Weight in the Media


by LaurenB - Date: 2007-05-10 - Word Count: 560 Share This!

"We don't need Afghan-style burquas to disappear as women.
We disappear in reverse by revamping and revealing our
bodies to meet externally imposed visions of female
beauty." [Source: Robin Gerber]

Increasingly, there has been a growing tendency for the
newspapers, magazines and the media at large to focus column
inches and airtime on diets and weight in general. The trend
has been particularly noticeable over the last couple of
years. Today, we are bombarded with an array of images from
both extremes i.e. size zero to the morbidly obese. Of
course the media wouldn't spend such substantial amounts of
time and money on the issue of weight, if the public didn't
consume everything they produced and still have a seemingly
unquenchable appetite for more.

Like sex, the fact that the latest A....Z list celebrity has
cellulite, gained weight, lost weight, had lipo-suction
etc .... sells and continues to sell. It's as simple as that;
or is it? I can't help comparing the whole subject matter to
the chicken and the egg "what came first" analogy. Does the
media preoccupation with body weight drive demand or does
public demand drive the current media obsession?

I could be cynical and say that it's all about money. By
presenting the unattainable as the ideal, marketers and
manufactures can be assured that there will always be a
demand for their products and services. Products/services
that are initially advertised in the media.

The media has a very powerful effect on individuals and
society at large, due to the repeatedly reinforced
messages that it constantly broadcasts/publish. If you see
and hear something often enough, you will eventually start
to believe it, whether it's true or not. E.g The word fat
is depicted in the media as something unappealing, ugly,
disgusting and to be avoided at all costs.

The truth is that a percentage of body fat is essential for
health (average acceptable body fat percentage for a male is
15%, and for a woman 25%) but this necessary fat is often
lost in the message ‘fat is bad'. Today's models weight
23% less than the average women; compared with 20 years ago
when their counterparts weighted 8% less than the average
woman.

New women experimented with bigger models only to revert
back to slimmer models when their advertisers insisted
on it. Advertising Age International has since concluded
that the incident "made clear the influence wielded by
advertisers who remain convinced that only thin models
spur the sales of beauty products."

Magazines, especially women's magazines, sublimely imply
that if you could lose the odd 10lbs, stone or few
stones, that a perfect life complete with spouse, children,
house and lifestyle would follow. This idyllic picture is
at best a lie and at it's worst, very damaging to the
psychological health of their audience.

A Mintel study showed that "Almost two in five (37%) women
were dieting most of the time, compared to around just one
in six (18%) of men" meaning that 13 million people are
effectively on a permanent diet.

This then leads me to the next logical question. Is the
media ethical? Knowing how influential they are and the
psychological effects media generated images can have on an
individual's self esteem, do they strive to portray
positive, affirming and realistic images or are they
irresponsibly building the foundations of poor body image,
low self esteem and unhappiness? I'll let you be the judge.

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Related Tags: weight, media, body image

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