Essential Question

How often is it that you see an overweight woman in a commercial, music video, or other advertisement that represents a desirable woman?

How the Media has a Negative Influence on Women in Today's Society

-“Findings suggest that adolescent girls, and college women’s impressions of their own bodies are influenced by the mass media portrayals of “ideal” body type.” (Bissell,K.,2002) 

-“The studies presume that the media promotes a body shape standard for women that is unrealistically thin. Furthermore as the body shape for women in the media has progressively become thinner, the correlation between thin body shape and perception of attractiveness has increased.” 

(Wiseman 1990)


-According to Healthy Place, "The average woman sees 400 to 600 advertisements per day, and by the time she is 17 years old, she has received over 250,000 commercial messages through the media. Only 9% of commercials have a direct statement about beauty, but many more implicitly emphasizes the importance of beauty--particularly those that target women and girls."


-If the media would focus on women as they actually are, not as the false ideals then there would be less upset of the female gender, and even fewer eating disorders.  


1.Adolescent girls' perceptions of their own bodies are       influenced by the perfection of these models. 
2. The Stereotype of the “ideal” woman is created by the extremely thin and beautiful models.
3. In our society women and girls tend to compare themselves to the models seen in the media.
4. Women are often marked as sexual objects in media
5. The media has a profound effect on women and how       they view their body through a personal perspective

http://www.healthyplace.com/eating-disorders/main/eating-disorders-body-image-and-advertising/menu-id-58/

Observational Learning Theory

Observational Learning is a type of learning that functions as observing, retaining, and replicating something that has been seen. It takes the biggest toll on children, because they view it and think that it's the right thing to do. This learning theory cause young children who watch violent TV shows to become violent later in life, and the young girls who watch reality TV shows get the impression that only attractive and stick skinny will be payed attention to by boys. This is leading many young teens to develop eating disorders because they don't care what it takes to be in the spot light and to be found attractive.


According to Bandura, there are several conditions that the observer must go through in order to retain the information to act upon it. 
      1. Attention- the observer must pay attention to in order to learn the information
      2. Retention- the observer must be able to recall the behavior
      3. Motor Reproduction- the observer must have motor skills to reproduce the behavior
      4. Motivation- the observer must have the motivation to carry out the action that was observed 
-Young teens watch TV all the time, causing them to be exposed to the behaviors over and over again, which causes them to act like what they see

Examples

Making the woman look skinnier then she actually is:
schoolofathens.com

Too Skinny?:                                Medias Role?:
sodahead.com                                  diet-blog.com

onthelevels.blogspot.com

http://www.mattbarton.net/tikiwiki/tiki-index.php?page=Effects+of+Media+portrayal+of+women

kterrl.wordpress.com

Basic Information

1. The “Ideal Woman"
    -Ads, commercials, movies, TV shows, magazines, ect
2. Women between the ages of 13 and 29
3. Approximately 90% of eating disorders are caused by the media
4. the media contributes to the problem by depicting impossibly skinny women as the "ideal”
5. It is extremely difficult to escape the portrayal of the “ideal woman”
    –Because the most powerful mode of influence comes from the media, which are seen everywhere in today’s society
6. Women begin to develop low self-esteem and problems with eating disorders and exercising to fit the unrealistic idea of the “perfect body”
    –Now slowly killing themselves through low self-esteem, manic exercise, and even     starvation. 

Reasons:

•College aged girls are prone to “molding” themselves into what society wants

–They already worry about maintaining good grades, getting good jobs after graduation, and fitting in

–They often skip meals to balance out the calories from the beer they drank at last night's party

–Anorexia and Bulimia are two of the more serious side effects that have emerged
-They also may develop low self-esteem, thoughts of suicide, dissatisfaction of their bodies, self mutilation, and many other psychological disorders. 
-According to The American research group Anorexia Nervosa & Related Eating Disorders, Inc. One out of every four college-aged women uses unhealthy methods of weight control-- including fasting, skipping meals, excessive exercise, laxative abuse, and self-induced vomiting. 


http://www.mattbarton.net/tikiwiki/tiki-index.php?page=Effects+of+Media+portrayal+of+women

Change From the Past

1. There was a time that the naturally voluptuous and curvy woman was seen as sexy and beautiful.
2. According to http://www.mattbarton.net, Twenty years ago the average model only weighed 8% less than the average woman, whereas the average model today weighs 23% less. Most models today are thinner than 95% of the population.
3. Now curvy is seen as overweight or fat
    -Ideal Woman: Usually a size 0 or lower, 6ft tall, and    around 90 pounds.
    -Approval from our peers and “fitting in” is so highly prized by young girl.

http://www.mattbarton.net/tikiwiki/tiki-index.php?page=Effects+of+Media+portrayal+of+women

Starting young: Barbie

According to Teen Ink a standard Barbie doll is 11.5 inches tall, so at a 1/6th scale, she would stand five feet nine inches. Her chest would measure thirty-six inches, her waist, eighteen inches, and her hips would be thirty-three inches. she would weigh one hundred and ten pounds. Therefore, being thirty-five pounds underweight, lacking the 17 to 22 percent body fat required for women to menstruate, and she would suffer from back problems due to not having enough strength to support her largely proportioned chest. 


Is this really what you want young girls to aspire for?


http://www.teenink.com/opinion/pop_culture_trends/article/225891/Mass-Media-Has-a-Negative-Impact-on-Women/

http://www.beautyfromtheheart.org/2007/05/youre-such-doll.html

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-504763_162-20055694-10391704.html?tag=mncol;lst;2

Studies

1. In 1998, there was a study done by the Journal of American College Health that found the media to be a mass marketer of the female body image. It has been proven that it is a strong force in creating the stereotype of the tall and thin women as the "ideal" beauty type. (Rabak-Wagener)
2. University of Minnesota conducted a study on 2500 female teenagers that showed the amount of teens using diet pills has doubled, from 7.5% to 14.2%.

Dove Campaign: Self-Esteem Fund

This commercial was shown during the 2006 Super Bowl to promote true beauty. To show that the media portrays the wrong image to young girls and show people in society what real beauty is.
<embed id=VideoPlayback src=http://video.google.com/googleplayer.swf?docid=1731400614466797113&hl=en&fs=true style=width:400px;height:326px allowFullScreen=true allowScriptAccess=always type=application/x-shockwave-flash> </embed>

"Campaign for Real Beauty”

Dove Campaign 

–It’s featuring realistically-proportioned women proudly showing off their curves in plain white underwear

–It has other commercials criticizing the industry for distorting our perception of beauty

–Dove portrays real  beauty in a positive light

 http://www.dove.us/?dl=/features/videos/default.aspx%7Ccp-documentid=7049579%7Cvideo-id=1&source=shareBlogger

Solutions

Parents: 
    1. Demonstrate healthy eating and exercise habits on a regular basis.
    2. Limit the amount their children's exposure to television 
    3. The American Academy of Pediatrics’ suggests that children watch no more than 1 to 2 hours of quality TV per day, and that the parents watch it with them to discuss the content. 
Outside Help:
    1. Allowing children to receive the message from TV, magazines, and commercials that healthy snacks are the "cool" thing to be eating, instead of the junk food that is normally advertised. 
    2. The government needs to provide funds to give existing media-driven advertising campaigns to provide information to children about good nutrition, exercise, and healthy self-esteem. 
    3. Magazine editors need to find ways to incorporate average sized adults and teens in their publications in order to change the perspective of the ideal woman in society. 
http://ap.psychiatryonline.org/cgi/content/full/30/3/257

What Adults Can Do

According to Instead of TV, three ways to avoid young girls from developing eating disorders:
1. Encourage and support their achievements and passions
2. Help young girls get in touch with reality
3. Focus on a healthy lifestyle