Body Image and the Media

Abstract

Body image refers to people's judgments about their own bodies. It is formed as people compare themselves to others. Because people are exposed to countless media images, media images become the basis for some of these comparisons. When people's comparisons tell them that their bodies are substandard, they can become depressed, suffer from low self-esteem, or develop eating disorders. The influence of media on body image is ironic, given that as people in general in the United States and other countries have become heavier and more out of shape, female models have generally become thinner and male models have become more muscled. In the 2020s, with the use of Internet filters, both female and male bodies have ventured into completely fictionalized territory in terms of their representation on social media. Sociologists and psychologists have developed several theories describing how the media influences body image, including social comparison theory, self-schema theory, third-person effects, and self-discrepancy theory. They also have developed interventions to offset the negative impact of unreal media images. Sociologists theorize that the media have an investment in promoting body dissatisfaction because it supports a billion-dollar diet and self-improvement industry.

Overview

The study of body image—how people perceive their bodies and how these opinions develop—was pioneered by Paul Schilder in the 1920s. His working definition of body image was "the picture of our own body which we form in our mind, that is to say, the way in which the body appears to ourselves" (as quoted in Grogan 2008, p. 3). Many contemporary researchers feel that this definition downplays the complexity of the field since body image can refer to a variety of concepts, from judgments about weight, size, appearance, and normality to satisfaction with these areas. The term "body image" includes both how people perceive their bodies cognitively and also how they feel about their bodies. Studies of body image show that it influences many other aspects of life. People live their lives in bodies, and understanding how they experience embodiment is crucial to understanding their quality of life (Pruzinsky & Cash, 2002). Dissatisfaction with one's body image can lead to many problems, ranging from depression to low self-esteem and eating disorders.

Many people feel increasingly pressured by the media about their bodies. The average person is exposed to millions of beauty images weekly in print magazines and on television, but also on the Internet and social media, and these images reflect an unreal body image that becomes increasingly removed from the reality of contemporary people, who, on average, weigh more and exercise less than people did decades ago. At the same time, bodies depicted by the media have become thinner, fitter, and increasingly idealized.

Pressure about body image is not new. Even in the days before the electronic mass media expanded to its current size and speed, messages about body image were carried in magazines, books, newspapers, and—looking back even further—in paintings and drawings. Yet many researchers suggest that modern-day media has a significant financial investment in promoting body dissatisfaction. Advertising revenues from the body industry contribute a great deal to media profits. This connection means that the link between media and body image is a health issue but also raises questions about the end results of consumer culture. The introduction of fitness and beauty influencers on social media in the twenty-first century has only exacerbated the issue.

Changing Body Norms in the Media. The ideal body presented by the media became thinner in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries, particularly for women, though in the twenty-first century they also became curvier—an almost unattainable standard. Body ideals in Western society have shifted throughout history, perhaps most notably across the twentieth century as mass media proliferated. In the 1920s, through magazines and in the new medium of film, a thinner, almost androgynous female form was promoted, epitomized in the flat-chested flapper. The ideal female form became curvier during the hard times of the Great Depression in the 1930s, although it remained relatively slender through World War II. The postwar revival of domesticity led to the media hyping heavier, ultra-feminine images such as Marilyn Monroe, with larger breasts and hips but small waists. Yet this was only a temporary interruption of the century's trend toward increasingly thin bodies as the ideal. Female models, on average, shrank throughout the 1980s and 1990s. In these latter decades, models also became fitter, adding muscles and tone to the preferred image. Images of men have followed the same pattern from the 1980s, with male models displaying slightly less fat, much more muscled bodies.

At the same time, Americans, in general, became much heavier. From the 1980s to the 2010s, the percentage of overweight and obese children doubled, and that of overweight and obese teenagers tripled. Adults showed similar trends; according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), in 2018, more than 42 percent of adults were obese (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2021). In 2021, the obesity rate for adults in the United States fell only slightly to 41.9 percent (CDC, 2022).

A study comparing the changing body-mass index of Miss America contestants, Playboy and Playgirl centerfolds, and average Americans and Canadians since the 1960s found that, especially during the 1980s and 1990s, the female centerfolds became dangerously thin, while male models increased in size, and average people gained weight (Spitzer & Henderson, 1999). Through changing norms of beauty images, women are told to be thin; men are told to have little body fat and sculpted muscles (Grogan, 2008; Hesse-Biber, 2007; Soulliere & Blair, 2006).

Modern people live media-saturated lives. Studies suggest that a large percentage of women and girls read fashion magazines, most people watch several hours of television a day, and people are exposed to countless images while walking down the street, glancing through the newspaper, and browsing online (especially with the rise of social media). The images viewed on social media sites are particularly harmful. Users distort their bodies using filters and programs like photoshop that expertly create ideal body types even when they are not a reality. It is hard for the average user of social media to determine what is reality and what is altered (Cleveland Clinic, 2021). This constant exposure affects viewers. Studies suggest that the effect is felt in several areas. People compare themselves to images, internalize these idealized images as the norm, and absorb the message that they should judge themselves based on their appearance. This process of comparison, internalization, and acceptance leads to other effects: distortion of accurate body perception (for example, girls who are normal weight may think they are overweight), negative emotional effects, a tendency to overemphasize messages about appearance, and changes in eating and exercise habits (Tiggemann, 2002).

Further Insights

Psychological Theories on How Media Affects Body Image. The effect of media on body image is complex; it is not simply the equation that exposure makes people feel worse about their own bodies. For one thing, people are not affected equally by exposure to media images. Some react quickly and strongly to beauty images, and others are resistant. Some of the difference in reactions to media images has to do with people's individual traits. People who are more self-conscious, who place more importance on appearance, who are heavier, and who have symptoms of eating disorders are more swayed by these images (Tiggemann, 2002).

Three psychological theories are particularly useful in understanding how media images affect people differently:

• Social comparison theory was developed by Leon Festinger in the 1950s. Festinger theorized that to evaluate themselves, people compare themselves to others. Psychologists have expanded this theory and suggested that people compare themselves not only to others in face-to-face interactions but also to media images. In the information age, people view countless media images daily exacerbating this problem.
• Self-schema theory says that people develop a sense of self by considering what makes them unique and valuable and arranging these into schemas, which are used to process social encounters. Some people prioritize appearance in their self-schemas; these people are more likely to place more importance on media images and messages about body image.
• Self-discrepancy theory says that people carry an idealized image of the person they want to be; discrepancies between this ideal and their perceptions of themselves can cause them unhappiness and stress. Media images can contribute to the formation of the idealized image (Grogan, 2008). Again, because of the proliferation of media images due to the Internet and social media, this has become a larger issue.

Studies have shown that women identify the media as the major source of the perceived social pressure to maintain an idealized body image. Thin models are a major source of this pressure; in one study, women who viewed images of heavier models were less likely to judge their own bodies negatively (Posavac, Posavac & Weigel, 2001).

Cusumano and Thompson (2001) developed the Multidimensional Media Influence Scale (MMIS) to measure media effects on body image in children. Their research indicated that media effects occur in three distinct areas: awareness, internalization, and pressure. These areas capture the extent to which children are aware that the media promote thinness as an ideal, the extent to which they internalize this ideal as applying to themselves, and the extent to which they feel pressured by the media to conform to the idealized image. Interestingly enough, Cusumano and Thompson found that these three items vary independently; that is, it is possible to be aware of media images without internalizing them. Children who internalized media images were most likely to feel dissatisfied with their own bodies.

Sociological Theories on How Media Affects Body Image. There are many explanations for why some people feel more pressure from media beauty images. Many of these have to do with social dynamics rather than individual traits. Media products' messages are not fixed; different social groups will take varying messages from the same media products. Interpretation of media images is partially dependent on a person's interpretive community (Milkie, 1999).

Milkie points out that many studies of the media's effects on body image examine the content of media images and assume that negative content automatically will have a negative impact on viewers without actually measuring and explaining how this takes place. On the other hand, other studies examine whether people are aware of the unreality and negative or unrealistic images shown by the media and assume that awareness of potential harm somehow prevents viewers from negative effects. As with the content analyses, these studies do not specify how being media-savvy protects the audience.

Reflected Appraisals & Third-Person Effect. Milkie theorized that people are influenced by media content through reflected appraisals. Reflected appraisals are how people think they are viewed by others. These appraisals can have an influence on the self-image and actions of individuals if they are seen as relevant, and if they come from individuals or groups that are valued. People generally think that they are less influenced by media images than others. This is called the third-person effect. Media images can thus impact people through the third-person effect and reflected appraisals. This means that people might understand that media images are unrealistic and negative, yet still be influenced by these images because they believe that others will use these images to judge them.

Some studies of teenage girls show that White girls have tended to be more influenced by beauty images in the media than Black girls, largely due to the historically smaller presence of Black girls in the media. Without such images, Black girls feel that the beauty images are not aimed at them, and also feel that others will not judge them against such images. White girls—even those who acknowledge the unreality of such images—still aspire to look like the images and believe that others will judge them based on this media ideal (Milkie, 1999).

Objectified Body Consciousness. Studies have shown that women and girls tend to be more affected by media images than men and boys. One explanation for this is that females have higher levels of objectified body consciousness—that is, women are trained to view their bodies from the point of view of outsiders, practice self-surveillance, and feel shame about their bodies for not matching the ideal (Knauss, Paxton & Alsaker, 2008). But research shows that males are also negatively affected when exposed to idealized body images in the media and also become depressed and dissatisfied with their own bodies when exposed to idealized images (Agliata & Tantleff-Dunn, 2004). Men are exposed to idealized images of other men at a higher and higher rate all the time. According to Soulliere and Blair (2006), one source of this increase is the popularity of televised professional wrestling. Wrestling puts highly muscled and partially clad male bodies on display for a mostly male audience. Not only are heavily muscled, large, and strong bodies put on display, but play-by-play commentary emphasizes that these physical qualities are important for men to be considered "real men" (Soulliere & Blair, 2006). Though much of the content on social media concerning idealized bodies is directed toward women, men are no longer immune the phenomenon and face increased pressure to ensure their bodies fit societal standards. Both men and women are exposed to unrealistic images that often are outside the range of normal human variation.

Schudson (1989) found that cultural messages are most effective when they are easy to retrieve, memorable, resonant (that is, somehow familiar or compatible with other aspects of the viewers' lives), institutionalized, and tied to some suggestions for action. Media messages about body image meet all these criteria. Effective and ubiquitous media beauty images have a powerful impact. They generally:

• Combine eye-catching photography with memorable slogans,
• Complement messages about health and fitness received from schools, doctors, and family,
• Are echoed in most areas of leisure,
• Tied to major institutions from public education to the health care industry, and
• Come with specific suggestions about how to change behavior—eat less, follow a specific diet, and workout more.

Body Image & the History of Consumer Culture. The growth of modern mass media is inseparable from the growth of modern advertising and consumer culture, especially in the twentieth century. As the United States further industrialized in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the rate of industrial production eliminated the old problem of scarcity of goods and created a new problem of overproduction. The higher wages and shorter hours of "Fordism" gave modern industrial workers the time and money to acquire goods. Advertising was created to teach them to desire the products that were rolling off the assembly lines.

In its infancy, advertising merely told people what products did; as it matured, it began to tell people about themselves. That is, advertisers learned that the most efficient way to sell products was to make people feel that there were serious lacks in their lives that could be satisfied through purchasing a product. Because advertising needed to create more and more new needs, everything about people was fair game: homes, clothes, food, and bodies. Early ads created concern with body odor, misplaced hair, bad breath, wrinkles, and other social "tragedies" of this ilk. Both men and women were targeted in ads that suggested that poor hygiene would ruin them in the business and social worlds (Ewen, 1976).

These ads were part of what Lears (1983) calls a "therapeutic ethos" that emerged from the social dislocations caused by mass urbanization and industrialization. The ethos rested on three assumptions:

1. Farmers, children, and others who were "close to nature" enjoyed an enviable state of health and vitality compared to modern urban dwellers;
2. People could return to this state of vigorous health by following the advice of modern experts; and
3. A person's primary goal in life should be the quest for self-fulfillment (p. 11).

People felt that modern urban life was somehow "unreal." Advertisers used this concern with health and this willingness to spend more time searching for secular self-fulfillment to promote a new obsession with the body and its imperfections.

Social Media's Effect on Body Image. In the early twenty-first century, social media platforms—such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and TikTok—have come to dominate the ways in which many people, especially members of younger generations, interact with one another. These are essentially visual platforms and ones that induce a higher level of self-observation than other forms of media. College-age individuals who use sites such as Instagram seem not only to have a heightened awareness of their physical images but also, as a result, experience a degree of "body shame and decreased sexual assertiveness" than those who do not spend as much time on social media (Manago, Ward, & Lemm, 2015). Thus, social media has the potential to make people more aware of their body image than even television advertisements, for example.

As social media's influence became apparent, the body of research on the issue grew. As with any relatively contemporaneous phenomenon, many early studies could only show correlation rather than causation (Oakes, 2019). Nevertheless, many researchers found strong links between social media and body image. One systematic review published in 2016 that looked at twenty different studies found that photo-based social media activity presented especially problematic associations with negative body image and eating disorders. A 2018 study found that female undergraduates who took selfies and posted them on social media experienced declines in self-confidence and feelings of attractiveness, even when they were able to edit the photos. Males were also seen to be affected by social media, as suggested by a 2019 study that found men who often view fitness images on social media were more likely to compare their bodies to others and desire a muscled physique (Oakes, 2019).

Additionally, by the 2020s, the rise of the marketing phenomenon of social media influencers, who are seen as having enough credibility and followers to be scouted for branding partnerships carried out through their social media accounts, had also made a notable impact on body image for users. As many of these influencers were not traditional celebrities and seemingly even more relatable, some users tended to be more self-critical when comparing themselves to the type of body or beauty ideal that these influencers represented (Suciu, 2021).

Discussion: Avoiding the Negative Effects. Interventions can decrease the impact of media images on self-perception. A study grounded in social comparison theory tested interventions designed to stave off the negative effects of unreal body images by disrupting the process of comparison. Since people are unlikely to compare themselves to others whom they believe are not similar, the researchers created an experimental intervention that would suggest dissimilarity between the experimental subjects and the media images. Using subjects who already displayed body dissatisfaction (the group that has been shown to be the most influenced by beauty images in the media), the researchers found that exposing the subjects to information on the artificiality of media images and the genetic realities of weight control before exposing them to media beauty images reduced the likelihood that the subjects would make negative statements about their own weight or appearance (Posavac, Posavac & Weigel, 2001).

Some research has indicated that certain media images can, in fact, have a positive effect on body image. This is reflected in the body-positivity movement, which seeks to promote inclusivity and diversity in media representations of the human body. A study published in 2019 found that young women exposed to body-positive social media content seemed to be more satisfied with their bodies compared to those shown images of thin models or images not focused on bodies (Oakes, 2019). At the same time, some commentators have suggested that the body-positivity movement has also become somewhat complicated, including on platforms like social media, as some people still felt excluded even by some of the types of bodies chosen by brands and influencers to represent this movement (Gulino, 2021).

Conclusion

Consumer culture is the engine that sustains the modern economy. Advertising, carried in mass media's numerous outlets, stimulates consumer demand by creating new needs. The beauty industry and the related therapeutic industry (exercise, cosmetics, health and fitness, diet, relaxation, and leisure) promote images of the idealized figure. These are generally aimed at women, who have historically been judged more by how they look than by what they can do. Women's strides in the workplace have had limited success in changing this old equation.

Pressure to maintain an idealized body image supports a major industry in the United States. The number of diet books in print has exploded, with many becoming run-away best sellers, selling millions of copies and earning millions of dollars for their authors and publishers. Similarly, social media fitness influencers market diet and fitness programs across multiple platforms making diet culture ubiquitous in the 2020s.

In late-stage capitalist economies, the media functions primarily to sell space to advertisers. When choices are presented to readers and viewers, they are usually choices between different products. The option of not participating in consumer culture is rarely offered. Having the perfect body is linked to buying things, and corporations are constantly finding new areas of the human body to improve. (For example, consumers have been bombarded with messages that their teeth are disgusting unless they are bleached to a whiteness rarely, if ever, found in unprocessed teeth.) Theorists who study the relationship between body image and consumer culture question whether lasting interventions are even possible when consumers are confronted by an industry that makes billions of dollars a year by making them dissatisfied with their bodies.

Terms & Concepts

Body Dissatisfaction: Unhappiness with one's own body shape, size, weight, or attractiveness.

Body Image: How a person visualizes his or her own body. This can have emotional and cognitive aspects and may be related to the appraisal of height, weight, size, attractiveness, and other aspects related to appearance and function.

Body Image Disturbance: Distortion in the cognitive or emotional appraisals of the body.

Objectified Body Consciousness Viewing one's body from the perspective of others.

Reflected Appraisals: What people believe others think about them.

Self-discrepancy Theory: The idea that people carry an idealized image of the person they want to be; discrepancies between this ideal and actual perception of themselves can cause unhappiness and stress. Media images can contribute to the formation of idealized images.

Self-schema Theory: The idea that people develop a sense of self by considering what makes them unique and valuable and arranging these into schemas, which are used to process social encounters.

Social Comparison Theory: Leon Festinger theorized that people evaluate themselves by comparing themselves to others. Recent theorists believe that people also evaluate themselves by comparing themselves with media images.

Therapeutic Ethos: Cultural trend of the early twentieth century concerned with health, vigor, professional expertise, and self-realization.

Third-Person Effect: People believe others are more influenced by the media than they are themselves.

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Suggested Reading

Barlett, C., & Harris, R. (2008). The impact of body emphasizing video games on body image concerns in men and women. Sex Roles, 59(7/8), 586–601. Retrieved January 25, 2010 from EBSCO online database, SocINDEX with Full Text. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=sih&AN=34477035&site=ehost-live

Bell, B., & Dittmar, H. (2011). Does media type matter? The role of identification in adolescent girls' media consumption and the impact of different thin-ideal media on body image. Sex Roles, 65(7/8), 478–490. Retrieved October 22, 2013 from EBSCO online database, SocINDEX with Full Text. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=sih&AN=66257596&site=ehost-live

Dworkin, S.L. & Wachs, F.L. (2009). Body panic: Gender, health, and the selling of fitness. New York: New York University Press.

Farley, S. (2011). Mass media and socio-cultural pressures on body image and eating disorders among adolescent women. Perspectives, 100–107. Retrieved October 22, 2013 from EBSCO online database, SocINDEX with Full Text. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=sih&AN=80029480&site=ehost-live

Grogan, S. (2017). Body Image: Understanding body dissatisfaction in men, women and children (3rd ed.). New York, NY: Routledge.

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