media's influence on body image?

Question

how does media (television, books, radio, music, movies, magazines...etc) influence people on body image. such as anorexia, obesity, plastic surgery, clothes anything useful would be nice. an example would be Nicole Ritchie who is really thin

Answer 1

when people look at their idols they copy their style because their style is what's "in". for example, when you see singers or rappers sag their everyone thinks it's cool but i bet you celebrities never sag their pants not one single person will do it. people mimmick those they like. what's also cool about styles is they come and go so what's popular now will not even be the same ten years from now.

Answer 2

Boy do I hate the word "media," it is so loaded.

However, I digress. One example would be how images of women - models - are presented in magazines and on television of what an "ideal" shape is. This "ideal" shape (read 'skeletal') is ingrained into the consciousness - you could say the gestalt - of the citizens who participate in that media outlet. This grossly inaccurate image is unconsciously stored as "what we should look like." The problem is that no normal person looks like models. Even models don't look like that when you take off their makeup and take away the Photoshop.

FP