Magazine Advertisements Send Unhealthy Signals To Women

Magazines advertisements portray beauty using models that are usually abnormally thin. This makes most woman, especially those who are young, feel inferior and insecure about their own bodies. They believe they will only be beautiful if they look like the women in the magazines. Most women will try going on a crazy diets like the tapeworm diet, or the baby food diet, just to try to look like the models on the cover of magazines. Even young girls see the magazines as a reflection of what they should look like when they get older. Woman will stare at themselves in the mirror and find all kinds of things wrong with their body, face, and clothing. They will compare anything and everything from their weight to their hair to the models on the cover and within the pages of magazines. Magazines portray body images that are unrealistic, bad for woman’s self-esteem, and makes them do crazy things to reach an unrealistic goal. The promotion of very thin models, such as Claudia Schiffer and Linda Evangelista, create a distorted body image that young women try to imitate. Female models are becoming thinner at a time when women are becoming heavier, and the gap between the ideal body shape and reality is wider than ever.

When you look through certain magazines you will see titles like “Lose up to 30 pounds in 30 days.” “Learn the secret to creating a better you.” “Lose weight buy the suite.” All these phrases have made the cover of magazines, and make girls think that that is what you have to look like to be noticed. No there is nothing wrong with these women being thin and beautiful, but advertising companies should promote more realistic body types. Advertisement companies are giving a false stereotype of what beauty is. They give women an impossible goal that they strive to reach. Trying everything they can to try to look like the “perfect” woman. Young women look at thin models and see themselves as fat in comparison. This is making young women feel the need to eat less, or maybe not eat at all. They want the weight off, and they want it now. If you look in any magazine, or even looking at advertisements for almost anything, you will see thin beautiful woman. They should show woman that you can still be considered beautiful even if you’re bigger than an extra small. Advertisement companies should try to boost women’s self-esteem and not lower it. With all the advertising showing that “thin is in” it shows young girls that being overweight makes you unwanted and ugly.

It builds to the already massive problem with bullying and kids being ridiculed for not “fitting in”. It takes a lot of confidence for an overweight woman to wear something that most people would say is “inappropriate” for her size, but it’s okay for slimmer girls to wear it. This is because we have it in our heads that, being overweight is “ugly” that they shouldn’t show so much skin because of their weight. In society, most women as well as men, are overweight. We should teach people to love themselves and accept who they are. If they don’t then do something to change it, but do it the right way. Women go to extremes to try to change themselves to have what society visualizes as “the perfect body.” They try changing everything about themselves to try to be accepted. This leads to eating disorders and young woman getting sick, sometimes even having to be hospitalized. Statistics show that 69% of girls in 5th-12th grade reported that magazine pictures influenced their idea of a perfect body shape, and 47% of girls of the same age group reported wanting to lose weight because of magazine pictures. Even children are affected by what magazine promote as “beautiful.” It is becoming common for woman to go to extremes to try reach their desired weight.

Magazines should promote healthy eating not crash diets, or weightless pills. They should show that eating healthy and exercising regularly will get you the body you want, not what you think everyone else wants. Research suggests that an estimated 0.5 to 3.7 percent of women suffer from anorexia nervosa in their lifetime, and that about 1 percent of female adolescents have anorexia. Research also suggest that about 20% of people suffering from anorexia will prematurely die from complications related to their eating disorder, including suicide and heart problems. In conclusion, magazine companies should promote more realistic woman in their magazines. Help woman feel more confident in their own skin. Show them that even though they aren’t an “abnormally skinny” woman they are still considered beautiful. They should promote that being healthy is in and help people understand that you don’t have to be skinny to be considered the “right weight.” Imagine seeing not only the slim models on your magazine covers, but also thicker girls being promoted positively. They should promote beauty within, and that everyone can be beautiful no matter what size you are.