Unrepresented Women in the Media
As a society so much of what we believe and see depends on how it is presented in the media. So is it right to have images of women that are not realistic or that are not true to life on the front pages of magazines?
With so many celebrities deciding to have plastic surgery it is becoming the norm within the Hollywood life style but why do so many people like this plastic look?
In a survey taken by 3,000 women 90% of them were not happy with their body and two thirds of women were so unhappy with themselves that they would undergo surgery to get the ‘perfect’ image. One celebrity who had plastic surgery and due to the terrible outcome is now laughed at through the media is actress, Leslie Ash, former star of Men Behaving Badly. Leslie Ash had an allergic reaction to collagen lip implants and as a result has swollen lips that are the jokes of cosmetic surgery. However, in an interview with Leslie she said that although she didn’t need it doing in other people’s eyes she felt that being 43 and with the top lip disappearing, she needed to have the surgery in order to maintain a certain image. So is this the case with all celebrities, are they only having the plastic surgery to maintain this image that the media has created, should they be represented like this?
With the plastic surgery there is not just the ‘plastic’ looking effect but also the side effects and dangers of having plastic surgery. Ther
e was a documentary on ITV ‘Facelifts from hell’ which followed a group of women that went to have cosmetic surgery in Poland signing up for eye, face and stomach surgery. All the women were left in agony after the operations and one women claimed that she was unable to open her mouth fully for 18 months after! Is it really neccessary to go through all that pain?
In today’s society is it right for women to believe and depend on what they see in the media when these images arent true to life?
Instead there are images that have been digitally enhanced and photo shopped to make models appear thinner and more beautiful than they actually are. This simply encourages the likes of cosmetic surgery and very often eating disorders.
Many celebrities are the first to say that they feel under lots of pressures to lose weight and be thinner as they feel that this is what the media focuses on and feel that they are criticised by how they look. Because of this many celebrities work out at the gym to maintain their skinny frames and to have this ‘perfect’ size zero figure, otherwise known as a bag of bones.
Most of the time celebrities are criticised as 
to the way they look with slogans such as ‘fat day’ or ‘a rounded stomach sparks pregnancy rumours.’ But neither of which are true – they are just normal people who have been caught from the wrong side bending over or have eaten an extra chocolate bar as they are simply behaving like any other human being does. Everyone has an off day but the idea of the media taking these pictures of celebrities and criticising them makes us feel as if we are not allowed to have these fatter days and not allowed to have days with no makeup on or without our hair being perfectly in place therefore creating this perfect image that unless kept will be criticised.
A lot of people in this world look up to celebrities that we see in magazines and newspapers in everyday life. If people see these as role models and see the tiny figures as what everyone is ‘meant’ to look like then it is no wonder so many women do not like the way they look.
I personally do not know anyone that is completely, 100% happy with their body. Why don’t you quickly think about it now? How many people do you know who are completely happy with their figures? Can you think of anyone? I can’t. However, it is understandable that nobody likes their figure seeing all these images of women in magazines that we see as right when they have been digitally enhanced and photo shopped.
Many years ago the image of women was very different and cosmetic surgery was very uncommon. It is only recently within the 21st century that the increase of having cosmetic surgery and perfecting a certain image that women all over the world believe that they should have.
In the 18th Century, women who were seen as attractive were those ones that were large, muscular and strong, as you can see in the images. All of these qualities showed the women were rich and could afford food which showed wealth and good health. Pale skin was also attractive as these were the women who wouldn’t have to work outside again highlighting how rich they were.
In the 19th century women’s weights decreased and were much more fragile and thin, they usually wore corsets to gain the ‘right’ shape and even went as far as breaking their ribs to achieve the right look.
As corsets started to go out of fashion in the 1920’s curvy Hollywood actresses started to appear in the media in the 1950’s and showed that to be glamorous meant that you had curves and a size 14/16 was the size to be.
However, when Twiggy arrived in the 60’s the woman’s model image changed yet again. Twiggy had a very boyish figure and was very thin, with Twiggy modelling for all the latest magazines women started to want to achieve this look and to this day it is fashionable to have this thin shape.
Being perfect and having the right image to go with it is all that the media seem to focus on now a days so it is no wonder women feel the way they do about themselves, unconfident about their body if they don’t feel they have this image.
