Today, society is dependent on media, magazines and television; people each day take part in diverting their attention to what is being broadcasted in social media, or the release of a new magazine issue or new movie. These forms of media and social interaction portray the "good life"; they all show people looking happy, beautiful, and skinny. This creates a world where everything we view seems "perfect" and which influences everyone to compete for the "perfect" life. The media creates a standardized view of the female body by continuously advertising models that are unhealthily skinny; a body that is perfectly crafted using professional makeup, photographers and photo shop technology. Body image and appearance is a growing concern among young girls and women because of the constant pressure to obtain this "ideal" body, which forces women to result to unhealthy ways, such as eating disorders, and creates self-esteem issues. Women must understand that the images in the media are unrealistic in order to have self confidence and love their body. Women are negatively affected by the constant exposure to the unrealistic "ideal body" and the theories of social comparison, cultivation and self-schema explain how and why the media images on women affect the way women feel about their bodies and physical appearance. I believe that magazines and advertisements should be mandated to stop digitally altering their models and instead portray a diversity of natural women with different body types. On advertisements, companies should be required to include that their images are not retouched or altered in anyway. In doing this, magazine and beauty companies will be refreshing society with a new perception of beauty and body image to instill in the current and future generations. 

The media portrays unrealistic images of women by using technology that retouches and alters the model to look perfect. The latest computer technology removes "flaws", such as pimples, stretch marks, moles and bulges (Rowland). According to model Elizabeth Hurley, her cover for Cosmopolitan was retouched by electronically enlarging her breasts (Rowland). When shooting for an advertisement, there are hundreds of professional photographs taken during the shoot. The images being captured of models project them looking at their best; magazines and advertisements are not going to use an image where a model looks like she has just rolled out of bed. Models are photographed with their hair and make professionally done and images are taken professionally from the best angle, with perfect lighting, and with the clothes pinned for the most flattering image (Rowland). Digital retoucher Domini Demasi states that, "Product manufacturers are 'not going to keep something that looks flawed or natural. They're not concerned with natural. They're concerned with selling their product ... '" (Malkan). Meaning, that the media does not keep in mind how these images impact young girls and women; advertisers are looking for profit and are not concerned with the negative impact their images have. Due to the constant exposure of unauthentic images of women, society determines this to be the "ideal" body image for women. Therefore, the images of models are what society views all women are supposed to look like. The media raises the bar high for the average looking women and young girls today. Not only are women impacted by these images, but men are impacted as well. Men view these images of models and determine that this is the standard to hold women up to; women who look like the models in magazines and on television, are what attractive women look like. As the media drives everyone to believe that attractive women must look like the models on magazines, normal-looking women feel the pressure to achieve beauty "perfection." 

Magazines, advertisements and social media show the best version of a person, therefore the image is supposed to look desirable for the viewer. The strategy for this is that people should be jealous of the girl on the cover of Cosmopolitan or the celebrity representative for Cover Girl makeup. Everyday people use this tactic on their social media accounts such as Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat. We have evolved into an "edited" culture where everyone only posts edited versions of themselves. People only post the good things about their life, they want to project an image of themselves that is happy, beautiful and doing fun things. Media never portrays the sad, boring days of a person's life, but people instead post to make their lifestyle seem appealing to their friends and followers. Along with professional retouching for magazines, computers and social media accounts also provide retouching and editing features. Editing pictures is a contributing factor for the desire to achieve perfection; people edit and enhance their pictures to look better than they normally do. Teenagers are actively involved on social media which does not help their self-esteem; Dr. Phillippa Diedrichs states that "The more time spent on Facebook, the more likely people are to self-objectify themselves" (Roxby). Therefore, the more analyzing and observing of one another on Facebook promotes social comparison which can result in low self-esteem. 

Body image is viewed as not only the way one looks, but how one feels and acts in response to their perceived appearance. Dissatisfaction with one's appearance is common among girls of all ages. Typically, puberty is the stage when girls begin to feel self-conscious about their bodies and it continues throughout their lifetime. Studies show that "Over fifty percent of 9 and 10-year-old girls feel better about themselves if they are on a diet, even though the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that only 18 percent of adolescents are really overweight" (Body Image). Due to advertisements portraying models that are unrealistically thin, young girls perceive this to be the ideal physique of women. Therefore, girls that are considered "normal" weight feel overweight which promotes an unhealthy desire to obtain and unhealthy weight. "According to ABC News, an average fashion model is between 5 feet 9 inches and 6 feet tall, and weighs 110 to 130 pounds; an average woman is 5 feet 4 inches tall and weighs 166 pounds" (Body Image). This shows that women who fit a normal, healthy weight feel fat and abnormal next to unhealthy models who are glorified in society. 

Magazines and advertisements target an audience dominated by women by marketing products and providing information that will help women "better themselves." This tactic draws on women's insecurities and their flaws, providing them with the solution on how to look better.  Advertisements use models to market their products because they know that women desire to look like the rare beauty that models are. Women are being taken advantage of by the media due to the large influence it has on women's self-esteem and satisfaction with their appearance. The grocery store checkout lines are stacked with magazines covered with a celebrity or model that looks flawless, skinny, tall and toned. Along with these images of beautiful women, the headlines read "Lose 10 Pounds in 10 Days" or "Anti-aging Celebrity Secrets." Next to these advertisement magazines, are the tabloids where women can view images and articles that criticize celebrities on their extreme weight gain or praise them for their extreme weight loss (Shell). The media creates a society obsessed with looks, therefore young girls are taught to be constantly concerned with how they look and how much they weigh. This constant obsession with beauty and fitting in to the beauty standard puts a pressure on women in society to live up to the physical appearance expectations the media has set. 

Self-esteem and confidence issues about one's body image can lead to an eating disorder, which is a mental illness that creates irregular eating habits and severe distress and concern about body weight or shape (Ekerns). The three most common types of eating disorders include, Anorexia Nervosa, Bulimia Nervosa and Binge Eating Disorder. People with anorexia limit their food consumption and view themselves as overweight when they are clearly underweight. Bulimia is characterized as repeated binge eating followed by vomiting, excessive exercise or extreme usage of laxatives. Individuals with a binge eating disorder lose control over their eating, therefore many people with this disorder are likely to be obese and experience feelings of guilt and embarrassment (Ekerns). Statistics show that 25% of college-aged women engage in bingeing and purging as a method of managing their weight (Ekerns). This shows that body dissatisfaction can result in an unhealthy method of losing weight that will have serious consequences on one's mind and body. Body image and self-esteem are related factors in the development of an eating disorder. Self-esteem reflects the value of self worth and is a judgment of oneself. Low self-esteem is a major influence in developing an eating disorder due to hating one's body image. The media influences the way teens see themselves, therefore the images of beautiful models degrades their own self worth. Constantly being exposed to images that project what society has labeled as the "ideal" body image, girls begin to hate the way they look and question why they look they way they do. No one is satisfied with their body, there are always things people wish they could change about their outer appearance. 

Society pressures individuals to "fit in" and influences individuals to dress, act, and do things a certain way. People feel that they will not be considered "cool" if they do not transform themselves into what society wants them to be. This occurs in every individual, but I believe it is especially stressed in young girls. High school is separated by social cliques, each one composed of individuals that share similar qualities or interests. Girls feel pressured to fit into the "cool" crowd, therefore if they do not look like the cool girls and do what the cool girls do, they are automatically labeled as a loser; we can draw similarities of this pressure when looking at the media as well. The media projects unrealistic images of women who raise the bar for beauty and thinness. These women are considered the "cool" group and young girls feel pressured to look like them in order to be "cool." The message society sends to girls is that their value and happiness is based on outward appearance, therefore they must be thinner to be loved, successful and accepted (Strickland). 

Women internalize the images in the media of "perfect" models and actresses and translates into body dissatisfaction (Serdar). The theories of how these images come to affect women are through social comparison, cultivation and self-schema. The social comparison theory explains how " ... individuals evaluate themselves in relation to peers, groups/or social categories" (Serdar). This theory's argument is that people are constantly comparing themselves to others as either better or worse. This explains why people feel prettier when they compare themselves to someone of a lesser physical attractiveness, and why people feel worse about themselves when compared to models. Especially for women, television, advertisements and magazines are social comparison influences. The media images hold a high standard of beauty that women are expected to uphold, however, this standard is unrealistic and almost impossible for the average woman to achieve (Serdar). Women constantly struggle with evaluating themselves against the standardization of beauty that has been set for them by the media. The media is controlling what women should look like, and therefore women feel the pressure to "fit in" to the sociocultural standard (Serdar). The social comparison theory also explains that women who frequently compare themselves to other women are more likely to experience negative thoughts about themselves and body image dissatisfaction (Serdar). Society has been transformed to judge people based on their physical appearance, which is why women are constantly comparing themselves to others. Everyone wants to look the best, therefore beauty has become a competition. This theory supports the claim that women who display high levels of social comparison are more likely to develop extreme preoccupation with their appearance and are at a greater risk of developing a clinical eating disorder (Serdar). 

The cultivation theory suggests that " ... images that portray women who match the sociocultural ideal of beauty are extremely prevalent in popular media, and that repetitive exposure to such images influences women's abilities to understand that such standards are unrealistic" (Serdar). Females are constantly exposed to images of tall, skinny and flawless models portrayed in the media, overtime these images create a conditioned response in society that views this unrealistic standard of beauty "reality" (Serdar). Society and especially women view these models as "normal", therefore, they believe if they do not look similar to the aspired beauty ideal, then they are "abnormal". It is reported that individuals who are exposed to more television and other forms of media, overtime develop a greater sense of dissatisfaction with their appearance. The theory argues that women's awareness of the effects of unrealistic media images is an important factor in the internalization of the thin ideal (Serdar). Females who are less aware of the media's unrealistic images are more likely to have body image anxiety. Therefore, females who do recognize that the media's expectations are unrealistic are less likely to internalize the thin ideal and become negatively affected (Serdar). 

The self-schema theory argues that " ... women use three points of reference to construct their perceptions about their own physical appearance: the socially represented ideal body, the objective body, and the internalized ideal body" (Serdar). The socially represented ideal body is influenced by the portrayal of women by the media and other important individual's in a person's life. This relates to what the individual believes is expected of appearance and beauty by society, hence the standard "ideal" body. The objective body refers to a person's own evaluation of their body; what they see when they look in the mirror and how they feel about their appearance and whether that is satisfaction or dissatisfaction. The internalized ideal body is how the individual addresses the ideal body image in the media and aspires to achieve it (Serdar). Some individuals are unaffected by the media's images because they understand that they are unrealistic. However, some women's internalized ideal goes hand in hand with the social represented ideal, which allows their self-esteem to be vulnerable to the effects of the media. Women's perceptions about their own appearance are negatively affected because it is hard for women to hold themselves to an internalized ideal body that is realistic, due to media images. Therefore, the repetition of the images of thin models impacts the standard that individual's hold their bodies up to. 

In order to prevent the false ideal body image from further impacting young girls and society, I propose that companies should be mandated to no longer retouch and enhance models for their advertisements. Beauty companies and magazines should focus on models who represent a broader definition of beauty and who set realistic standards. Although the damage in our society has already been done, I believe that overtime our culture will have a new perspective on body image and the way we perceive ourselves. By cutting off the usage of photo shop technology for advertisements, I believe that young girls will feel less pressured to conform to unrealistic standards of beauty; there will be fewer young girls with eating disorders and girls will develop self-confidence in themselves instead of focusing on their insecurities. 

Companies such as American Eagle and Dove are taking a stand against retouching their models and are focusing on a more truthful image of women. American Eagle's lingerie brand "Aerie" launched a campaign to promote more realistic body images for teens by no longer using Photoshop. The company focuses on advertising models who share their flaws; tattoos, beauty marks, acne, stretch marks, fat, are visible in the company's advertisements (Dockterman). By launching this campaign, the company is hoping to break the mold against the unrealistic body standards the media has created in society (Dockterman). The Dove Campaign for Real Beauty was launched to address the need for a wider view of beauty since how the definition of beauty has become limiting and unattainable (Dove). This campaign challenges beauty stereotypes and focuses on promoting beauty with confidence (Dove). The Dove campaign advertises real women who have real bodies, which focuses on breaking the stereotype that beauty is only associated with thinness. These companies focus on embracing imperfections and self-confidence within beauty, which is a step in the right direction towards creating a new "ideal" body image. 

I believe that if companies focus on portraying real beauty instead of unrealistic beauty, then a change will occur in society. Our culture will focus less on body dissatisfaction because the media will no longer promote an obsession with appearance. In order to restore self-esteem and body confidence in young girls, magazines should be required to no longer portray unrealistic images of women. 

The images portrayed in the media of models, actresses and celebrities have created a standard sociocultural ideal for women's appearance in society. The pressure to fit this, what is seen as "normal" standard, has driven women to have low self-esteem issues and some result in eating disorders. The standard the media has set contains the ideal skinny, tall and flawless woman; however, the images portray an unrealistic figure that has been retouched and professionally altered to look "perfect." Advertisements use these images to make women feel insecure about themselves in order to sell their product. The images in the media have a negative effect on women's mind and bodies. Everywhere there are unrealistic images of models that constantly put a pressure on women to feel like they must aspire to look like them in order to be attractive. Aspiring to be something that is most likely unattainable puts a strain on a person's self-confidence, hence why females always have something negative to say about their appearance or body weight. Women internalize these images and affect their sense of body ideal through the theories of social comparison, cultivation and self-schema. Each theory relates to the why and how the images have affects towards women. As our society becomes more infatuated with the media, the expectation of the way women should look continues to rise, as well as low self-esteem and eating disorders. In order for eating disorders to diminish and women to feel more confident about themselves, advertisements and magazines must be regulated to stop digitally altering their pictures of models. 

