Teenage girls and the media term paper

Breast Enhancements, Teen Pregnant state, Anorexia Nervosa, Plastic Surgery

Excerpt from Term Paper:

Teen Young ladies and Media

Because of its pervasiveness, mass media just like magazines and television programs are increasingly in a position to influence the behavior and attitudes of teenage girls. Actually television applications such as IM OR HER and sports-oriented teen journals have been lauded for offering girls with positive part models.

Sadly, these programs and publications remain the exception as opposed to the rule. Instead of promote healthier lifestyles or perhaps give positive role designs, much of the mass media targeted to young adults are both bodily and mentally harmful. This kind of paper looks at two of these types of main results – the promotion of unhealthy behaviors and life-style and the developing tendency of such media to sexualize young adults and turn them into customers.

Unhealthy practices

For observed feminist Germaine Greer, the popularity of television shows such as Baywatch represent an evergrowing pandemic, in which all ladies are expected to conform to a great unrealistic body shape. Greer terms this pandemic as “body dysmorphic disorder, ” the one which is linked with an abnormal female form that is accomplished through hunger diets, depilatories and surgical treatment (Greer 65-67).

This ought to conform to unrealistic body requirements infects girls at a progressively previously age. A newly released study of 12, 1000 children between your ages of 9 and 14 demonstrate that media’s influence on girls’ going on a and weight concerns equaled the influence exerted by parents and peers (“Weight concerns in preteens and young young adults influenced by media… “). This signifies a change via just a decade ago, when ever parents and peers were the biggest socialization factors in an adolescent’s existence.

This capacity to influence teens is disturbing, mainly because most media choose to present a homogenous common of beauty. Most mags geared to adolescent girls, for example , characteristic thin versions with long shapely legs. Studies have shown that exposure to these kinds of ultra-thin pictures often leads to a negative skin image among young ladies. This bad body image in turn makes ladies more vunerable to eating disorders just like anorexia therapy or hambre (Goode).

A separate study conducted by analysts from Harvard University confirms these conclusions. In a study of 543 girls, the researchers discovered the 69% reported that magazine photographs influenced their idea of the perfect body shape. Furthermore, even though only 29% of the girls had been actually overweight, two-thirds had been on a diet to shed some pounds (“Magazines, TELEVISION SET linked to teens’, girls’ unhappiness… “).

On many occasions, these diet plans can adversely affect a girl’s well being. Even girls go on the liquid diets, risking their development and growth (Gardner 1998). Statistics show that as much as 80 percent of young girls who are of normal elevation and weight still want to look thinner. Critics refer to the media portrayals of teen idols such as Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera as one of the main factors behind this kind of drive to be thin without exceptions (Smith).

Experts also advise that this “cult of thinness” also harms young girls indirectly. Those who have negative human body images and low self-esteem are more likely to take part in smoking, unguaranteed sex and other risky tendencies (Manning).

While thinness happens to be promoted because beautiful and glamorous, couple of magazines mention the significant health problems of being too skinny – such as osteoporosis and reproductive : health issues (Brumberg and Jackson).