Media and Body Image

Molly has always been considered a very beautiful and healthy 20 year old woman. Outside, everyone thought that Molly had no problem, but she was short of nutrition in her body. Molly suffers from anorexia. It's all harmless, but things do not get so fast. She watched TV and was shocked by the image of a woman in the media. All of the women depicted in the media are thin and curved, with little body fat.

Recently we know that the media closely relates to the image of the body. In particular, the image advertisement of the body depicts the image that affects our own body. Of course, there are many other factors that influence our body image: child rearing, education, intimacy etc. However, popular media has a big influence. Americans spend 250 billion hours a year to watch television. According to California State University Northridge, advertisement accounts for about 30% of all TV broadcasting time. Ordinary children see commercials of 20,000 TVs a year. Of course, it is not the place where only the TV watches advertisements. Popular magazines, especially women's magazines and many young people's magazines, are filled with advertisements. Pop-up ads are also displayed on the web.

Media media is one of social and cultural influences, and as a result of thorough investigation, the focus of the media's image on the image of the body is the focus. Studies have shown that women who watch many TV programs and read about fashion magazines are more likely to physically change by media than men (DC Jones, Vigfusdottir, & Y.Lee, 2004; Ricciardelli and McCabe, 2001). However research has shown that the media is unrealistically ideal, affecting dissatisfaction with the body of the woman and being accused of being hungry (Wykes & Gunter, 2005). Men are tall and muscular, whereas men's magazines, advertisements, television, the Internet, etc. have these pictures everywhere, while the media draws the appearance of women as thin and big breasts. Use techniques and special effects when editing photos to make images more perfect than real life

Recent studies have revealed that the media image of an "ideal" female model affects the body image of women, leading to dissatisfaction and emotional distortion. Review the evidence of this relationship between media presentation and body image distortion and propose a theoretical model to explain this association. In particular, the use of social comparisons in women's self-concept seems to be an important psychological structure to understand the influence of media on physical images. Based on empirical evidence and the proposed psychological mediator, several measures have been proposed that might be used to block the effects of the media or to address these effects. Especially, it seems that psychoeducational education prevention measure and group treatment gives the greatest hope.