Beauty and body image with women

The female body image and what a person should or could look like in marketing and advertising in particular is a controversial issue. It is noticeable that the body size of women as portrayed in mass media has been steadily getting smaller 1. Marketers will often do anything that they can to sell a product and make a profit, and almost anything can be sold if it appeals to our sense of beauty or is considered attractive.

View the BMI Graph With the rise of mass media throughout the 20th century, the popular image of women in America has undergone a substantial change.

From Marilyn Monroe to Kate Moss, the body shapes of the most admired models have remained consistently slimmer than that of the average American woman, representing a nearly impossible ideal.

This has resulted in a severe rise in weight anxieties and negative body image among women and girls. Dissatisfaction with weight is nearly universal among women, while dieting is pervasive.

Girls as young as 6 are commonly unhappy with their weight. This trend has likewise been reflected around the world wherever this media culture has become dominant. The Gibson Girl The Gibson Girl, a creation of illustrator Charles Dana Gibson, was a synthesis of prevailing beauty ideals at the turn of the century.

The incongruous and exaggerated look was achieved by way of corseting, pinching the torso and waist significantly. Gibson Girls were portrayed as up-to-date on fashion and style, as well as physically active and in good health.

Following World War I, this idealized image gave way to that of the less prim and more informal flapper girl. The archetypal flapper was an immature young woman — a teenager or young adult — who was scantily-clad and had little regard for uptight behavioral norms.

They were often described as independent, wise-cracking and reckless. Their easygoing style represented a rejection of the Victorian style and also came to emblematize widespread disagreement with the Prohibition movement.

Their appearance was one of boyishness and androgynous youth, with minimal breasts, a straight figure without any corseting, and shorter hair.

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Flashing of the ankles, knees and legs was a common feature of flappers — dresses and skirts in the style were designed to be loose and reveal the legs when women would dance to jazz, popular among flappers.

Bare arms were likewise nearly universal. Larger busts were frowned upon, and bras were made to tighten so as to flatten the chest. Blush, dark eye makeup, and substantial lips were in style, as well as tanning; a sporty and healthy appearance was prized.

The ideal of thinness and an enhanced appearance often drove women of the s to diet and exercise in order to achieve this look, as well as buying cosmetics.

The look to aspire to was increasingly depicted in advertisements. This freewheeling lifestyle came to an end with the onset of the Great Depression. Though short hair remained commonplace, skirts once again became longer, and clothing that showed off a natural waist was in style.Women's Body Image and BMI A look at the evolution of the female figure over years.

View the BMI Graph. The result is that, for a growing number of American women, the image of beauty portrayed in media is simply impossible for them to achieve and potentially unhealthy even if they did achieve it. CURRENTLY READING See How Much the "Perfect" Female Body Has Changed Unlike the frozen beauty of the That’s this decade’s contribution to the shifting landscape of women’s body image.

Body image is the mental representation we create of what we think we look like; it may or may not bear a close relation to how others actually see us.

survey found that two thirds of women strongly agree that “the media and advertising set an unrealistic standard of beauty that most women . Fashion advertising can negatively influence body image. The most important indication of beauty for women in Western societies is the prevailing ideal of thinness and a result, many women, desire an unrealistically thin body image.

2 This preoccupation with thinness is a recent development as the perception of women’s body shapes has changed significantly over the past decades. Negative body image of women is a very hot topic these days!

The female body image and what a person should or could look like in marketing and advertising in particular is a controversial issue. Women's Body Image and BMI A look at the evolution of the female figure over years. View the BMI Graph. The result is that, for a growing number of American women, the image of beauty portrayed in media is simply impossible for them to achieve and potentially unhealthy even if they did achieve it.