in the process of bodily objectification. Shes saying that women get their power and a good opinion of themselves from being able to meet the standards of the current cultural ideals of women. They also focus on how in todays society both men and women fear getting fat. How both women and men are starting to be treated like objects. And how the media seems to show how necessary it is to keep oneself groomed and up to date on the latest fashions. They state, Fat is

James 2 now a powerfully feared cultural transgression. For both men and women, any visible body fat is presented as problematic.The article talks about how the media talks about how the country has an obesity problem and how people need to be healthier, but the authors are stating that yes people need to be healthier, but they need to do it the right way. I understand where Dworkin and Wachs are coming from with their assessments of how the media, especially advertisement can cause negative body images because yes there are those young gullible teens out there who want to fit in with everyone else and will do anything to achieve it. But I also see that not everyone is affected by what the media describes as beautiful and healthy. Michael P. Levine and Sarah K. Murnen have a different opinion than Dworkin and Wachs on whether or not the media cause negative body images. Levine and Murnen state, A growing number of parents, biopsychiatric researchers, clinicians, and cynical adolescents find proclamations about media as a cause of any disorder to be an irritating distraction. They feel that a lot of body disorders are self inflicted or are due to psychological issues. The article focus on eating disorders which are composite expressions of a set of dimensions, like negative emotionality, binge eating, and unhealthy forms of weight and shape management. It also includes, restrictive dieting, self-induced vomiting after eating, and abuse of laxatives, diuretics, diet pills, and exercise. They go on to ask how the media is causing eating disorders when on a small percentage of people acquire eating disorders. It has also been found that only a small number of studies support the ideas that the media cause negative body images and eating disorders. Tiggemann suggests, That by early adolescence the causal risk factor is not media exposure, or even internalization of the slender beauty ideal, but rather the intensity and extent of core beliefs and assumptions about the importance, meaning, and effect of

James 3 appearance in an individuals life. I can also identify with what Levine and Murnen are saying that its not the medias fault that people look at themselves negatively. After reading and analyzing both articles I cant really say I agree or disagree with either one. The both make good arguments on their own behalfs and they did a fair amount of research to back up their arguments. All I can really say is that I can see and understand both arguments. Im also impressed that the two articles finally got close to talking abo ut the same thing.