Body Images Changes example essay topic

How many times have you heard a man or a women around you complaining about the way that they look or asking if they look too fat? In a Glamour magazine survey, 75% of men and women ages 18-35 believe they were fat but only 25% were medically overweight. 45% of underweight women say that they were too fat. A woman's body image encompasses her physical appearance, size, and shape. Issues of body image are found everywhere, whether one is conscious of it or not. Many women and men have a distorted perception of what their bodies look like.

They may look in the mirror and see a larger body than the one that they have. Large thighs, large buttocks, and a rounded abdomen may lead to distress for some women. (Sneddon 1999) Not fitting into the "cultural ideal" may cause body dissatisfaction in others. James Rosen, Ph. D. from the University of Vermont has done studies indicating that women are "most dissatisfied with the parts of their bodies between their waist and their knees".

The fastest growing medical specialty is cosmetic surgery, liposuction being the most common type of cosmetic surgery. Body Image includes more than weight. The cosmetics industry tries to sell us the idea that we need to improve our skin tone, hair color, and hair style. The clothing industry tells us each year that, to look good, we need to change our wardrobes.

(Moe, 1999) As years go on, body images changes rapidly through being thin, fat, muscular, and big breasted. Around 400 years ago the 'fad' was having a rounder and heavier set body. Around the civil war time the 'Voluptuous woman' was popular, she was bigger with curves. Ten years later the "Gibson girl' came about and was athletic, muscular and showed more ankle and leg.

She also had hips and bigger breasts. The 'Flapper' was in the early 1900's and these women had smaller bodies because they started working outside of the home and they would get more exercise. The hemlines also started to get shorter and women started showing more leg. Then came along the Miss American Contests that began in 1921. The average bust-waist-hip size was 32-25-35. Flat chests were in and corsets were out.

Then in the 1930 curves were back and the measurements went from 32 to 34. After World War two the larger body was seen as feminine and healthy. Large breasts were also in. In 1959 Barbie came about and was a huge hit.

A few years after that her sidekicks came along, who were Ken, her little sister Skipper and all her friends. She's been up to 75 professions from a nurse to a rock star, and always has the most up to date clothes. But as years went on some people noticed that Barbie wasn't such a great idea. The tall thin image that she put out to kids wasn't positive because it's not always realistic. The average woman is 5'4", and size 12, and she has a 37" bust, a 29" waist, and 40" hips.

If Barbie were a real woman she would be 7'2", a bust size of 40", a 22" wait, and 36" hips. Barbie's neck would also be twice the length or a 'normal' human's neck, and wouldn't even have enough body fat to menstruate. Even thought the average dress size for 60% of women is a size 12, that is almost never what we see in media. Men also have a big part in body image, people think it's just women who have problems with eating disorders, clothes, hair, and makeup, but men have it just as worse. Think of what a typical man is supposed to look like. Would you say tall, no acne, nice teeth and smile, muscular?

Because that is what most men strive for. The acceptance of having a great appearance. Working out became popular for men in the late 1920's, having big muscles was in. It go to the point that if men (and women) wanted to work out to get muscles, they wanted it to be a quick change. People started to take pills and shots. Some experts say that 3 million men have used steroids and up to half of these men are teens.

(Moe 1999) Most body image role models came from other countries. For example when the look for women was curves and breasts the British model whose nickname was "twiggy" (Leslie Hornby) made U.S. magazines such as Vogue, seventeen, and McCall's and had a totally different appearance, kicking Marilyn Monroe out of the spot light who was a size 12 and considered to be sexy. Leslie Hornby was much smaller with no hips or chest. But women liked it and the sleek look then became in.

The same story with men from Italy came a man named Charles Sicilia no (later known as Charles Atlas) who loved to work out and he developed the "dynamic tension" which made muscles bigger. Men started feeling more insecure about their bodies. They felt too skinny, or wimpy looking, they wanted to be more bulk to intimidate (Johnson 1995). Eating disorders seem to be an easy was out for people suffering with the way they look. Anorexia Nervosa and Bulimia are two very common disorders for both men and women.

More than 7 million women have an eating disorder and more then 1 million men have and eating disorder (Claude-Pierre 1997). Eating disorders start for some people at the age of 8. Many people become involved in an eating disorder because it is a sense of control, because most of the time they don't have control over things in their life (Whelan 2001)..