Ally McBeal
WRIT 102
Dr. Koster
March 27, 2000

Evaluation of Sources on the Ideal Body Image

Search Strategies

            I have found a lot of sources that address the false perception the media gives of the ideal body image of a woman. The majority of these sources connect media influence to medical disorders such as bulimia and anorexia, and to body dissatisfaction in women. However, my main goal is to prove that the media’s body image is false and unrealistic. I want to focus briefly on why the media chooses to advertise women who do not correlate with the general population and them prove how this false image causes women to be placed in a continuous struggle to accept their bodies as they are. My intended audience is college students majoring in mass communication.

            At first, I did not have much luck finding articles strictly based on the causes or excuses for the media’s actions. However, I have found a few that clearly point out that the media’s body image is false. The sources that have been most helpful in supporting this accusation are monthly or weekly journal and newspaper articles. I have had less luck with web sites, because most of them repeat the same few facts and rarely go into why the media pursues its course of portraying unrealistic bodies. The best strategies I used was the one you showed us at the library presentation, the Infotrac Advanced Search and Relevance Searches. I had to try a combination of words to get the results I wanted but finally found this information through those databases.  

Sources

Bakalar, Libby. “How Does the Media’s ‘Ideal’ Body Image Affect You?” Herald Sphere

3 October 1997. 25 March 2000 <http://www.theherald.org/herald/issues/100397/bakalar.f.html>.

This article clearly states the position of many media outlets on this position and how it creates an ‘inescapable’ situation for all women. It cites examples used by the media to influence women to strive for a more acceptable body image, ‘more acceptable’ meaning close to that of the media’s expectations. The article then explains how these luring techniques and goals are unattainable, and states that even if they were, they would not be in the best interests of women. This article will provide examples and evidence to support my claim that “the media continues to stress an impression it knows is false,” but is not concrete enough alone to support the claim. It will appeal to those parts of my audience who agree with me.

Boston Women’s Health Book Collective. Our Bodies, Ourselves. NY: Simon & Schuster, 1998.

The information that I found within this standard reference book was helpful to an extent. It restates the fact that the fantasies about how a woman should look and act are promoted by the “advertising and beauty industries.” It makes the analogy of ideal body image and a Barbie doll: it states that like Barbie, the present ideal body image is “white, thin, able-bodied, shapely, muscular, tall, blonde, smooth-skinned, and young” (34). This material will appeal to the part of my audience who agree with me. I am going to look for a source that says what Barbie’s measurements would be if she was an actual human being to supplement this analogy, because I know (and think my audience also knows) how important Barbies are to young girls and how much that playing with Barbies shapes how we think we should look and dress. I think that would appeal to neutral readers.

Cusumano, Dale, and Kevin Thompson. “Body Image and Body Shape Ideals in Magazines: Exposure, Awareness, and
     Internalization.” Sex Roles: A Journal of Research. Nov. 1997: 701-21.

This article discussed the eating disorders, ‘body dissatisfaction,’ and other health risks that stem from the ideal body image. This will be helpful in my argument that the ideal body image causes the general public stress and other emotional feelings of failure, which can quickly result in serious health factors. This article, along with the article written by Judith Wagener, are going to be very important in providing the inartistic proof I need for this claim. Again, it supports my side of the argument.

Dittrich, Liz. “About-Face: Facts on the Media.” About-Face 1998. 24 Mar. 2000

            < http://www.about-face.org/resources/facts/media.html. >

This web site repeats a lot of commonly-available information, so it’s not very useful. However, there are a few statistics that I think I will use in my paper. I hope to quote, “69% of female television characters are thin, only 5% are overweight.” I think this quote could be helpful when trying to persuade my audience that the media has a bias toward excessive thinness and that there is obviously a correlation between the media and women’s “thin” body image. The web page also points out that the media tends to tie thinness to “symbols of prestige, happiness, love and success for women.” I think this will give a good shape to one of the main claims I want to make in the paper. I find this article to be reliable because it appears on a professional organization’s site and the author’s credentials are listed, which show that she is knowledgeable in the field. It should be good material to use with the neutral part of my audience.

Finkel, Judd. “Big: Life in the Fat Lane.” Seventeen. Aug. 1990: 184.

This article provided me with a very important example of the struggle men face with the ideal body image. Judd Finkel experienced obesity as a child and his struggles show that women are not the only ones affected by media presentations of attractiveness. This will pull in some of the males in my audience.

Howell, Haney. Personal Interview. 25 March 2000.

Although Professor Howell’s opinions differ from mine, it was very interesting to hear his perspective on the issue, since he has a lot of experience in the media field and is qualified to share and teach this subject. I think it will interest the audience to bring in someone they know as a source. Also, he gave me a clear statement of the media’s position on the issue, which will help me state it respectfully. This may appeal to all three parts of my audience: favorable, neutral, and hostile.

Milne, Celia. “Pressures to Conform: The Thin, Shapely Look Can Be Dangerously Unrealistic.” Maclean’s 12 Jan. 1998: 60-62.

This article provides helpful examples of many titles of magazine articles that will be useful for my paper. The examples of “Lose 20 Pounds by Beach Season” and “Fifteen Ways to Have a Tighter Tummy” are the kinds of attention grabbers I think my audience will react well to. The article briefly discusses the impossibility of succeeding under most misleading diet plans and focuses on the negative results produced by these popular articles. It will work with the neutral part of my audience.

Turner, Sherry, et. al. “The Influence of Fashion Magazines on the Body Satisfaction
            of College Women: An Exploratory Analysis." Adolescence 32 (1997): 603-12.

Turner provides historical information on the gradual change of the ideal body image in society from the 1940s “skinny” women who were seen as negative and unattractive through the late 19802, when thinness was seen as a sign of sexuality. The research in this article also includes information relating the average height and weight of current fashion models with the average woman. This will be very useful in writing the introduction and narration of my paper for all three parts of my audience. At the end of the article in InfoTrack there are also some related subject headings that I have not yet had time to explore but which may be useful to me.

Wagener, Judith, JoAnne Shemek, and Lisa Vance. “The Effect of Media Analysis on Attitudes and Behaviors Regarding
    Body Image Among College Students.” Journal of American College Health July 1998: 29+.

I found this article on InfoTrack but our library does not have it. Since the abstract sounds so good (it focuses a lot on how media image affects men’s perceptions of their bodies, which I’ve been having trouble finding information on), I have ordered it on Interlibrary Loan. I am also going to call my PHED professor, Dr. Hamill, and see if she has a copy.

Assessment

            Of all of my references, I would say right now that the one by Sherry Turner was the most important. She provides the historical information and statistical evidence that I will need for my argument. I need more detailed evidence that shows how people’s lives have been changed when they were influenced by the media portrayal of perfect bodies. The articles by Cusumano and Wagener look like they will be very useful as well. If I can find some more concrete evidence such as the Barbie statistics and case studies that show how students react to media influence, I think I will be able to convince mass communication majors that the media’s portrayal of the ideal body image is wrong and that it should be adjusted to resemble the population is supposedly represents. I would like to find some more sources that would appeal particularly to the hostile part of my audience and increase my credibility with them; most of what I have found is on "my side" of the argument. I need more material for my concesssion/refutation section. I believe that I can complete this paper successfully in the time allotted.