Casual Essay #2 Final Draft

Although independence in women has increased, the “perfect image” in media cause a poor body image because the body image portrayed in the media cannot be avoided, girls growing up compare themselves to the women that they see in magazines, movies, and on television, and women mask their beauty with makeup and plastic surgery, in order to look like the airbrushed women in the media.



Disney movies are probably that most viewed cartoons by children. As a child, they always idolize the girl character in the cartoons. I remember when I was little I wanted to be like Ariel, she had long pretty hair , and I always had the short haircut. Cinderella, The Little Mermaid, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Sleeping Beauty, and Aladdin, are all movies that little girls love; but very rarely do people realize that the cute, fairy tale characters have a huge impact on children. Watching Disney movies a child gets a false presentation of beauty. The princess like characters give off a “perfect image” to the little girls, which gives a child a false idea of what they should be like. For example “ Snow White and The Seven Dwarfs” the beautiful ideal character is Snow White who is labeled as “the fairest of them all” by the Magic Mirror. Snow Whites natural beauty is envied by her step-mother the queen , who attempts to murder snow white. The queen is aging and is not beautiful like she used to be. Most Disney movies have the same type of characters, being that the main character is beautiful, while the villain is usually is ugly and envies how perfect the main character is portrayed as. When a child sees this kind of envy of beauty at such a young age, the “perfect image” of the princess look is what a girl wants to be like.
A more serious, poor self image starts in grade school and in middle school, where a girl is introduced to the media. The Pussy Cat Dolls, Miley Cyrus, Hannah Montana, and Britney Spears are some of today’s entertainers that are thrown in the face of pre-teens and teenagers. The Pussy Cat Dolls have good music, but they are half naked most of the time, have personal trainers, and are have their face covered with makeup, like cake. This is a image that many girls believe that they should copy, they do not realize that their ideal image is fake and unrealistic. During the middle school age is when a girl goes through puberty and starts to find herself. But with all the fakeness in the media, a person can be blindsided with the reality; therefore, making the process of finding oneself difficult to achieve. Their desire to be “Hot” creates insecurity, that causes a poor self image. This also creates a standard to fit in during school, which leads to bullying other girls and damaging their self image.
If anyone has ever watched the E! Channel Series “The Girls Next Store”, they would see that the women on television look nothing like they do without their makeup on. This show features Hugh Heffner’s, three girlfriends at the mansion. In the show they show the girls in their daily life and they often have a ton of makeup on, but at some point in the show they show them without any makeup on and you can tell a huge difference. Most television shows have women always have the women looking extremely flawless, this gives many women an ideal image, that they have to disguise their natural beauty with makeup.

When everything is so fake in the media, it is so easy for women to feel insecure about their body. The poor body image that women get from the “perfect image” in the media, leads to wanting plastic surgery, botox, and many other alterations that can be made to the body. Starting as a young child the media has a huge impact on the way females think about themselves growing up. If women grew up with more input about how beautiful they are, and if the media was not so improper about image, women would not be so concerned about their image.





“Self Image.” Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self_image

“Self (psychology).” Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self_(psychology)

“Beauty and Body Image in the Media.” Media Awareness Network
http://www.media-awareness.ca/english/issues/stereotyping/women_and_girls/women_be