Startling statistics show that "53% of 13-year-old girls are unhappy with their bodies. That number increases to 78% by age 17," (DMH.) "Approximately 91% of women are unhappy with their bodies and resort to dieting to achieve their ideal body shape. Unfortunately, only 5% of women naturally possess the body type often portrayed by Americans in the media" (DoSomething.org) .
What most people, especially children, do not realize is that media's main priority is to sell something - whether it's a hamburger, makeup, weight loss pills, a car, or a razor blade, and the thing that all those advertisements have in common is the over-sexualization in the ideal body. We've all seen it in the Carl's Jr. advertisements, the rap music videos, and on Instagram. Media has over-masculanized the male body and attitude. At a very young age, boys are conditioned to think that being a man means being strong, powerful, dominant, in control, wealthy, and mysogonistic. Overly ripped bodies in advertising, as well as music videos, video games, and movies, has also increased over the years. Girls are conditioned to think that only their outside appearance matters rather than their intellect or merits.
Not only are we, the consumers, are being affected by the media, but the effects it has on us affects our peers and family members affect us as well. Children are too young to be thinking of going on a diet or being ashamed of their bodies. But that is what is going on in our society today. When a little girl sees her mom with low self esteem and doing all she can to make herself look better according to society's unattainable standards of beauty, the child will follow her mother's example and it will affect the way child perceives herself. "Children attach greater importance to self-evaluations than to others. Although individual differences do exist, during childhood and adolescence, perceived physical appearance correlates more strongly with overall self-worth than any other self-esteem factor (Klomsten, Skaalvik, Espnes, 2004; shapka & Keating, 2005).
