Media s Effect On Society - 1496 Words

Media presents us with many types of negative messages. Mass media tells us how we should look and behave in society. Adds in the media sell more than product they are selling an image. Violence is persuasive and now a troubling aspect of the new world. Media shows us that women need to have the newest trends and ultra-thin bodies to be considered beautiful in society. It tells us that the most important thing is our image. Jean Kilbourne talks about how the image of woman has changed so much over the last twenty years. Woman’s bodies haven’t changed what changed is the ideal body. Media creates a climate where there is a wide spread of violence against woman. Ads don’t always directly promote violence but when they turn a human into an†¦show more content†¦It starts earlier and earlier all the time, where else could this come from other then the media images. They put the thoughts into girl’s minds at such a young age that in order to be accepted we need to be painfully beautiful. Many children are told the saying â€Å"It hurts to be beautiful† and it makes them think that who they are is not enough and that they need buy products and go on diets to make themselves look beautiful like the woman advertised. There is nothing more persuasive then advertising. Women learn early to put time, money and energy into trying to look a certain way and end up getting sad when they don’t (Kilbourne, 1979 ). One of the most common powers of advertising is excessive thinness. It is starting to become the most talked about and blogged about topic. Statistics show that an individual’s self of steam drops extremely when a woman reaches adolescence (Kilbourne, 1979 ). This does not occur with boys like it does girls. Children learn unhealthy attitudes towards food and weight at a very young age. In a study of five-year-old girls, a significant proportion of girls associated a diet with food, weight-loss and thinness (B.A . Abramovitz, 2000). Once you hit puberty the media shows you that you need to achieve this physical perfection. It’s difficult to put an exact figure on the amount of people affected by eating disorders, as numbers vary between 150,000 to more than