Essay :)

This idea that women need to be slim to be beautiful and healthy is constantly being feed to us by media. Also the media tells us that women are sexy and that you can only be sexy by being skinny.  When you think of healthy women, most people think of small legs, bum, arms, flat stomach and white skin. Because of the media everyone thinks the same. We are constantly being thrown pictures of the same type of woman and being told that this is what healthy is , if you don’t look like this then you’re not sexy , not healthy , not fit , not beautiful.  This is impacting society and what women think about themselves. In reality a healthy women is the complete opposite of what the media think but not everyone sees that and women and young girls still think they need to change their bodies to be what the media wants us to be. There are so many issues with the representations of women in the media like young girls being encouraged to be extremely thin because all their favourite celebrities look like that. Girls are always being told that they should change their appearance which makes them constantly worry about how they look when they are growing up. Many girls turn to eating disorders to follow the media and be what the media wants which is to be slim. Also being slim and healthy in the media’s eye is also being a sex symbol, in the media women are suppose to be healthy ,soft , loving , caring and sexy. “Women have a right to be equal to males and stand up for themselves. Women can do anything that men can do. Women aren’t just sex symbols. Women have their own power. “That quote is from a documentary film called Miss Representations, which talks about all these issues about how women are represented in the media and the media just sees women as sex symbols. All we read about is how women should be slim and healthy too look good for males, that’s all the media says about women. This representation of women in the media affects society’s perception of women by saying that it’s normal for all women to by sex symbols and that they have to be skinny and beautiful to be a sex symbol. “The media is the message and the messenger “ Media can influence women to do anything and be anything it wants. It’s so powerful, we are always being told what women should be like and its shaping our brains. Women that are healthy are being stereotyped too, so it goes both ways. If you’re not healthy you should follow the media’s rules on how to be, and If you are healthy the media still finds ways to tell women they are still not good enough. Those messages are being shoved at us 24/7. That all women are good for ,is their appearance. It’s not always in a nice way either; the media can get so nasty towards women. Which can influence males thoughts about how women should dress , act and look like. If you asked most women about what they think healthy is a lot of them would say the same because of media’s representations.  Most beauty these days isn’t even real, it’s all created on the computer, so no one could ever look like that anyway which is even more dangerous cause it’s pushing women to go further into getting the perfect look that’s not real. All the media does is to try and create the prefect women so that all other women are bombarded with messages, values and representations of what they should be like , even though in reality no women is perfect.