The Media

Where do we get our ideas about bodies and beauty? The list is seemingly endless. We inherit such ideas from our parents, our peers, our teachers and mentors, from our places of worship, our schools, and increasingly from the mass media. In high-tech societies such as ours, there are few settings into which the mass media do not intrude. And even if we are beyond the reach of tvs, billboards and MP3 players, we still carry in our minds media messages about appearance and desirability.

It would be overly simplistic to argue that media consumers always accept such messages completely and uncritically. Nor is it reasonable to suggest that the media alone are responsible for eating disorders and body image disturbances. However, systematic research on the topic, especially during the last two decades, suggests that the mass media powerfully influence our perceptions of beauty, our attitudes toward others, and our own self-image.

What does the research say?

Mixed messages

Media messages about bodies and violence

Body-positive media

Ask yourself

Films and Readings

What does the research say?

It is always difficult to conclusively prove what effect the media have on people. This is because the media are just one among many influences in our lives. When someone commits a gruesome crime, people often assume that the criminal act was the result of watching violent movies, playing violent video games or listening to certain kinds of music. But such explanations are much too simplistic. The perpetrator may have been getting certain messages from these media, but messages were also coming from family, friends, teachers and others. And, of course, millions of people watched, played or listened to such media forms without committing acts of violence. So we must always be cautious about assuming simplistic cause-and-effect relationships between media messages and people’s attitudes and actions.

Nonetheless, several compelling recent studies demonstrate what a powerful force media messages can be in shaping attitudes about bodies and beauty.

In 1999, Anne Becker and Rebecca Burwell of the Harvard Eating Disorders Center found that media exposure dramatically increased the incidence of eating disorders in the island nation of Fiji. The researchers chose to study Fiji both before and after the introduction of Western television programming to the nation. Before Western TV arrived, most Fijians subscribed to traditional ideas of beauty: larger bodies, bodies that would be classified as obese in the West, were considered the most attractive. Large bodies were seen as evidence of a person’s health and high status; slim bodies were thought to look sickly, and were seen as indications that the person suffered from a lack of food and/or a lack of friends and loved ones to support them. Only three years after the introduction of Western (mainly US, UK and Australian) TV programs, the number of girls and women who reported vomiting to control their weight increased five-fold. 74% of girls reported feeling “too fat,” and 62% reported dieting in the last month. And furthermore, girls who watched more television were more likely to evaluate their bodies negatively. Interviews with the girls and young women demonstrated that they were attempting to emulate the thin Western actresses they saw on television.

Other researchers, including Myers & Biocca (1992) and Irving (1990, 1998) have found that exposure to media depictions of thin female models lead women and girls to overestimate their own body size, experience greater dissatisfaction with their own bodies, and report lower self-esteem. In addition, Harrison and Cantor (1997) tested the effects of media exposure on the development of disordered eating among college students. They found that among women, exposure to media that depicted and promoted thinness “appears to be associated with a subsequent increase in eating disorder symptomatology.” Among men, such exposure is correlated with a drive toward personal thinness as well as favorable attitudes toward female thinness.

So while the media alone don’t create harmful body attitudes and practices, they promote images that can seriously harm our self-esteem and tempt us to engage in expensive, unhealthy and ultimately futile, attempts to live up to mass mediated beauty ideals.

Mixed messages

As well as purveying unrealistic beauty ideals, the mass media send us a slew of contradictory messages as if to confound us further. It is common for a single magazine cover to promote both the latest miracle crash diet and a quick and easy recipe for Double Fudge Overload Brownies. That same magazine might pair an image of a scantily dressed woman in a sexually provocative pose with an article on The Rewards of Abstinence. The contradictions are obvious: restraint and indulgence, seduction and chastity, “good” girls and “bad” girls. How can we possibly live up to such mixed messages?

Of course, the answer is we can’t. Such contradictory messages ensure that we will always feel inadequate and insecure. And our insecurity is good for those who want to sell us quick-fixes in the form of such things as diet plans, exercise videos, anti-cellulite lotions and steel-reinforced undergarments.

Media messages about bodies and violence

It is clear from the research that the media present powerful messages about ideal body types for men and women, and that such messages can shape our attitudes and behaviors. But images of ideal bodies also carry meanings about the kinds of roles and traits that are desirable for men and women. There is a growing awareness of the ways media representations of masculinity and femininity contribute to patterns of violence in the United States today.

Jackson Katz, in his films Tough Guise: Violence, Media and the Crisis of Masculinity (2000) and Wrestling with Manhood: Boys, Bullying and Battering (2002) and his book The Macho Paradox (2006), argues that the mass media in the US construct violent masculinity as the norm. Through exposure to the media, he suggests, boys learn that “real” men are physically dominant, tough, aggressive, and willing to use violence to achieve their goals. He notes that violence is one of the nation’s most serious epidemics, and most of that violence is committed by men. 85% of murders are committed by men; 90% of physical assaults, 95% of domestic assaults, and 99% of rapes are committed by men. And, he reminds us that pointing out such statistics is not anti-male. After all, most victims of male violence—76% of victims—are other men. So trying to break the association between masculinity and violence promises to benefit both men and women.

Media depictions of large, heavily muscled male bodies emphasize male power and dominance. Although little systematic research has been conducted to test the effect of such media representations on the body image and health practices of boys and men, based on similar studies among women, we would expect an increasing number of men to suffer from body image disturbances (such as the “muscle dysmorphia” described in The Adonis Complex), along with disordered eating and extreme exercise regimens and even steroid abuse to achieve masculine body ideals.

Body-positive media

While the mass media all too often present us with oppressive images of ideal beauty and ideal bodies, some media forms are designed to challenge such unrealistic representations. One recent example of this is the Dove Campaign for Real Beauty, that uses the images of women of a variety of ages, ethnicities and body shapes to advertise its products.

A number of excellent documentaries also challenge media representations of ideal beauty. One of the best is Jean Kilbourne’s Killing Us Softly 3. See the full list of films for other titles here.

Ask yourself…

The next time you read a fashion magazine or watch a trendy television show, try monitoring how you feel. What kinds of “self talk” do you engage in? (eg. “I wish I could have thighs like that,” “I’ll never lose that last 5 pounds.”)

If reading or watching makes you feel bad about your appearance, why do you think you continue to do so?

Next time you are tempted to read or watch such media, what could you do instead?

Reading picks

Irving, L.M. (1990) Mirror images: Effects of the standard of beauty on the self and body-esteem of women exhibiting varying levels of bulimic symptoms.

Irving, L.M. (1998) Media and disturbed eating: an analysis of media influence and implications for prevention.

Kilbourne, J. (1999) Can’t Buy My Love: How Advertising Changes The Way We Think and Feel.

Myers, P. & F. Biocca (1992) The elastic body image: an experiment on the effect of advertising and programming on body image distortions in young women.

Pope, H.C., K.A. Phillips & R. Olivardia (2002) The Adonis Complex: The Secret Crisis of Male Body Obsession.

Williamson, J. (1978) Decoding Advertisements: Ideology and Meaning in Advertising.

Film picks

Killing Us Softly 3

Complete list of books and films

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