Femininity

• When one thinks of femininity they usually think of complete beauty and perfection.

•  It is the idea of somatic femininity in that, female bodies are never feminine enough and must be intentionally and sometimes painfully made to be what “nature” wants it to be like (Urla and Swedlund, 1995).

• "Beauty Myth": Naomi wolf explains the "beauty myth" as being fueled by profitable weight loss, cosmetic and fashion industries. It shows the glamorized ideas of the ideal body and how it influences women as, "...a dark vein of self hatred, physical obsessions, terror of aging, and dread of lost control" (Urla and Swedlund, 1995).

• Gender is primarily located in the physical body, rather than gesture, language or other displays of performance (Urla and Swedlund, 1995).

• Barbie is, “…an ideal not just for young women, but for all women who feel that being beautiful means looking like a skinny, buxom, white twenty-year-old (Urla and Swedlund, 1995).

The following video below is a clip from the educational film, Killing Us Softly. It discusses how women learn what ideal beauty is at early age from the models they see in magazines, but what they tend to not realize is that the majority of the model's bodies are edited in some form, which makes it unattainable to imitate. 


Killing Us Softly 4 (0:34-1:54)

Facts

•  The average U.S. woman is 5’4” and weighs 140 lbs whereas the average U.S. model is 5’11” and weighs 117 lbs (Women in Advertisements & Body Image, 2005).

•  The number one wish for girls 11-17 is to be thinner (HealthyPlace, 2008).

•  45% of women feel that women who are more beautiful have greater opportunities in life (Dove, 2004).

• 59% of women strongly agree that physically attractive women are more valued to men (Dove, 2004)

•   70% of women wish that the media would do a better job of portraying women’s diverse physical attractiveness, including age, shape and size (Dove, 2004).

•  Obsession with body size starts at a very early age. “…as many as 80 percent of 9-year- old suburban girls are concerned about dieting and weight” (Urla and Swedlund, 1995).

•   47% of girls were influenced by magazines pictures to lose weight, but only 29% were actually overweight (Women in Advertisements & Body Image, 2005).

•  Adolescent girls experience very high levels of body dissatisfaction and as many as 90% of them want to reduce the size of their body (McCabe, Ricciardelli, Ridge, 2006).

• 69% of girls reported that images of females displayed in magazines influence their thoughts of the ideal body figure, and 47% said that the images made them gain the desire to diet and lose weight (Ata, Ludden, Lally, 2006).

Internalization of Media Ideal

• Internalization of media ideal is when a, “…individual cognitively accepts the thin societal standard of attractiveness as her own personal standard and engages in behaviors designed to help herself meet that standard (Harrison, 2005).

• The pressure to conform to the idea and internalization of the media ideal has been found to directly predict female preadolescents and adolescents’ body dissatisfaction (Knauss, 2008).

•    The sexualization of girls in the media has negative consequences like eating disorders, depressed mood, low self-esteem and body dissatisfaction (Knauss, 2008).

• A interview with 67 adolescent girls showed that media messages created the most pressure on them to be thin (McCabe, Ricciardelli and Ridge, 2006).

• Looking at ones own body and comparing it to a more unrealistic body ideal results in the relationship between body dissatisfaction and body surveillance in girls (Knauss, 2008).
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• 75% of "normal" weight women think they are overweight and 90% of them overestimate their body size (HealthyPlace, 2008).

The following link is also from the educational film, Killing Us Softly 4, that talks about how young girls are who are getting the message that they have to achieve this look that is "impossibly beautiful". Girls seem to be fine when they are younger, but once they reach adolescents they feel like they have to be physically perfect.

Killing Us Softly 4 (3:00-3:36)

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Dove Movement for Self Esteem

• Goal: The goal of the Dove Movement for Self Esteem is to help aid in building young girls self esteem. They also want to help in aiding girls to have a positive relationship with beauty because there is so much pressure on young girls to be beautiful nowadays (Dove Movement for Self Esteem, 2010).

On their website, they also have a section that allows women to share what they wish they knew when they were 13 years old and it allows girls who look at the Dove website to look at some of the things that other women wish someone would have told them and then learn from it themselves. 

Other messages women wrote

The following commercial is for the Dove Movement for Self Esteem. It shows the various types of the media and feminized images that are displayed to younger girls pretty much anywhere they go. The commercial emphasizes parental awareness and how they should talk to their daughters before letting the media do the talking for them.

Dove Self Esteem Commercial

Girl's Positive Views on Their Bodies

The following quotations are adolescent girl's thoughts on their body from a study I read on body satisfaction and body dissatisfaction and on comparing their bodies to others.

• Danielle: "I know I am fat, but I like that, it doesn't bother me, I can wear what I want to wear and I've got good friends"  (McCabe, Ricciardelli, Ridge, 2006). 

• Nicola: "I don't let it put me down, because I am quite happy the way I am. If I wasn't happy I may find comparisons more depressing. I don't keep it on my mind, I don't let it make me too sad" (McCabe, Ricciardelli, Ridge, 2006).

Thoughts About Girls in the Media

• Claire: "You see those little stick figures. Personally I think that is stupid and it doesn't influence me. I don't want to be that thin" (McCabe, Ricciardelli, Ridge, 2006).

• Olivia: "I think they need to be more realistic- people take the media so seriously-I don't pay much attention to it because I know it's so exaggerated" (McCabe, Ricciardelli, Ridge, 2006).

• Tammy: "Positive messages do come out of ads, which display larger women, for example, the Hestia bra ads" (McCabe, Ricciardelli, Ridge, 2006).

• Jacqui: "They don't normally have anyone above a size 10, it's kind of saying 'you should be this size; they should be presenting different sizes" (McCabe, Ricciardelli, Ridge, 2006).

Survey

I created an anonymous online survey that I had fifteen 8th grade girls, both 13 and 14 year olds, answer six questions that touch on the topic of body image and the media. 
Survey


Questions

1. How old are you?
2. Are you completely satisfied with your physical appearance?
3. Is there anything about your physical appearance that you wish you could change? If so, what is it?
4. Do you ever compare the way you look to women in media (models, actresses, athletes, etc) ?
5. Does looking at advertisements of women lower your self esteem?
6. Would you like to see more average sized models in magazines rather than extremely skinny ones?

Results

1.

13: 40%
14: 60%

2.

Yes: 33.3%
No: 66.7%

3. Responses to: Is there anything about your physical appearance that you wish you could change? If so, what is it?

• "I wish that I wasn't as skinny as I am."
• "I like that I am skinny. I want to look like the older girls do though."
• "Everything. I just want to look like everyone else in my grade and not be the biggest anymore."
• "Boobs. I don't have any. I want bigger ones."
• "Stomach."
• "Hips."
• "No."
• "My face, I have a lot of acne."
• "Boobs they are too big."
• "No. My boyfriend and everyone in school thinks i'm pretty."
• "My face and body."
• "Stomach."
• "Everything."
• "No, I love the way I look."
• "Tummy."

4.

Yes: 60%
No:13.3%
Sometimes: 26.7%

5.

Yes: 80%

No: 20%

6.

Yes: 66.7%

No: 13.3%

Maybe: 20%

• The part of the results that I found to be the most interesting was in relation to the last question and how 13.3% of the girls wouldn't like to see average size models in magazines instead of skinny ones. I would have been interesting to follow up and hear their reasoning behind their answer.

Bibliography

Ata, R., A. Ludden, and M. Lally. "The Effects of Gender and Family, Friend, and Media Influences on Eating Behaviors and Body Image During Adolescence. " Journal of Youth and Adolescence  36.8 (2007): 1024-1037. ABI/INFORM Global, ProQuest. Web.  4 Apr. 2011.

"About the Movement | Dove Movement for Self-Esteem." Home Page | Dove Movement for Self-Esteem. 2010. Web. 03 May 2011. <http://www.dovemovement.com/movement/about>.

Digital image. Blogspot.com. The Daily WashUp, 20 Feb. 2008. Web. <https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFB8Rfc2dv-nTCKggUTU9C_3CzKMACCeE4iIGamSqQlnZjMIFU9gY9Mpz0fI-Ac2e5yXVtxmVDBMF8zshaSjhvf6MPeE9HEem4yqPy8zMX7WNR5EOpTnGRlu1y0ZmXP_xZFecnfDFV9HM/s400/anorexia.jpg>.

Digital image. The Magazine Publisher. 4 May 2011. Web. 4 May 2011. <http://www.magazine-template.com/magazines.jpg>.

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"Eating Disorders: Body Image and Advertising - HealthyPlace." HealthyPlace.com - Trusted Mental Health Information and Support - HealthyPlace. 11 Dec. 2008. Web. 06 Apr. 2011. <http://www.healthyplace.com/eating-disorders/main/eating-disorders-body-image-and-advertising/menu-id-58/>.

Hall, Anthony L. Digital image. The IPinions Journal. 6 Feb. 2007. Web. 4 May 2011. <http://www.theipinionsjournal.com/uploaded_images/skinnyc-728287.jpg>.

Harrison, K., et. al., “Media Exposure, Current and Future Body Ideals, and Disordered Eating Among Preadolescent Girls: A Longitudinal Panel Study”. Journal of Youth and Adolescence v. 35 no. 2 (April 2006) p. 153-163. 5 Apr. 2011.

Kansky, Melissa. Digital image. Melissa Kansky's Blog. World Press, 2 Feb. 2010. Web. 28 Apr. 2011. <http://melissakansky.files.wordpress.com/2010/02/blog-dove-girls.jpg>.

Knauss, C., et. al., “Body Dissatisfaction in Adolescent Boys and Girls: Objectified Body Consciousness, Internalization of the Media Body Ideal and Perceived Pressure from Media”. Sex Roles v. 59 no. 9/10 (November 2008) p. 633-643. 5 Apr. 2011.

Killing Us Softly 4: Advertising's Image of Women [Trailer] - Available on DVD. Dir. Sut Jhally. 2010. YouTube- Broadcast Yourself. 12 Mar. 2010. Web. 29 Apr. 2011. <http://youtu.be/PTlmho_RovY>.

McCabe, M. P., et. al., “Who Thinks I Need a Perfect Body”? Perceptions and Internal Dialogue among Adolescents about Their Bodies. Sex Roles v. 55 no. 5/6 (September 2006) p. 409-411. 5 Apr. 2011.

"Only 2% of Women Think They're Beautiful." Dove. 29 Sept. 2004. Web. 06 Apr. 2011. <http://www.dove.ca/en/#/cfrb/onlytwo.aspx/>.

"Send A Message | Dove Movement for Self-Esteem." Home Page | Dove Movement for Self-Esteem. 2010. Web. 02 May 2011. <http://www.dovemovement.com/send-a-message>.

"Statistics - WOMEN IN ADVERTISEMENTS AND BODY IMAGE." WOMEN IN ADVERTISEMENTS AND BODY IMAGE - Overview. 2005. Web. 24 Apr. 2011. <http://womeninads.weebly.com/statistics.html>.

SurveyMonkey: Free Online Survey Software & Questionnaire Tool. Web. 3 May 2011. <http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/V5WN8BD>.

Urla, J. & Swedlund, A (1995). The Anthropometry of Barbie, (pp. 277-313). 

In Terry & Urla’s (Eds.) Deviant bodies: Critical perspectives in science and popular culture.  Indianapolis: Indiana University press.

YouTube- Onslaught - Dove Self-Esteem. YouTube- Broadcast Yourself. Dove, 2007. Web. 04 May 2011. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w_wIXAP8iAg>.