The Media: It Negatively Affects Self- and Body Image
             Don't think for one second that advertisements are as innocent as they appear. More and more people are no longer taking the influence of advertisements for granted. The average American is exposed to over 1,500 ads everyday and will spend the equivalent to a year and a half of his or her life watching commercials. Indeed, advertisements are no joke. Although the individual ads may often appear trivial, they have a serious increasing impact, particularly on self- and body image.
             The oppression of the ideal image makes almost all of us feel inferior. I know this for a fact because almost all of the people I know have brought up an instance where something in the media has made them feel bad about the way they look or act. We are taught to hate and antagonize our bodies, thus learning to hate ourselves. This negative body image leads to a negative self-image.
             So, you would think that the media would want to use ads that can relate to the general public. Wrong. Television and other media reflect a very small minority of people in the population. The majority of women on television are much thinner than they were in previous decades and most of the men are more muscular and toned, and these images don't really represent the vast amounts of different body types that there are.
             Since the media glorifies these "ideal" images of men and women, and plasters them everywhere, we are taught, at extremely young and vulnerable ages, that we should look and act a certain way. The stereotyping of little girls and boys in the media has never been worse in that the programs nowadays are filled with active and dominant boys and submissive and prissy girls. Then these images of what boys and girls should be like are sponsored by companies that sell action products for boys and beauty products and dolls for girls. Because of the media, children are taugh...