Generally the ones who feel vulnerable to this are women whose attention is focused mainly on their appearance (Monro, Huon 86). In today's magazines, movies, television and internet, a content analysis was done and the results showed that people thought "thin is normative and attractive" while being "fat is aberrant and repulsive" They say this because more than half of the women and men who live in the United States are overweight, considering that only thirteen percent of women and twenty-four percent of men on prime-time television are overweight (Brown, Bobkoski 103).When it comes to body dissatisfaction, there were large amounts reported by adolescent girls of having felt body dissatisfaction. Researchers believe that there is an overemphasis in our culture on the media's portrayal of the slender women and their figures which is contributing to the increase of body concerns in women. Body dissatisfaction deals with the attitude one feels towards body image, and also dealing with their own body image (Chen, Mallinckrodt 365). A study was done and results showed that forty percent of adolescent girls are dissatisfied with their bodies (Halliwell, Easun, and Harcourt 396). The fact that the concern of body image is so high within adolescent girls, people have to be careful because "body dissatisfaction is associated with negative self-perception, depressed mood, and disordered eating" (Halliwell, Easun and Harcourt 396-397). .
What is also important to think about is that the media's impact on today's society may be different based on gender and race. Studies were done that concluded that African-American girls felt less affected by the media's constant suggestion to be thin. Men are affected by today's media. Although they don't strive to be thinner, the media is making them strive to become muscular. A study was done and it stated that men were dissatisfied with their own muscles after seeing an advertisement that had before and after pictures of men with larger muscles than before (Brown, Bobkoski 103).
