The Prefect Body ~Vs~ Self-Esteem And Body Image: The Struggle That Teenage Girls Face
The Prefect Body ~vs~ Self-Esteem and Body Image: The Struggle That Teenage Girls Face
Your Name
School Name
Com120
Professor Name
Date
Everyday we see perfect bodies in television shows, magazines, music video’s, and movies, but how does all these perfect body images affect teenage girls. Media images of the ideal body reinforced by peer pressure negatively affects adolescent girls self-esteem and body image.
The Struggle to Maintain the Perfect Body Image
Media influences adolescent girls by portraying unrealistic body images that even some models and actresses struggle to maintain. Recently model Ana Carolina Reston died as a result, of an eating disorder. When Ana Caroline died, she had a body mass index (BMI) of 13.4, and weighed only 88 pounds (Current Events, 2007). Even though Ana Caroline was grossly underweight, she was a successful runway model. The ultra-thin bodies of runway models are not healthy, and not realistic. Ana Carolina tried to maintain this image on nothing more then apples and tomatoes (Current Events, 2007). While she walked the runways of the world she was starving to maintain the image that the industry portrays as ideal. Does the fashion-industry by allowing underweight models to work increase the pressure for models to go to these extremes?
The fashion-industry needs to take a closer look at the ultra-thin body image that they portray. Some member of the fashion-industry, have taken steps to prevent this from happening again. Fashion officials in Madrid, Brazil, and Argentina have set standards for the BMI ensuring that models must have a BMI of 18 or higher (Current Events, 2007). Some fashion-industry executives admit that models are very thin; however do not believe that they are to blame for the weight related heath issues in teens’ (Current Events, 2007). The fashion-industry designs these magazines for teenage girls to seek out tips on fashion styles. The fashion-industries need to realize that by...
View Full Essay
