Entry 5

I’ve found few websites that inform and give statistic about the media influence on people, so I did a summary of all that, so we can have an idea how we are all driven by it.

Body Image

Eighty percent of 10-year-old American girls diet. The number one magic wish for young girls age 11-17 is to be thinner. (justthink.org)

Females cite the media as the most important source of pressure to be thin.(If Looks Could Kill, Reaves)

Studies show that reading “teen magazines” and having exposure to thin models creates lower self-esteem, body dissatisfaction, decreased confidence and potential eating disorder symptoms (mediafamily.org)

By age 13, approximately 53% of American girls are “unhappy with their bodies”. This number will increase to 78% once girls reach 17 years of age. (National Institute on Media and the Family)

Advertising

Key points from Killing us Softly, Kilbourne

In addition to products, advertising attempts to sell women the myth that they can, and should, achieve physical perfection to have value in our culture.

As advertising pushes its objects, it turns women’s bodies into objects, often dismembering them with excessive focus on just one part of the body to sell a product.

Advertisers themselves acknowledge that they sell more than products, that the images in advertising are designed to affect the way we see our lives.

Men and women inhabit very different worlds. Men’s bodies are not routinely scrutinized, criticized and judged in the way that women’s bodies are.

Media images of female beauty influence everyone. They influence how women feel about themselves, and they influence how men feel about the real women in their lives.

Magazines

Women’s magazines have 10.5 times more ads and articles about weight loss then do men’s magazines

1 out of 11 ads has a message about beauty

In a study of 17 magazines, the largest percentage of articles were about appearance

60% of white middle school girls read fashion magazines

Magazines account for more than half the reading reported by teens

Girls, more than boys are dissatisfied with their bodies and report magazines as their primary source of information

Subjects exposed in a study to seeing thin models reported lower self-esteem than those seeing regular or oversize models

60%+ of college students feel worse after reading magazines

Changes found in magazines between 1970 and 1990 include increase emphasis on fitness for attractiveness and a decrease in the model hip to waist ratio (becoming less curvy)

Little girls and teenagers are increasingly sexualized in advertisements. A growing number of ads are reminiscent of child pornography.

Advertising is not solely to blame for rigid gender roles. However, there is no aspect of our culture that is as pervasive and persuasive as advertising.