"You can't sit with us!" This is a quote that almost every quote that almost every young adult and teen knows from the iconic film, Mean Girls. Cady Heron, a white girl from Africa, must adjust her life in a new high school where she faces endless gossip and raging hormones. Her goal at first is to make new friends and do well in school. However, she learns that she must fit in with one of the cliques in order to survive high school. This means wearing the same clothes, makeup, saying the same catch phrases, and even going along with their routines despite your own interests. As you can see, Cady is changing the way the way she looks and the way she acts despite her own true interests. Her actions reflect what most people do and won't admit; conforming to what society deems acceptable and attractive in order to fit in. For example, in the beginning of Mean Girls, Cady goes to school every day wearing jeans, a flannel, her hair pulled back into a ponytail and wore almost no makeup. However, once she started hanging out with the popular girls and wore what they wore, she received a lot of positive feedback: the girls admired her, and the boys wanted to be with her. With all this new and positive attention, Cady continues to follow their footsteps and slowly changes who she is. In other words, she was pretty enough to finally be noticed and does everything she can to keep this attention. This is what most people want: to be noticed and admired. People go through so many obstacles and trials to get to where Cady was, all this unnecessary extra work and effort to get noticed by a bunch of strangers. It is as if there is a specific criteria to be noticed; wearing jeans and a flannel did not work out for Cady, but wearing tight crop tops and skirts definitely got people's attention. But who exactly sets up this "criteria"? It is set by the messages that the media portrays to the general public. The media exposes millions of people in America today with an abundance of information via commercials, podcasts, newspapers, magazines, websites, advertisements, etc. With all these open ears and eyes, the media has the ability to influence what people think and how they act. In other words, the media would represent the popular girls in Mean Girls. What the popular girls does, every other person follows. The media has so much power of influence that they are able to set trends, specifically beauty standards. These beauty standards are quite unrealistic and unattainable. However, they are enforced and even encouraged because these standards are approved and accepted by society. This leads people to adopt a superficial and unhealthy mindset that focuses on the approval from others to find one's own self-worth.

In America, girls internalize and are exposed to the "perfect image" or the "perfect body" at a young age: 3 years old (Perloff 2). One example they are exposed through is the Barbie doll, one of the most easily recognizable dolls that is geared towards little girls. Barbie is a tall, skinny doll who has closets full of clothes, a dreamhouse, and a perfect boyfriend. Over 75% of girls in America have played with or owned a Barbie Doll (Reinikka). An experiment was done by psychologists Helga Dittmar, Emma Halliwellm, and Suzanne Ive to test the effect of the exposure of the Barbie doll on one's body image (Reinikka). A group of 162 young girls aged five to eight were split into two groups: one that was shown images of the Barbie doll, and one that was shown nothing. Each group took a test afterwards that reflected on what body image was and the results showed that the group that was exposed to the Barbie doll had a greater desire to be thinner (Reinikka). As you can see, young girls already have the mindset of wanting to be thin and look like Barbie before they hit puberty. The more they play with Barbie dolls, the more advertisements for the new Barbie doll is shown in stores and on children's TV channels. If Barbie was an actual person, her whole body would be unproportioned and dangerously unhealthy. She would be 5'9, weigh 110 pounds with a 18" waist (Reinikka). Compared to the average weight of a woman who is 5'9 (126lbs-168lbs), she is very much underweight with a dangerously tiny waist (Collman). While the main purpose of the Barbie doll is for entertainment, young girls are looking at these dolls and internalizing that this is what they should look like even without knowing about these extreme measurements.

While the Barbie doll may be geared toward a very young audience, this does not mean that the older generations can escape the media's unrealistic beauty standards. As spring and summer approaches, the brighter and shorter the clothes get. Many people take this opportunity to head to the beach, go swimming, tanning, or even take a cruise. But there are many preparation for this time of the year. Concepts like "spring break ready" or "summer body" are brought up where many people follow strict routines in order to get "in shape" for spring break so that they appear acceptable and attractive when they wear more revealing clothes in the spring and summer. However, many young women partake, ironically, in unhealthy diets and routines to obtain a "healthy," slim, and fit appearance. All of these steps are taken so that they are ready to pose and take a picture to post on social media. Social media is the main form of mass media being used by the youth of today (Williams and Ricciardelli 1). With their "spring break ready" or "summer bodies" pictures on Instagram and Facebook and the amount of people always on these platforms, they receive an abundance of likes because people look at photo and see them as attractive, which boosts the user's self-esteem and strive to keep that look in order to appeal to their friends and followers. Those who are vulnerable to body image will try to seek gratification from social media (Perloff 6).  Therefore, the more positive feedback one gets from this slim look, the more they are encouraged to continue what they are doing. In a survey of college women participants, they were asked what influenced them to use social media and most of the responds included:  "make myself a more interesting person," and to "lift my spirits and make me feel happy (Perloff 6)." In other words people are using social media as a system of approval and reassurance based on the image they want to portray themselves to others. It teaches people that their self-value is determined by the number of likes they get and the comments and feedback they receive from there social media or profile. 

When looking at commercials, photos, or videos portrayed on television or any social media platform, most of the people portrayed share the same qualities: perfect skin, nice smiles, tan etc. But the main physical aspect for the women portrayed by the media is their thin or skinny physique. For example, Victoria's Secret is well-known for having the hottest and most attractive women in the fashion industry. In fact, very few people fit their "look;" 5'9 with a 24 inch waist and weigh approximately 130 pounds (Cross). With the reputation surrounding Victoria' Secret models, it creates a beauty standard that other women tend to follow so that they feel more attractive to society. If these women wore and looked like these Victoria's Secret models, then they would be accepted and noticed, similar to how Cady changed in Mean Girls. Results from many cross-sectional, longitudinal surveys, and experiments were done in the United Kingdom, United States, and Australia that addresses how women react when faced with the images of models. The results have shown that being exposed to thin-ideal media images increased women's body dissatisfaction (Perloff 7). 

However, this is the goal that media and companies like Victoria's Secret try to make their audience feel. They present an image that they know the audience will not have, and use imagery and glamour to persuade them to act, dress, think, and look like them. It all boils down to a system of influence with you at the bottom, and the big name companies like Victoria's Secret or any type of brand or media, at the top. They show society what they think is new and attractive, making you to believe what they say is true and conforming to their ideals. This type of "show and tell" sets an unrealistic and unattainable beauty standard that deteriorates one's self-acceptance. 

When those who don't follow this thin standard, it leads to "fat shaming". In other words, it does exactly what the media intends to do: make you feel bad about yourself but offers a solution to fix your body dissatisfaction problem, or help "trim your body." However, in reality, it actually leads to stress and causes people to gain weight (Fell). In videos, commercials or any type of advertisement, there is a common saying: Sex sells. They use sex appeal to get the audience's attention. Once they successfully grab the audience's attention, they are able to deliver to message; this is one way of how the media has such a huge influence. For example, in the Old Spice commercials for their deodorant they use Terry Crews as their main mascot. In most of their commercials with Terry Crews, he is always shirtless and holding up the deodorant while delivering his Old Spice monologue. With his shirt off, it exposes how muscular his body is and gives off the impression that this is what real men should look like and smell. In fact, in one of their commercials their logo was: Smell like a man, man. This sets the impression that men look and smell like Terry Crews in the commercial: sexy, muscular, and fresh. 

While girls have been the main subjects of body dissatisfaction, men are also affected by the media's portrayal of beauty. Where girls aim to become thinner, boys aim to gain weight and muscle mass (Cruz). The media's power of influence is almost generated by the women's attraction and reaction to the men that appear before on their screens. A shirtless Channing Tatum, Ryan Gosling, or Christian Ronaldo with washboard abs will make the ladies scream and faint. The beauty standards for men consists of being tan, toned and muscular; providing a man with big muscles for the ladies to cling onto. And what more does a man want than to have women come flocking to them? This mentality is built within our society, therefore building a standard that young men should strive to become big and bulk up. The influence and wanting to look like these men actually start at a young age for men. In a qualitative study of Australian preadolescent boys, their main interest was in watching sports and trying to become more like their favorite athletes. (Willams and Ricciardelli 2). While there is certainly nothing wrong with wanting to be fit and healthy like these athletes, the media takes advantage of the athlete image and over-glamorizes them that puts pressure on boys to look and act strong. This means burning more fat while building more muscle mass. 

Just as young girls are exposed to Barbie dolls, boys are exposed to action figures and their unrealistic appearances. These toys have an image that portrays an unrealistic amount of body fat and muscle mass. In fact, only about 1% of males actually look like the action figures (Cruz). Research on the consumption of media, such as Men's Health and other health and fitness magazines, shows that there is a positive correlation between body dissatisfaction and use of steroids with exposure to media that portrays men who are tall, lean, and muscular (Perloff 10). It can even lead to use of drugs, such as steroids, or excessive exercise to fit the image that the media wants them to look like. The young boys that are exposed to this type of imagery grow up to become and look this the action figures in front of them and idolize them as what a man should look like, which is completely inaccurate.

 Not only does the internalization of the imagery portrayed by the media increase the use of steroids and unhealthy diets, but it also lowers GPA and other academic achievements (Ramsey). With people being on their phones, having access to social media 24/7, people are putting in constant effort and being distracted with their appearance and how others perceive them. Sadly, 6 out of 10 girls will choose not to do something, because they do not think they look good enough (Ramsey). For example, girls will purposely not show up to class because of the way they look. This leads to them missing the material discussed in class and being behind the rest of the class. The more they fall behind class, the less prepared they are for exams and thus end up lowering their GPA. It is the internalization of the media's beauty standards that initiates these actions. While looks and appearance is important in finding a job, your academic ability and capacity is what really matters in the future. A low GPA will certainly not help you find a job. However, most people in our society seem to be more concern with how they look than how they can apply themselves to society.

There are different beauty standards around the world. Not every country and its citizens aim for being thin and tan or big and muscular. Culture, along with media, plays a huge role that affects beauty standards around the world. For example, in South Korea and Japan, their beauty standards consists of pale skin, and double eyelids (Ash). This is the complete opposite of America's beauty standard which is to get a golden tan and has no emphasis on double eyelids. In fact, most people compare and conform to beauty standards that are most similar to them (Prieler, Michael, and Choi 2). Research has shown that, for example, African-Americans identity and are more influenced by looking at African-American models rather other models portrayed by the media (Prieler, Michael, and Choi 2). In America, people tend to embrace their own uniqueness, while in Japan their culture bases their self-importance by conforming into a specific clique or group (Prieler, Michael, and Choi 2). Within a collective culture like Japan, the media has a stronger influence over setting trends and beauty standards. It is as if the media is the mother duck while the Japanese citizens are the young ducklings. Whatever the media presents that is eye-catching to one citizen, the rest will soon follow. For example, one of their beauty standards includes double eyelids, where there is an extra fold of skin on the eyelid. Most East Asians are born without these double eyelids, and therefore go through plastic surgery to obtain them. In fact, this is a very common surgical procedure within their cultures (Chow). To Americans, it may seem something so minuscule and strange to do. But to Japan and South Korea, it is the "in" thing to do, especially with a collective culture like them. The media uses this beauty standard and emphasizes it even more by enforcing and encouraging young men and women to alter their faces in order to gain acceptance from their society. Many Asians in their society are often ridiculed and made fun of if they don't have this beauty quality (Chow). However, cosmetic surgery can lead to serious psychological and health issues such as infection, pain, depression and anxiety. And with the increasing rate of plastic surgery, more and more people are exposed to these types of problems. (Prieler, Michael, and Choi 6). 

The media has many persuasive techniques that they use to get people to buy their products and look a certain way. For example, they use a technique of building self-hate and low self-esteem on the audience. They present a gorgeous model using the product and making their audience feel inferior that they are missing out. However, the media's "solution" to the problem is to persuade them to buy their product so that they too can appear like the model before them. In other words, the commercial makes you feel like you have a problem and offer a solution by getting you to follow their trend and image as a solution (Fell). So why is this a problem? It is turning our society and the next generations into a country that puts so much emphasis on this false beauty that they are forgetting about their own uniqueness and self-importance. Everyone is a Cady Heron, dealing with the constant battle between your true identity and the outer appearance that everyone wants to see. People use the wrong inspiration, such as the number of likes and comments on their posts, or the models that appear before them on TV or magazines, to find a way to fit in with society and to gain acceptance. The media has such a huge influence over society that unfortunately it has turned us into an image obsessed civilization (Ramsey). We can correct this problem by stopping the media's influence from the very beginning: educating the younger generations about the false portrayal of the media's imagery (Berninger). Teaching and helping young children build a foundation of acceptance and self-love will decrease their chances of falling into the media's trap of persuading to change their looks. It will also put a less emphasis on the superficial side of society and focus more on the individual's decision on their appearance. Implicating a media and technology class in primary education will help children understand how not to trust what they see on the screens of their phones or on TV. This class can also teach children that the people they see on TV or on any media platform is not their only role models (Berninger). Parents or guardians are the ones who spend the most time with their child. They should be the ones who set a good example and be the ones that their want to strive to be, instead of a plastic doll or strangers they see on TV and magazines. While parents might not have six-pack abs, or be tall and thin, their love and support should be the reason why they are role models. With less emphasis on superficial standards, the internalization of the media's false standards will not be a significant problem within the society. 

Another possible solution could be to set legal standards and requirements for models that appear on TV. Models that appear dangerously thin are not allowed to be broadcasted until they meet the right health requirements. For example, France has been one of the first countries to adopt the bill to ban "excessively thin models". For models in France, they are now required to receive a doctor's certificate that says they are "compatible with the practice of the profession" ("France Passes Bill Banning 'excessively Thin' Models."). Doctors will determine a healthy weight for each model based on their height, weight, age, and body shape. Those who break this law could be fined up to $81,000. This policy will not legally enforce models to reach a healthy BMI but it will also set a new trend of beauty standards. With a decrease in exposure of thin stick models, people will be less likely to aim for that type of image. Not only has France been successfully in implementing this bill, but countries like Italy and Spain have also developed similar bills. In America, a bill similar to this will help push people to reach a healthier body image. Just like how doctors and lawyers need a certificate that says they are qualified for the job, models could also be required to receive a certificate for their occupation. While you cannot tell someone what they should or should not find attractive, implicating an education class or legal standards for models will help put less emphasis on the unhealthy and unrealistic beauty standards in our society and push towards a healthier look. 

