Introduction
In today’s society, people are constantly feeding their minds with information from newspapers, the internet, television news, cable TV, and magazines. People have become obsessed and most people rely upon the media for the latest news updates. However, the big question is, is social media giving what society wants? According to George Gerber, what we regularly see and read on the media influences our lives. The media has influenced our perception and physical sensitivity to our body image.
Discussion
Music influences our lives in a big way. No one can admit that he does not love music and most people have favorite music or artist (Bob 1). People spend their free time listening to their favorite music and it does influence their lives. It is believed that music is a therapy and has the power to cure the mind and our preference for music reflects our image in society (Bob 1). The use of ultra-thin dancers in music videos has influenced our body image especially the girls.
Recently, my friend watched a music video from the song “I’m into you” by Jennifer Lopez and the slim dancers in this video impressed her. Because of this, she has now decided to starve herself so that she can have a slim body, which is an influence from the music. Moreover, most musicians such as Calvin Cordozar Broadus also known as Snoop Dog have a unique lifestyle involving wearing baggy trousers and shaggy hair. The young generation admires and copies these looks.
Magazines are very informative and they update society especially on issues to do with celebrities. Celebrities influence the way people think and how we carry on our lives because we look at them as our role models and we envy their lifestyle (Dill 12). When a celebrity like Britney Spears is put on the cover of a cosmopolitan magazine wearing a certain dress and looking beautiful, most women envy her. When magazines have female celebrities with slim bodies, we tend to think that true beauty is about being slim or having slender bodies (Dill 32). Hence, people we see or read about in magazines influence our body image.
People also idolize celebrities that they see and read about in magazines. Some times, they admire to have a lifestyle similar to theirs. For instance, celebrities’ way of life influences our lifestyle concerning issues of relationship and some people admire the kind of affairs celebrities have. Just recently, my cousin saw his favorite celebrity in a popular magazine walking alongside a slim bodied girl. Because of this, my cousin has left his former girlfriend who is relatively big and he is now dating a slender woman, whom he argues that she has a perfect body. This was because of the influence of the media.
Britney Spears who is an artist was recorded doing a unique dance style dubbed Lap dance on OK Magazine. Today, the Lap dance has become popular especially among young people and because the OK Magazine featured this particular story, it made big sales. When a popular magazine puts a slim woman on its cover page, we conclude that for a woman to be considered beautiful, she must be slender. This has also influenced men’s attitudes towards their women. This is a clear indication that magazines influence our lives either positively or negatively.
The movie is another aspect that has influenced our lifestyle (Croteau and Hoynes 34). For instance, the television serial drama known as Prison Break has influenced the youths, students, and mates among other people (Croteau and Hoynes 31).
Michael Scofield, one of the characters in this movie has his body tattooed and this has an impact on society. Many people have idolized this actor and have tattooed their bodies just because they want to look like him. In addition to this, movies have influenced young people and consequently, they have developed some unusual behaviors including the use of steroids among men and dieting among women aimed at acquiring a certain body size.
Most movie stars have big bodies similar to those of bodybuilders and young people admire them. As such, people will do anything and even use drugs to boost muscle development so that they can have big bodies just like their favorite movie stars (Dill 23). One of my neighbors a young man who loves watching movies has been influenced. Recently he has been spending a lot of time in the gym because he wants to have a big body just like that of his favorite Hollywood movie actor, Vin Diesel who is a superstar in the movie named “Fast five.”
Conclusion
Body image entails our perception, imagination, and feelings concerning our bodies (Dill 36). This is observable in the way we describe beauty, especially for women. Today, women believe that they need to be extremely slim to appear beautiful and men have adopted the idea that beauty depends on body size. Most of the media commercials and advertisements display men as strong, aggressive, and violent, while women are portrayed as slender, indecent, and submissive. The media has influenced the way we think about men and women about their bodies.
Works Cited
Bob, Robert. How does music influence our lives? 2011. Web.
Croteau, David and Hoynes William. Media society: industries, images, and audiences. California: Pine Forge Press, 2003. Print.
Dill, Karen. How fantasy becomes reality: seeing through the media influence. London: Oxford University Press, 2009. Print.