As we are learning, the media plays a large part in how we view our bodies and how we think others view out bodies. Because of the Violence of Normativity, girls form a young age are taught that they need to have control over their body size. They are taught what is social normal, attractive and necessary to fit in, find a man, and have friends. This all reminded me of a study we learned about in my Social Psychology class. This study was conducted by Lawrence D. Cohn and Nancy E. Adler. Cohn and Adler went to a college campus and brought with them a picture of body types of men and women. They then took this picture up to girls and asked them a series of questions. The first is what number best describes your body type right now. On average girls answered they were currently between a 4 and 5. The next question was what number would you like to be? Most girls answered they would rather be closer to a 3. Finally they were asked what number do you think your peers want think is most attractive?Most answered that that thought their peers think under a 3 is the most attractive. The same was done for boys. Currently boys thought they were a 4. They wanted to be less then a 4 and thought that their peers wanted then to be closer to a 5.
This Study shows that we all feel that we need to improve our body types, what to be thinner then we are and think that our peers want us to be even thinner then we want to be. All of this adds pressure and stress to us to try to conform to an idea of what we think our peers what us to look like.
In actuality, our peers do not want us to be as thin as the models we see all the time trying to tell us that to be pretty, successful and popular we need to look just like them. So why then are these women still the model of perfection? If most people do not think their friend or girl friend or boy friend needs to look just like a model to be attractive successful and popular, shouldn't these models portray a more normal image? But then also, if all the models people strive to look like, just look average, what will people have to motivate themselves to look good?
http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/cgi-bin/fulltext/119986371/PDFSTART?CRETRY=1&SRETRY=0
I would have to agree with everything you said. I think i have seen an experiment like this on the Tyra Bank Show where the girls had to pick out what they thought they looked like then they took it to the streets and had strangers pick out what body type they thought she was. Needless to say none of the girls "saw" there self in a positive light. All the people on the streets picked out smaller body types then they did for themselves. I think its sad what women are being forced to do to look a certain way and if they dont like that way they dont see themselves in a good light. I can say i use to be one of those people, i wanted to look a certain way and would do anything to look that way like barley eating and always working out. It didnt help that i had friends around me doing the same thing and it was seen as a positive thing to do. Like you were in control of achiving this model image. I think as long as the media tells girls to look model thin we are always going to have women going to extrems to achive this image. With this there wont be a positive image of women becuase they wont be seeing themselves as pretty if they arent that thin. People shouldnt have to look a certain way to be pretty but as long as there are images out there with skinny models and the media saying "how to achive the pefect beach body" with a skinny celeb. there is going to be this crazy obession with looking a certain way. I still think we have a long ways to go before there is aceptence for all shapes and sizes.
ReplyDeleteThis case was very interesting and it made me think of real life situations where I have asked guys what their ideal girl should be like and their response always seems to amaze me. Most guys will answer with an answer that is unexpected. We girls tend to thinkt that the smaller our waist gets the more attractive we will be. I mean lets be honest...the Victoria Secret models are sizes 3 and under. When guys respond they say they want not too skinny with a little junk in the trunk but fit, maybe a size around 4 or 5. So I as well dont understand why the role models we see in the media still remain of smaller size? It makes me question do guys really think that or are they trying to get rid of the shallow persona that many men fall into? I don't know what the answer is but I do know that no guy can resist the Victoria Secret fashion show which consists of tiny girls with bodies that are incredibly hard to achieve.
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