Thursday, March 18, 2010
Body Image and the Internet
“Karen: God. My hips are huge! Gretchen: Oh please. I hate my calves. Regina: At least you guys can wear halters. I've got man shoulders. Gretchen: My hairline is so weird. Regina: My pores are huge. Karen: My nail beds suck.” Truthfully speaking, there is about a 95% chance that if you’re female you can name this movie. Mean Girls is a movie about a girl, Cady, from Africa conforming to the social “norms” of high school. The leader of a notorious band of popular girls, the plastics, is the character Regina. She is the embodiment of the perfect female with her flawless skin, thin body, and shiny teeth. She and her and her band of girls are all the envy of the school as everyone, but the “dorks” try to change their fashions to become like her. They not only change their own reflections, but their sense of self as they needlessly try to morph into someone they are not. Mean Girls is just one of many examples that houses an underlying theme or a general theme that revolves on the principle that happiness is dependent on beauty, thinness and perfection. There are more documented cases of anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa than ever before. Women are constantly in pursuit of that ideal, and are losing themselves and their self confidence when they cannot reach this staggering goal. The media is constantly producing films, advertisements, television shows, internet and magazine ads that depict young women with the ideal body weight and it has a strong effect on the psyches of young women today. The overexposure of negative images to young women through the media, more specifically the internet, creates a negative self image which manifests itself in destructive ways. This paper defines the terms: negative body image as being low self perception, demeaning or destructive thoughts regarding the body; negative images as advertisements, circulated propaganda, videos portraying, or computer generated women who are ideally thin; ideally thin as having a BMI of around 18.5 or lower; normal or average weight or body as a BMI of 20 or higher.
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This may be just me, but I just do not feel like the last part of the last sentence when talking about the BMI adds anything. Maybe you could use it later in your paper and explain it a little more. But I think you would be fine just ending the sentence with "who are ideally thin." But other than that I think it sounds good and I like the beginning, it catches the audiences attention.
ReplyDeleteYeah, I kind of got the same feeling with the last sentence about what the paper will define. To me, you could end the paragraph with the overexposure of negative images sentence.
ReplyDeleteI really like your opening couple of sentences. They apply really well to your topic. Though I dont think that saying "This paper defines the terms" really sounds formal. You dont really need to say that.
ReplyDeleteHaha!! I really really like the first part with the dialogue. But I really don't think that 95% of all females in the world know what movie it is from.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Lydia. I didnt realize that quote was from Mean Girls until it was said that was where it was from.
ReplyDeleteHaha I am included in one of those girls that knew that movie :) I agree with Chelsie in that you should leave your final sentence with ideally thin. It leaves a point and makes you want to read more. You can put the stats about BMI later in your paper.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Chelsie and Amanda, if you leave your intro paragraph with just your thesis it is much more clear than adding definitions. Other than that, it's great! I like the quote at the beginning too!
ReplyDeleteOk thanks. I feel like I need to define the terms before the reader starts the paper and I don't know where to put it. Thanks though, I feel the same way about the last sentence.
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