Cortes 1 Amy Cortes Instructor: Malcolm Campbell English 1102 4/24/14 Social Medias Influence on the Body Image

of Women We live in a world where technology has advanced tremendously. Things have been invented like computers, televisions, phones, and various more electronic equipment. Yes, all these inventions have helped us in advancing and there are many pros, but like everything, all things have their cons as well. One of the negatives of the abundance in technology that we have today is that social media has badly influenced womens ways of thinking when it comes to body image. This has caused many problems within women such as insecurity, low self-esteem issues, and diseases. What is Social Media? Social media, as defined by Websters dictionary, are forms of electronic communication through which users create online communities to share information, ideas, personal messages, and other content. Basically, examples of social media are Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, articles posted online like yahoo, and many other things. Social media is so broad; its made up of a lot, especially since we live in such a technological world. It can be accessible to everybody in the world and is by most people living today. Ever since technology impacted our society, many things have altered. Social media is used as a source of entertainment. Along with social media being a source of entertainment, there is also actresses, singers, models, and more who are also grand sources of entertainment. These celebrities are admired by many people around the world. Since they are so

Cortes 2 admired, the people who admire them strongly want to be like them. Even if they do not show it consciously, deep down subconsciously, those admirers want to be just like their favorite celebrity. They want to look like them, act like them, basically be them. Dr. Carole Liebermen, a psychiatrist stated: Consciously or unconsciously, people think that if they look like a particular celebrity, it will bring them the power that a celebrity has, the power to attract people, to be a heartbreaker, to have guys or girls swooning over them (Duca). This is not healthy upon people. All this pressure though, has taken a toll on what women believe about body image based on what they see in social media, reflected by celebrities. Celebrities in Social Media Celebrities affect womens views on body image by playing along with social media. One sees celebrities faces on online magazines, articles, and just about anywhere. Do these pictures show the true images of the celebrities? Most of the time, different kinds of software is used to alter these images. One of those popular examples is Photoshop. Photoshop is the worlds most advanced digital imaging software (Photoshop CC / FAQ"). An example of Photoshop being used on a celebrity, is the one on Lena Dunham. She is an actress on HBO who wants to show the true side to what she is physically. Vogue did a photoshoot on her and completely altered her appearance. For example, her hips were brought in, her neck was thinned and brought in, the bags under her eyes were removed, her jaw was refined, and more. This is frequently done with celebrities. Because of this constant attempt for perfection by the media, girls and women get tricked into thinking that is how those celebrities truly look. Because of this, they try so hard to be that. Some examples of Photoshop images are shown below:

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Both pictures were acquired through Blogspot

As one can see, Photoshop altered these womens bodies to the point where it shows off perfection in the human eye. Obviously it is not real, but many dont realize that and women try to imitate what they see. Sexualizing Women in Social Media Not only are women portrayed as perfect beings with the use of Photoshop, but they are also sexualized. It is everywhere in commercials, social media, etc. There was a study done on the sexualization of women by comparing Rolling Stone covers of the past to now. It shows that in the 2000s sexualization of women in Rolling Stone alone has increased by 89% (Nauert). As one can see it has boosted up greatly over time. Psych Central writer, Rick Nauert, states: We dont necessarily think its problematic for women to be portrayed as sexy. But we do think it is problematic when nearly all images of women depict them not simply as sexy women but as passive objects for someone elses sexual pleasure. As he said, women are being viewed as objects. That makes women feel unworthy. But why do women still want to be like that? Possibly because it most likely gets the attention of men, and most women crave that attention as well. Therefore, not only do women try hard to shape their

Cortes 4 body image because of the pressures of celebrities but also because of sexualized women and how they are depicted in social media. Are Men, when it comes to Social Media, the cause of Womens Issues with their Body? A lot of women blame men now a days for their insecurities with their body images. Men are to blame just as equally as women themselves. Social media is made up by both sexes. Because of this both have a cause to this. Men want to see attractive women and women want to pursue that. But women in the media also enforce indirectly that you have to look and have a perfect body, to be recognized by others. This rubs off on regular women and it spreads. Because of this, it is like a never ending cycle of finding perfection within your body. Therefore, women should stop blaming men only for their insecurities with body image as it is society as a whole that causes this. How does this Affect Women? As stated previously, women try so hard to be something they are not. They want to be accepted and loved just like those celebrities or women on television are. This affects women greatly within themselves and their body image. This pressure causes problems with womens self-esteem, it makes them grow more insecure, have anxiety, and some go as far to the point of body modifications. According to Susan Whitbourne, a psychology professor, all these pressures by social media cause women to have low self-esteem about their bodies. Womens self-esteem has become looking good physically as the source to high self-esteem instead of what they acquire in the inside. They have built this outlook on life in which they feel like they have to look good in order to be accepted by their peers. This is because of how pressuring social media is. These are the reasons to why women have low self-esteem. Women need to stop getting blinded by society

Cortes 5 and social media. If social media showed women for how they naturally, actually look, then women will feel more at peace with themselves. If this happened, slowly, but surely womens self-esteem as a whole will boost. Insecurity, just like low self-esteem is one of the effects of the social media pressures that are put on women. Although very similar, insecurity and low self-esteem are not the same. It is one of the effects that come from having a low self-esteem. Insecurity is being raised within women and confidence is being lowered. They want to be the idea of perfection, but of course, that is impossible to achieve. Women become afraid to share pictures of themselves on social media, because they feel they will be judged because they are not good-looking in their own eyes. Research suggests that the more time women spend on social media networks looking at the pictures their friends or other women put online, the more insecure a woman feels (Briggs). For example, girls see famous women get so many likes and comments on their pictures and when an average woman posts a picture of herself she desires the same amount of attention. To be able to share a photograph of yourself is a bold move on social networks now a days. Some women also try very hard. Some do their make-up and hair and it isnt even to go out, but to only take a picture and share it on social media. They do this so they themselves can feel beautiful within and so they can get more attention than they would if they were just their natural self. Even though some women share their pictures, doing all the extra stuff mentioned previously just shows that they are truly insecure deep down and they just want to be accepted. Because of what research states, the more women that get involved in social media, the more insecure they will feel about themselves. Anxiety is rising within women due to social media. Social Media Anxiety Disorder (SMAD) a non-medical nor recognized condition was named by Julie Spira. Although not a real

Cortes 6 condition, many women in todays society seem to have this condition. For example, a survey that was done on women showed that 20% out of 1,632 had anxiety problems due to Facebook, a popular social media website (Kotenko). As we progress through time with social media, these numbers are sure to increase. Anxiety is not a good thing to suffer from, it can get worse and hurt ones health overall, therefore this must stop being caused upon women. Body Modification is now very popular in the time era that we live in. This is also one of the many effects of social media. Women now get surgeries to get features that they have always dreamed of. Where do they get these ideas? From social media and regular media like TV, magazines, and movies. They get surgeries to have cheek dimples, breast implants, nose jobs and so much more. For instance, one woman aspired to look just like Britney Spears. Considering how famous Britney is, it is most likely that a lot of women wish to look like her. In this case, the woman who pursued to look like her, spent almost 25,000 dollars in order to get a rhinoplasty, fat grafts in her cheek, lip injections, and breast implants to look almost exactly like Britney Spears (Duca). Another great example of this is the human Barbie. Valeria Lukyanova is a Russian woman who has gotten her body modified and has used make up in order to look like a perfect Barbie doll (pictures below). Her goal: to achieve fame (Cox). Again, this is because she is subconsciously pressured by social media. It is also a continuous chain because she wants to seek fame and she has achieved it because of her looks and now other women will want to achieve that too. All of this is done because women want attention because of the attention famous women get in social media.

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Diseases There are certain diseases that arise when people focus too much on their body image. These diseases usually root down to what has been said previously. These diseases stem off low self-esteem and insecurity issues. Everything builds up. It builds up to its maximum when it reaches the high point of diseases. Some of the diseases that are caused by the previous issues are anorexia, bulimia, and body dysphormic disorder. According to Michael Bolton, Ingrid Lobben, and Theodore Stern, anorexia is a disease in which one has a severe fear of gaining weight even if they are underweight. No matter if they are in shape, they still see they are not in their heads. They extremely diet to the point that it is unhealthy. This is a both mental and physical illness. This disease is very common within women, in fact, approximately 90-95% of people who suffer from anorexia nervosa happen to be women. One of the main reasons women result to this is because they are blinded by the media and feel pressured to be as skinny as can be. Next, there is Bulimia. It is very similar to anorexia as it is the fear of getting obese. Instead of extreme dieting like in anorexia, people with bulimia make themselves vomit, exercise after binge eating, and take laxatives. Instead of limiting their calories, bulimics take in as

Cortes 8 many calories as they want and then redeem themselves by taking it out of their system (Bolton). This is very extreme and can lead to worse things later on like potential death. Lastly, there is body dysphormic disorder. This is a disease which unlike the others is more concerned with the face than the whole body. They try to cover the imperfections they have in their face by hiding it. This takes over them mentally and they obsess with trying to hide or fix those small imperfections (Bolton). Again, this is a result of craving perfection and being accepted in society/social media. Although not all problems with body image are caused by social media, social media does play a grand role. How this causes body image issues within women is very complex. It is like a chain reaction which can lead to dangerous things like the diseases stated previously and if not treated early it could possibly even lead to death. Low self-esteem, insecurity, body modification, anorexia, bulimia, body dysphormic disorder and more are what many women in our society have to suffer in order to have the feeling of impression on others and be like the rest within social media. Yes, social media is a great thing, it connects us to others and the world around us, but it negatively impacts women as well. A change needs to happen where women are content with who they truly are as a person, without body modifications, make-up, or Photoshop. Women need to learn that being their natural, true self is the closest thing to perfect they could ever achieve.

Cortes 9 Works Cited "Anorexia Nervosa | National Eating Disorders Association." Anorexia Nervosa | National Eating Disorders Association. N.p., n.d. Web. 13 Apr. 2014. Bolton, Michael A., Ingrid Lobben, and Theodore A. Stern. "The Impact of Body Image on Patient Care." NCBI. PMC, 2010. Web. 12 Feb. 2014. Briggs, Helen. "'Selfie' Body Image Warning Issued." BBC News. BBC News, 10 Apr. 2014. Web. 23 Apr. 2014. Cox, Laura. "21-year-old 'Real-life Barbie Doll' Seeks International Fame... But Does She Even Exist?" Mail Online. Associated Newspapers, 24 Apr. 2012. Web. 12 Feb. 2014. "Does It Matter That Lena Dunham Was Photoshopped By 'Vogue'?" NPR. NPR, 22 Jan. 2014. Web. 11 Feb. 2014. Duca, Lauren. "Celebrity Plastic Surgery: 8 People Who Have Had Extreme Operations To Look Like Their Favorite Stars." The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, 24 Oct. 2013. Web. 18 Mar. 2014. "JailBreak Photography: Camera Ready!" JailBreak Photography: Camera Ready!Blogspot, n.d. Web. 11 Feb. 2014. Kotenko, Jam. "Ladies, Your Love-hate Relationship with the Internet Is Stressing You out." Digital Trends. N.p., 24 May 2013. Web. 23 Apr. 2014. Nauert, Rick. "Medias Growing Sexualization of Women | Psych Central News." Psych Central.com. Psych Central, 11 Aug. 2011. Web. 11 Feb. 2014. "Photoshop CC / FAQ." Professional Photo Editing. Adobe, n.d. Web. 11 Feb. 2014. "Social Media." Merriam-Webster. Merriam-Webster, n.d. Web. 10 Feb. 2014. "The Undefined Movement, Our Real World." The Undefined Movement, Our Real World.

Cortes 10 Blogspot, 2 May 2013. Web. 11 Feb. 2014. Whitbourne, Susan Krauss. "Your Body on Display: Social Media and Your Self Image."Psychology Today. Psychology Today, 3 Dec. 2013. Web. 12 Feb. 2014