how the media portrays women essays

how the media portrays women essays Due: 5-14-01 Literacy How does the media portray women today? Some studies have suggested that the media's portrayal of the "ideal body" for women has had a big impact on the increase in women's body dissatisfaction. Research also proposes that this media exposure is linked to the increasing occurrence of eating disorders and body image disturbances. We do know that the media and other psychology solely cause eating disorders. Emotional, and developmental factors play a big role. It does not appear necessary, however, to investigate the effect the media has on women and eating disorders. Past research has emphasized the way media images affect peoples abilities to accurately estimate their own body size. The conclusions have been that eating disorder patients and women showing high body dissatisfaction tend to overestimate their body size after viewing thin female models. These findings show that certain women are affected by exposure to the media's ideal women, but it has not explained why only some women are affected. A recent Australian study attempted to determine which women are affected by investigating how women feel about their own bodies and how this alters their perceptions of female celebrities. Ninety-six female undergraduate psychology students from the University of Sydney participated in this study. Students took the Body Shape Questionnaire (BSQ), which measured their concerns about their own body shape. Students suspected of having an eating disorder were not included in the study. Participants were then shown one accurate and six distorted photogra phs of thin and heavy female celebrities and were asked to choose which photograph portrayed each celebrity's true body shape. Participants were separated into low-body-shape-concern and high-body-shape-concern groups. The high-body-shape-concern group judged the thin celeb ...