Children are always watching! .
Another main cause of body image is the community. Whether they're in school, church, or at a nearby park, anybody can be influenced by others and be tricked into having negative body images. People also may experience negative comments and hurtful teasing about the way they look around their classmates and peers. Although these often come from ignorance, sometimes they can affect body image and self-esteem. Karla Fitzhugh also stated that children who look different from their classmates or are around people who judge others only by the way they look tend to have negative body images (26). Just imagine going to school and all these people are constantly making fun of you by the way you look and you end up feeling depressed and then all of a sudden, all your confidence and self-esteem are lost! That is just not right. Peer pressure to be thin, muscular, on a diet, or dressed in a particular way create negative body images in people and the effects of that are devastating. Not only the family and the community, the media also plays a huge role in creating body images. Think about it, when you watch television at home, have you ever noticed that the people who are considered to be "attractive" and are put on display in the media are usually very tall, young, smooth-skinned, very slim and toned, their faces are symmetrical with large eyes and wide mouths? Louise Holden stated in his article Is The Media Distorting Our Self-Image, "The vast majority of people in the world do not fall into this group; in fact over 99 percent of the population does not live up to this "ideal" (1)." .
In the past few years, people have become more and more obsessed with the lives of celebrities such a television stars, athletes, actors, pop stars, and models. What many people do not realize is that looking good is a full-time job for most celebrities. When you're watching a TV show and a commercial for McDonald pops up, that makes you want to go out and get something to eat right? But then you see a weight loss commercial and all these skinny people shows up and that makes you feel guilty for wanting to go to a fastfood restaurant.
