Buy weight loss pills! Do you want to look like a Victoria’s secret model? why don’t you come along to this slimming sanctuary, you’ll definitely have a bikini body in less than 3 months! Everywhere you go, every website you click on, every magazine you pick up, you’ll find several advertisements about how to get the “perfect” body, women fall for these tricks hoping to look like models or have a body everyone dies for but these are just spells that the media puts on them, trying to persuade women that there is only one body type that is beautiful or that unless you have a certain type of body you aren’t good enough or you’re not worth it. the media has created an image in their minds of what the “perfect” body type is and saying there a simple ways of getting this body but in reality all the models you see in magazine’s go to extremes to get these bodies.
Events last year on the MRT illustrate the extremes that people go to when two teenage girls were scrolling through their instagram newsfeed when one of them came across a photo of Essena O’Neil and said “I wish I had a body like that”. At the time I would have been on the same boat wishing for a body like that but recently this model decided to quit social media and edited the caption on her photo’s and the things she said were quite interesting.
On one of her photos was where she was on a beach in a bikini, her edited caption says “NOT REAL LIFE - took over 100 in similar poses trying to make my stomach look good. Would have hardly eaten all day. Would have yelled at my little sister to keep taking them until I was somewhat proud of this. Yep so totally #goals” Another one was where she was wearing a long white dress and her edited caption says “NOT REAL LIFE - I didn’t pay for the dress, took countless photos trying to look hot for instagram, the formal made me feel incredibly alone”. As if it was not obvious enough, reporters and paparazzi still asked her several questions on why she decided to quit social media. She said “Without realizing, I’ve spent the majority of my teenage life being addicted to social media, social approval, social status and my physical appearance, Social media, especially how I used it, isn’t real. It’s a system based on social approval, likes, validation in views, success in followers. It’s perfectly orchestrated, self-absorbed judgement.”
This shows that models have very tough lives and the scarce amount of food they eat isn’t a healthy lifestyle. This model is clearly not happy as she says that social media is just a way for people to find approval, approval for whether waist is small enough or their legs are skinny enough when these are just ways people use to bring others down. Rather than focusing on being skinny why don’t people focus on having a healthy lifestyle. The media takes big effect on teenage girls health issues since these are the biggest users of social media, when advertisements are constantly popping up telling them how to look can you imagine how they feel? These adds can and have made girls feels insecure about their bodies and have brought their self esteem’s down by an enormous amount.
Media can also have a good effect on them if these girls focus on becoming healthy rather than skinny by eating healthier and working out more but this is not always the fact, sometimes these girls can go to extremes as well like taking weight loss pills or starving themselves. This not only has a negative effect on their health but their personalities as well, girls can be obsessed with the idea of being as skinny as a model they look up to or thinking that if they were skinny they’d be more like-able When in reality your weight and body does not define you.
A survey taken asking the girls in 8RUP whether the media has affected how they feel about their body shows that seven out of the nine girls in RUP are affected. One girl who asked for her quote to be anonymous said “In the media you always see stereotyped blonde girls with small waists and barely any flesh on their bodies, and sometimes girls can feel like you have to look up to these people and if you’re thin then you’re more respected”. One other girl said “At this age we’re looking for inspiration and we’re trying to find our own opinion, all these photos do is create negative goals for girls”. Also asking the girls who said they weren’t affected one of them said “I don’t let these photos get to me, yes I see them and wish for bodies like those occasionally but I don’t let it affect my personality and I work on becoming a better and healthier person rather than being thin”. They were also asked what they think the reasons behind the media doing this to girls is, one of them said “I think the media and the secret people who work behind the media are doing it for themselves, they’re telling people to buy weight loss pills because it’s their product they want it to sell but people need to realize that while they are getting crazy rich it is hurting people everywhere”. The most important question in the survey was what should people do about this? Most of them said that if what they’re doing isn’t hurting their body in any way then they can try to lose weight but it should be a good, healthy option which they’re doing for themselves not so they can get more likes on instagram for having a better body because numbers don’t define you, people working behind the media don’t define you, your weight doesn’t define you, your body doesn’t define you.
In conclusion social media has affected many people in negative ways, Taylor swift once said “I definitely have body issues, but everybody does. When you come to the realization that everybody does that - even the people I consider flawless - you can start to live with the way you are”.
Events last year on the MRT illustrate the extremes that people go to when two teenage girls were scrolling through their instagram newsfeed when one of them came across a photo of Essena O’Neil and said “I wish I had a body like that”. At the time I would have been on the same boat wishing for a body like that but recently this model decided to quit social media and edited the caption on her photo’s and the things she said were quite interesting.
On one of her photos was where she was on a beach in a bikini, her edited caption says “NOT REAL LIFE - took over 100 in similar poses trying to make my stomach look good. Would have hardly eaten all day. Would have yelled at my little sister to keep taking them until I was somewhat proud of this. Yep so totally #goals” Another one was where she was wearing a long white dress and her edited caption says “NOT REAL LIFE - I didn’t pay for the dress, took countless photos trying to look hot for instagram, the formal made me feel incredibly alone”. As if it was not obvious enough, reporters and paparazzi still asked her several questions on why she decided to quit social media. She said “Without realizing, I’ve spent the majority of my teenage life being addicted to social media, social approval, social status and my physical appearance, Social media, especially how I used it, isn’t real. It’s a system based on social approval, likes, validation in views, success in followers. It’s perfectly orchestrated, self-absorbed judgement.”
This shows that models have very tough lives and the scarce amount of food they eat isn’t a healthy lifestyle. This model is clearly not happy as she says that social media is just a way for people to find approval, approval for whether waist is small enough or their legs are skinny enough when these are just ways people use to bring others down. Rather than focusing on being skinny why don’t people focus on having a healthy lifestyle. The media takes big effect on teenage girls health issues since these are the biggest users of social media, when advertisements are constantly popping up telling them how to look can you imagine how they feel? These adds can and have made girls feels insecure about their bodies and have brought their self esteem’s down by an enormous amount.
Media can also have a good effect on them if these girls focus on becoming healthy rather than skinny by eating healthier and working out more but this is not always the fact, sometimes these girls can go to extremes as well like taking weight loss pills or starving themselves. This not only has a negative effect on their health but their personalities as well, girls can be obsessed with the idea of being as skinny as a model they look up to or thinking that if they were skinny they’d be more like-able When in reality your weight and body does not define you.
A survey taken asking the girls in 8RUP whether the media has affected how they feel about their body shows that seven out of the nine girls in RUP are affected. One girl who asked for her quote to be anonymous said “In the media you always see stereotyped blonde girls with small waists and barely any flesh on their bodies, and sometimes girls can feel like you have to look up to these people and if you’re thin then you’re more respected”. One other girl said “At this age we’re looking for inspiration and we’re trying to find our own opinion, all these photos do is create negative goals for girls”. Also asking the girls who said they weren’t affected one of them said “I don’t let these photos get to me, yes I see them and wish for bodies like those occasionally but I don’t let it affect my personality and I work on becoming a better and healthier person rather than being thin”. They were also asked what they think the reasons behind the media doing this to girls is, one of them said “I think the media and the secret people who work behind the media are doing it for themselves, they’re telling people to buy weight loss pills because it’s their product they want it to sell but people need to realize that while they are getting crazy rich it is hurting people everywhere”. The most important question in the survey was what should people do about this? Most of them said that if what they’re doing isn’t hurting their body in any way then they can try to lose weight but it should be a good, healthy option which they’re doing for themselves not so they can get more likes on instagram for having a better body because numbers don’t define you, people working behind the media don’t define you, your weight doesn’t define you, your body doesn’t define you.
In conclusion social media has affected many people in negative ways, Taylor swift once said “I definitely have body issues, but everybody does. When you come to the realization that everybody does that - even the people I consider flawless - you can start to live with the way you are”.
The issue you talked about is an issue that only a certain amount of people care to write about. I liked how you showed the different problems that many people face everyday in terms of having the "perfect body". You really described the issue well with many facts and examples to support your argument.
ReplyDeleteYou did many good things but the thing that stood out to me the most was the journalistic tone which really made your piece strong and also made it stand out.