Throughout the semester, prompts based on class readings, screenings, lectures, and discussions will be posted on this blog. Responses will be graded on their level of critical thinking, pertinence, engagement with class texts, and grammar/spelling/proofing/
length. Be sure to read the prompt carefully and fully engage with the content of the class materials. At the bottom of your response, type your FIRST NAME and the FIRST INITIAL OF YOUR LAST NAME (e.g. Claudia Z.).
Friday, February 24, 2017
Week Five: Response 5.2
The average American woman is overweight according to the
CDC, and yet the media is saturated with women the CDC considers underweight.How does reality TV figure into the complex
relationship women have with their bodies?
Although it’s argued that reality television does not depict real life events, it has become a brand of television that has accumulated a lot of female viewers within the past few years. This type of media plays a big role in influencing the body image of young women. Reality TV provides regular young women with the belief that they can become famous. And these reality TV shows show the bodies of young women that are unlike those of the average American woman. The typical body that is shown in reality TV is that of women that are considered underweight according to the CDC. They are not representative of everyday people. The reality TV stars themselves promote this idea of superficial beauty. Looks are the only things that matter. The average American woman then is left feeling with body dissatisfaction. So we get things like an increase in eating disorders, plastic surgeries, depression, and an increase of beauty products being sold. Women who are exposed to media images depicting thin supermodels or reality TV stars experience weight concerns and influences them having a lower self-esteem. So it is not surprising that reality TV makes the already complex relationship women have with their bodies worse. On another note, because of reality television more and more young people want to be famous and believe they can become famous whether or not they are talented because of reality television. They are willing to go to the extremes just to attain the fame that comes with being a reality TV star. So whether you are at home feeling insecure and dissatisfied with your body because you don’t look like the supermodels they air on TV or you are seeking to modify your body to attain a certain look to become famous you are left with the idea that you must look a certain way to feel happy with your body or the way that you look.
Women are constantly questioning the validity of their bodies through their perceived social expectations, thus turning their relationship with their body into a negative and resentful one. The expectations that cloud women`s minds stem from reality television that is full of underweight women, which are seen as the norm when in reality most women are overweight. The bodies on television are mostly women in their early twenties, which is a completely inaccurate representation of society`s numbers in age. It gives the message that after women turn thirty, they are not beautiful and not worthy of being seen on television. This effects men too, who will be more likely to scrutinize a women`s body that is older or not up to the standards of an underweight model. The casting for these reality television shows require the women to be skinny, sexy, and have an overall enviable body. A key point we talked about in class was that the women in these shows would need to look good in a bikini so that a man can come in and judge their appearance. This notion continuously leads women to believe that their bodies must be validated by a man`s approval. Take “The Bachelor” for example; women are fighting for the attention and “love” of one man, based on superficial qualities. These women are set up against one another and will go to long lengths to put each other down. The viewers disregard the emotions of these women and are blinded by the fantasy of having a body like the participants. But it`s not just the skinny stars that leaves women feeling insecurity about their bodies; the complete opposite is seen in “Keeping Up with the Kardashian” who have seemingly unobtainable curves. Women feel inadequate for not having a butt or breasts like Kim Kardashian, yet they overlook the fact that her job is literally to look good and that they can afford a personal trainer, cook, nutritionist, and going under the needle. These are ridiculous expectations that are placed on women and ruining their self-image. Their relationship with their bodies is tainted when they constantly do not measure up to the women seen on reality television.
With little diversity of body types in women on television, there is no question that women perceive their own bodies as not good enough, ugly, and “undesirable”. Only if you are tall, slim, and White, with European facial traits are you deemed attractive. From my own experiences, which I am sure are not unique, I remember growing up seeing these women and thinking that since I do not look like them I am unattractive and unworthy. Growing up and watching shows such as, “America’s Next Top Model”, or “The Bachelor”, has definitely impacted my self-esteem and body image. All these women on these shows were attractive, slim, and frankly did not have to think twice before wearing a two piece in front of a camera for the whole world to see. I know that I cannot be the only one. The most discouraging and sad thing is this not only affects older women, but younger girls as well. I remember when I was just nine years old I would hear my fellow girl classmates talking about diets, calories, and how much they hated their “chubby bodies”, and this was all before the age of social media takes over. In this digital age, women and younger girls are even more exposed to media that’s main goal is to make them feel terribly about their bodies. This unrealistic body expectation of women creates many problems, such as body dysmorphia, eating disorders, and low self-esteem, just to name a few. I believe that these reality shows also make women believe that the only thing they can ever offer in this world is their physical appearance. These shows make women forget that they are complex human beings, we are more than just our bodies, and there is definitely more that we can offer this world than what size pants we can fit it.
Reality television worsens the serious problem women these days have with eating disorders and negative body image. By only casting underweight women as a representation of “reality” women are led to believe that this is the way that they should look, or rather this is the way that “average” women are meant to look. Some of the people who watch reality tv take the people they see cast in the show to be an accurate representation of the women that make up the majority in America, or the ideal look, when in actuality the number of women who actually look that thin is a very small percentage. Most women, in order to achieve that look, end up with eating disorders. Not only are most of the women in these shows underweight, but in the few instances when an average or plus sized person is put on the show, they are ridiculed and mocked for being healthy. In the example from Reality Bites Back, a young girl who suffered from bulimia talked about how a woman on America’s Next Top Model who was built like her, was called out for her weight and how it made her feel bigger because of that. By normalizing this toxic behavior we put more and more young kids at risk for eating disorders, they don’t yet have the thinking skills to realize that reality television is just another scripted show, to them it could be real, and when they see women on the screen that look like them, being called fat or told they need to lose weight, they think that they do as well. It sets an unachievable standard for women by only giving them one weight to view as “normal” and “healthy” when in reality that is not the case at all.
Many girls have to live up to a certain standard that isn't realistic, due to the content on television. The women on television do not portray the average american woman, most are thin and white. This affects woman in a negative way, they start to self-objectify themselves. This will lead to unhealthy habits that can be dangerous. Young girls look at reality television figures as role models, they see the young woman on television and assume they have to look like that. This is dangerous, the self-objectifying will lead to low self-esteem and depression. There are many negative effects of self-objectification, the body shame girls will develop will lead them to serious psychological consequences. In the recent reality tv shows the figures have altered their look by getting medical procedures. For example, in the show Keeping up With the Kardashians one of the main figure, Kylie Jenner felt ashamed and bullied by others, due to one of her insecurities, her lips. Kylie Jenner succumbed to the pressures of the beauty standards set by the media. Even though , the characters in her show do portray a different body types than most, it is still an unrealistic body type. As, Kylie Jenner grew up in the spotlight, her lips cause her to self-objectify and saw flaws, and so she got her lips enhanced with a medical procedure. After, the procedure she continued to deny, she had altered her face, later in the show she acknowledged she in fact did get her lips done. This reality tv figure is one of the most followed people on social media, her fanbase is mostly young girls. Young girls idolize her, want to be just like her, even if they have to alter themselves to look a certain way. Another example, would involve another family member of Keeping up With the Kardashians. The show is called Revenge Body with Khloe Kardashian, the show is flawed because you should not want to get better for other but yourself. The show focuses on people getting revenge by becoming a “hotter” version of themselves. In the show people not only do the exercise and eat well, they also get medical procedures that are not permanent, the show is artificial and leads us to believe that if one changes for others, they will obtain some sort of happiness. People have to learn to love themselves first, rather than trying to make others happy. Marisela A.
From the beginning of society women have been policed by their bodies. Granted the beauty standards have changed, thankfully they’re all socially constructed, but women continue to take issues with their bodies. From corset cinching, to feet binding, to anorexia women have gone through serious lengths to achieve the usually unachievable, or sometimes dangerously achievable, beauty standard. Now when it comes to my millennial generation I feel as though I can safely say that the stakes are higher and the bar is even further out of reach. We, as the millennials, have been fully immersed in TV culture starting from at least elementary school for most of us. This means that we have had what society considers beautiful (white, skinny, blonde) shoved in our faces for at least a decade. I will give some credit to the entertainment world for finally splashing some color against the white background that they perceive society as, but these women still represent an unattainable beauty standard. We can look at America’s Next Top Model (ANTM) as a prime example of the policing of women’s bodies. As we discussed in class ANTM will always cast a “plus size” model on their season, and excellent illusion to diversity. In the season with Toccara, an incredibly confident “plus size” model, the judges tore her apart for her self-assurance. This type of behavior towards a confident chubbier girl shows the world that chubby girls should not be confident, and if they are they’re lying to themselves. Tearing down the self-esteem of someone who is not “conventionally” pretty sets the example that the only way you can be truly happy and liked is if you are skinny. Not only are women told from, essentially, day one that our value in society is solely based off of how appealing to the eye we are. By supporting and representing only skinny, white, blonde girls the TV industry is telling the rest of us that we are nothing.
Since we were young television has been a major contributor to our daily entertainment. Reality television has become probably the most popular type of programming on air, with millions of viewers per show. On these shows the women are extremely thin and what the CDC considers underweight. This type of body is seen as ideal, and is coveted. In reality, the average woman in the United States has the body type that is considered overweight by the CDC. Constantly seeing a certain body type being portrayed on television can start to negatively impact a woman’s view of herself. They believe that they are supposed to look like the women that are constantly being paraded on their televisions. This can lead to depression, eating disorders, body dysmorphia and more. Most of these shows only focus on a woman’s physical characteristics making it seem like that is the only thing she is valued for. So the women consuming this content at home begin to feel like their bodies are the only thing they will be valued for, which makes them obsess over their appearance. Most of the time if a larger woman is on a reality show she is not treated the same as her skinny cast mates. She is often made the joke of the show or her weigh is portrayed as a major issue that must constantly be addressed. Representation matters, if reality television began to show women with a variety of body types, the women at home watching would be able to identify with the women on screen. If women saw themselves correctly represented in the media, they would not feel the need to conform to the other body types portrayed on screen. Positive representation is also important, larger women on reality shows need to be treated with the same fairness as their smaller cast mates.
Although the average woman in America is overweight, when underweight women are the majority on reality television, this image, portrayed into the homes of Americans everywhere, becomes the “norm.” Because women and men, when watching reality television, connect with these women because since it is called “reality” television, viewers think that it is real. These images of women alter the way that women view women and themselves and also the way that men view women. When women and men see these “real” women’s waistlines they think that they should be that thin. The actual reality is that these women are either genetically thin, do not have real jobs so have the time and money to have personal trainers everyday, or have eating disorders of their own. The amount of young girls who have eating disorders in the world continues to grow and it is due, in part, to this image of women. When women view shows such as, America’s Next Top model and women who are the tallest and skinniest women in the nation are told that they need to lose weight, the majority of women watching, who are overweight according to the CDC, are sent a negative message about their body image. With men, they see images of beautiful but tiny women and then take this image to judge other women with. The problem with this is that everyday women do not look like this. Men’s standards of what women should look like is set based on false reality of what “real” and “everyday” women look like. This manipulation of reality sets a type of lose-lose situation for both men and women. The biggest problem is that both men and women do not always realize that these women are in fact underweight. Especially because women who are categorized as “plus-size” qualify as normal according to the CDC but are made out to viewers as overweight.
The CDC, or known as the Center for Disease Control, classifies the average American woman to be of an overweight figure, meaning an average of 5’3” weighing in at 160 lbs. ;but reality television depicts women on their show, as 5’8’’ weighing 120 lbs.
The more you analyze the fact on why these women, whom are on these reality television shows, can be broadcasted as an “ideal type of woman” is because of the extreme vocal platform that these reality television shows have. One example of this is The Bachelor, in which has 29 tall, thin women, in which the male chooses one woman he will “spend his rest of his life with” (given the fact that less than 5% of these couples stay together and get married). To add along, the women in the show are depicted as supermodels, these women of course have a career of their own, but also physicality is more focused on rather than their intelligence. In which also gives light into how the average American woman sees herself. These women are shown in their bikinis, with their thin bodies, long hair, done-up makeup, fighting for a man to marry, with millions of viewers tuning in to watch them. When average women, who are not like these Bachelor contestants on the show, they feel the need to want to conform and be like the contestants.
Another prime example of reality television with unrealistic body images for women, is the infamous America’s Next Top Model, which basically is “if you are tall and thin, you can be a top model”; when in fact the women who participate on the show are not top fashion model runways or magazines in the end. As a takeaway, when these average American women, who are not like these reality television women see this unreality, they may develop self-hatred. To add along, a self-hatred that can lead eating disorders, self-harm, and of course body dysmorphia. As some women may consciously not express their self-image because on television it was depicted in a better light of someone with a different body type, or may unconsciously second guess their self-image confident. These unrealistic body images, ironically on reality television, is the reason why we need more shows on television to refer to the positivity of one’s self-image. Rather than depicting what the sells for next-day morning talk-show watercooler gossip; we need shows that reinsure the fact that every woman is wonderful in their own unique way, that our reality is much stronger than unrealistic body types.
Since that can affect women, image what these reality television shows are showing younger girls about how their bodies “should be” and how it affects them. The fact of the matter is that, the unreality of these “reality” television shows calls for unrealistic body images, also affects women and younger girls across the board; reality television truly does remove the reality of the average American woman, by creating an unreality series of television for millions to watch and consume. -Kim S
Reality Television is a type of genre that claims to continuously record real people in their everyday lives. However, as discussed in class, many reality TV show elements are manipulated such as the cast, picture, and sound in a way to produce as much conflict as possible. Unfortunately, not many young women are completely aware of this fact and a show such as America’s Next Top Model sets a beauty standard that is difficult to naturally obtain. It is interesting to note that I took part in viewing America’s Next Top Model as I watched it with my sister when I was much younger. Thinking back to it, as a young and impressionable boy, I did very much believe that this was what all females were supposed to look like once they reached adulthood. Fortunately, I was able to get out of that mindset, however, I cannot say the same with others, male or female, that were in the same situation I was in. The ideal woman for reality TV is seen as a young, skinny, and often surgically enhanced white female. Viewers are then implanted with the idea that these women, as portrayed on television, is how women in real life should look if they want to be seen as beautiful. Not only that, but their beauty is the main factor that is judged so many females start to believe appearance is what will get one far in life. Unrealistic expectations are made that target fragile and unconfident viewers. Female viewers often desire these bodies or start focusing on personal flaws that others may see as minor or not even observable. Male viewers are even effected because of how much television plays a role in society. Since the women on television set the beauty standard, men now have a desired body image that females should not be expected to chase after. Men are also given the power to judge the women seen on TV as they are often objectified and given worth based on how well they look in revealing clothing. It is not surprising to see a complex relationship women might have with their bodies with all the focus that is put on women’s bodies when their intellect, hobbies, and abilities can be made just as interesting. Sadly, many production companies see the numbers in conflict and sex instead and decide to continue with the stereotype that women are manipulative, stupid, and incompetent.
Women who watch reality television are constantly being bombarded with the idea that being underweight is the only way to be accepted by society. Reality television producers love to cast women on their show ranging in age from 24 to 25 years old. Although the ideal woman on reality television is white, western, and hypersexual, I’d like to focus on the fact that women on reality tv are either just super underweight, or underweight with surgically enhanced body parts. On reality television, a woman who wears a size 7 is most likely considered to be a plus size woman. But, not only is she considered "plus size", she is ridiculed about her weight and encouraged to "take better care of herself" by losing a drastic amount of pounds. Alongside social media, reality television plays a big role in making women feel insecure about their bodies. A woman who struggles with her body image most likely has self-esteem issues. A woman with low self-esteem either begins to suffer from depression or/and searches for love from men to make her feel complete. In the book "Reality Bites Back", Jennifer Pozer states "Reality television has taught us that life is a beauty contest for every woman. Viewers learn that girls who win this genetic lottery (and those buoyed by scalpels and silicone) will be lusted after by lovers regardless of personality and sought after by employers regardless of professional skills" (p.62). Watching reality tv shows such as Bad Girls Club, Basketball Wives, Housewives of Atlanta, Love and Hip Hop, and America's Next Top Model has tremendously affected the way I see my body. I watch women on theses shows body shame each other when in all actuality none of them are even overweight. I think about having a tummy tuck all the time. I have high expectations for myself to look like these surgically enhanced women that I see on these reality tv shows. What I find ironic is the fact that I tune into these “reality shows” hoping it will be a way I can escape my reality to watch someone else's problems. Instead, I find myself watching the shows plotting on how I can make myself look like these unrealistic women they put on reality television shows! And the sad part is, I continue to tune in week after week. CDC makes underweight seem normal on reality tv and makes normal size women feel overweight. I know there is women out there vulnerable like me. The first step to fixing this issue is to be confident in yourself and realize that the only thing that has a “flaw” right now is the system that tries to tell us that we have all the flaws. The system is wrong, cause we are are flawless!
Being a millennial and having technology constantly shaping ones life, the struggle between fiction and nonfiction consistently affects women and their perception of what is “ideal.” In class, we learned that the average American woman is five foot three and one hundred sixty-eight pounds, not Heidi Klum or Gisele Bündchen body-types. Celebrity women have been seen as the role models and dream bodies of women since the invention of film. We have strived to have the same body shape as Marilyn Monroe, Rita Hayworth, Cher, etc.. but with the creation of Reality Television, it has taken a worsening toll. The shows that have been aired since the start of RTV have put a negative light on women and how we are supposed to look like. “Reality” TV continues to shame natural hair, curves, and imperfections to be what Americans regard as perfection aka Barbie. There is no such thing as perfect in nature, no matter how hard one tries to attempt this unrealistic feat. It doesn’t just stop on TV either, we are blasted with false body types on ads, the internet, and commercials, specifically Victoria’s Secret. Successful women on television are deemed as prude, too smart, or not sexy enough because of how they dress, speak, or an opinion on a subject. Reality television often objectifies a women on her insecurities and how she should fix them, thus leading to a commercial for a product on that easy fix. Crazily, it is mostly men that run these reality shows and control what images women (the viewer at home) sees and is brainwashed into buying that product. Imagine how many businesses would have to close if women one day woke up and liked their appearances.. Reality television is nothing like reality at all and is hurting our youth with impractical ideals of beauty. Hopefully in the future, Reality TV will end and we can just have cooking shows and animal parodies!
Reality tv figures into the complex relationship that women have with their bodies in harsh ways. If women sees women on tv that are considered underweight, they do not know that the women is considered underweight. They see the women as an average sized women because the same type of women is shown all over television, which is dangerous because they are confusing and mixing up the terms underweight, average, and overweight. If a women who had considered herself as in the average weight range sees underweight women all over tv, she can make the assumption that she is overweight, and this can lead to numerous problems, like body dysmorphia and eating disorders. Reality tv confuses the terms underweight, average and overweight, and since women make the assumption that thin means healthy and overweight means unhealthy, then an average sized women who thinks she is overweight because her size is not represented on tv, may also make the false assumption that she is unhealthy. This also can lead to body dysmorphia, eating disorders or other mental disorders. Women are shown the “ideal beauty standard” on tv, which is dangerous alone as it is, but add the factor of weight into it, and it blows up to be an even bigger issue. Young women, or even children, who see the same type of women on tv, may think they need to conform to societies idea of the “ideal beauty standard” and do something to change themselves to do this. This gives off a dangerous outlook to people that are still growing and developing. They may feel the need to do whatever it takes to get themselves to e level where society's “ideal beauty standard” is.
According to the CDC, many women are overweight. The media also normalizes underweight women, and the viewers at home strive to become like those they see on TV. Reality TV makes the complex relationship women have with their bodies worse because they think that those underweight women are healthy. With these unrealistic expectations that are constantly seen, these women begin to have eating disorders such as anorexia and bulimia in order to achieve the thigh gap and collar bones that they see on a regular basis. Not only is this a dangerous mindset, but it can also lead to serious health complications and extreme cases that result in fatal consequences. Eating disorders such as anorexia can cause hair loss, organ failure, etc., while bulimia can cause tears in the esophagus and malnutrition. In addition, both eating disorders can cause psychological problems such as body dysmorphia. When a woman turns to eating disorders, she is trapped in a never-ending cycle of yoyo dieting, reaching an unhealthy weight, and gaining all the weight back causing them to be overweight again. The weight gain when recovering also encourages psychological problems like depression to occur. Reality TV shows are to blame because they normalize these unrealistic ideas of what a healthy body should be. Evidence of this is when the rate of young girls developing eating disorders in Fiji dramatically increased after they were introduced to American reality television. Even if people are aware that reality TV shows are not actual reality, just the idea of normalization of underweight women is enough to push anyone into a mental illness. This idea is like that of people who are aware of commercials and don’t think that they are affected by what is show to them. However, just like commercials, what is shown to us over and over subconsciously influence our decisions and our preferences.
The average woman on reality television according to the CDC falls into the category of underweight but in actual reality the average woman is overweight. Most women do not even know that the average woman is overweight. The other day I told my girlfriend that the average size of a woman according to the CDC is 5’3 and 166.2 pounds and she was very surprised. This is what reality television is doing, it is creating this perception that the average woman is like 5’7 and 118 pounds. This is very detrimental to women in society because the women they see on television, the majority from reality television, puts this idea that this what every women looks like. Then it creates these expectations that are just not achievable. Viewers especially adolescent girls and young women believe that this is what women are supposed to look like. These young girls start wanting to be like 5'9 or taller and thin and those kind of measurements only represent a very small portion of the population. If they do not look this way they start to develop problems such as self-esteem, body image, and even eating disorders. Reality television also creates the idea that the only way to be successful is to be beautiful or to have the body type of one of these women. Because of these images and ideas that are created from reality television women start to only focus on what is considered bad by reality television standards. Women do not look at themselves in the mirror and think about the good, they look at they think are flaws. Men are also affected these ideas and images because they also start to believe that this is what every women should look like. So this is what they come to expect from women. Also how women are portrayed as to be the ones to do all the work to get the guy like on The Bachelor, they start to believe that. Also how much women are objectified on reality television start to make its way into the real world and guys will talk about women as if they are only a nice butt or body part. Reality television is causing many problems and few people seem to care. The people who make these programs only care about money and not the well being of the viewers.
With Reality Television, comes conflict. Not only within the show but what they project to their audience. According to CDC if you are at a normal height and weight in America, in Hollywood you are considered to be plus size. If you are underweight in America, you fit into the category of what is "normal" in Hollywood and which are majority of women on Reality Television. The ideal Reality Television woman consists of women who are usually under the age of 25, white, skinny, and often surgically enhanced. The conflict within the audience starts exactly there. Women of these audiences raise questions about their bodies in comparison to Reality Television women. If women who are casted into these shows are "over-weight" they are usually shamed for their body figures and are pushed to drop the weight. If a confident woman was pointed out her "flaws" by the judges on these Reality Television shows, her confidence is broken and she becomes the "Ugly Duckling" only to be the "Swan" she once was but with a different face or body. These Reality Television shows play a huge part in their audience's lives and I believe the power these shows have subliminally to their audience is just insane. Women in the audience are not necessarily told to their faces, that they are ugly, they are too fat, or too something that they “shouldn’t” be but the women on these shows are and if you look anything similar to the women on these shows, you begin to feel and think the same way about yourself. Not only does Hollywood give women a standard of what women should look like themselves, they also give men what the “ideal” women should look like. Men watch these shows just as much as women do. Why? Because men like to look at women and what they see on television is what brain washes them into thinking what’s on their screen is what should be under their arm.
There was picture shared by women in instagram which showed her body transformation. In this case, the transformation was from a thin body to a fairly overweight body. She received many negative comments about her body which is also called Fat shaming. Throughout our media culture, women are often portrayed as thin, sleek and underweight as a new normal. We used to see in movies, music videos, magazines and finally in Reality TV shows. Many people might fall in to the authenticity of these Reality TV shows. Reality TV shows also get very high media attention which increases the viewership and many of these shows are targeted to women. We see the underweight and thin women are often called beautiful, hot, and sexy and you need to have a very thin with no fat in your body to look good in bikini. I remember a case in my high school, where a girl who was just 14 was skipping her lunch in order to lose 15 pounds for summer. These shows are often scripted and produced in control settings and often pressure women participants to lose weight. These elements not only encourage the young women to hate their body but also influence men’s perception of women’s beauty. Reality TV shows also set the standards for other components like makeup, skin products and a perception of unattainable perfect skin. The cases of anorexia also increases among the young women who are often bullied or fat shammed for their body. Reality TV shows are often marketed as real people and real scenes. These shows set the standard for the body, beauty and women who watch these shows might try to imitate those elements. It encourages the bad behavior among women and undermines their health and well being. It is also physiologically harmful because they try to meet the expectation of perfect body. Social pressure and peer pressure is often problem when your peers are try to follow these TV shows.
The CDC labels most women in the United States as overweight, yet all media outlets are littered with women who are considered underweight by the CDC. As we learned in the screen of Killing Us Softly the superficial, objectifying and unreal portrayal of women in advertising and media lowers women’s self esteem. Reality television is just another outlet where women are misrepresented. Most women on reality television are white, underweight and in their early 20’s. This is a tiny pool of women that are used to represent women as a whole. Most women do not fall under this category; leaving them asking, where do I fit in? The ideal women placed on reality television is an unattainable goal for most women. As I stated before the women on these shows are not even an average healthy body weight. My generation grew up watching reality television, there was never any question of the true message being relayed by the programming. We were never taught to question or even think critically about what our minds were consuming subconsciously. The effects of this are high percentages of young girls who are unhappy with their bodies. This is a vicious cycle of never being skinny enough or pretty enough. We look at shows like America’s Next Top Model. All those girls are gorgeous, yet they are picked apart for the littlest things and even they are not good enough. When producers cast for these shows they are looking for underweight, model type perfect bodies. If we look into the ads that play during these RTV shows they are targeting women. Sneaking in infomercials about how you can lose weight or the next great diet plan. The focus is to make you feel like you are not enough and their products will help you achieve ideal beauty. Reality television plays a huge role in how women see themselves not just in weight, but overall. Elexus T.
I remember always being a little excited at the idea of a sick day in high school, because it meant I got to stay home and watch daytime TV reruns of America’s Next Top Model. I was always stunned by the amount of eating disorders on the show that were pushed aside as “normal” part of being a model. But that didn’t stop me from skipping meals now and then—I mean, we all did it to stay trim. It wasn’t anorexia as long as it didn’t become a habit. I just wanted to be normal sized, and I was surrounded by media that told me normal meant skinny and pale. Still, I was lucky because I was in a supportive environment which never allowed me to become unhealthy. This is a mild case of how Reality TV manipulates young girls’ minds, how the size 2 white woman becomes an unattainable aspiration plastered on our TV’s, billboards, and smart phones. It’s a constant and inescapable message: this is what you should be, and if you’re not, you’re less. The shocking truth is that contestants of America’s Next Top Model and The Bachelor’s represent less than two percent of the population, and even these “ideal” women are scrutinized and humiliated for every possible flaw, until it seems like no one is good enough.
In Reality Bites Back, Pozner states that research has shown that “exposure to sexualized female ideals with lower self-esteem, negative mood, and depression among adolescent and adult women” (67). Reality TV is not only affecting women’s physical health, but their emotional and mental stability. The more women are exposed to unrealistic body imagery, the less they think of themselves, which then turns into body dysmorphia, eating disorders, and self-harm. We place our worth in our appearance—not because we want to, but because society dictates that we must in order to fit in.
Confident women who don’t fit society’s mold are dangerous. America’s Next Top Model plus-sized contestant Toccara Jones, who was cast for her “strength and personality,” is a perfect example of this. Because she’s not a size two, she can’t be cast for her external beauty—in fact, anyone larger than size two can only be internally beautiful. And then that must be stripped away. After weeks of persevering through one humiliation after another, Toccara showed that the abuse was affecting her. The moment she did, she was labeled as “weak” and sent home. This is the image we put on display for women. If you can’t be skinny, you must be everything else. We are taught to look for flaws, to complain about our weight to seem humble, to shame each other as well as ourselves. Reality TV perpetuates normalcy as skinny, white, and hyper-sexualized, and it teaches us to self-deprecate if we are anything else (and even if we aren’t). It sets unreal standards for real women, and has led us to define beauty as exclusion rather than acceptance. Kali H.
With the media's over-representation of underweight women, this body image is posed as a healthy norm. This misrepresentation of the average american body leads to a skewed perception of what a healthy body weight actually is. This distortion has lead to a drastic increase in eating disorders, depression, insecurity, and other mental problems. Reality TV in particular has a dramatic effect on how women see their own bodies. The term "Reality TV" is misleading in itself and leads both women and men to believe the innaccurate notion that what goes on in these shows depicts the same reality that we live by every single day. This constant exposure to unhealthy body weights, be it underweight or overweight, completely alters and distorts what people believe to be a healthy weight. This perception has become so distorted that often times, both men and women see a woman of a healthy weight and still believe that she is over-weight. Evidence of this distortion is prevalent in nearly all forms of social media. Nearly every time I scroll through my instagram or twitter feed, I see pictures of women who struggle with weight loss and their body image. I'll also come across before-and-after pictures of women who have gone from being over-weight to extremely underweight or vice versa. If I go through the comments under a picture of a women who is at a perfectly healthy weight, I will still find hateful comments of people who believe that she is fat or even go as far as obese. Not only does Reality TV perpetuate this underweight body type as the norm, it also associates this body weight with beauty. If a woman's weight does not match up with the body images depicted in the media, she is seen as less-than or unattractive. This association between weight and beauty further increases the rates of depression and eating disorders that we see in our society. - Shira T.
The media has strong constructs on the appearance of women’s bodies and what is considered desirable and undesirable. Being that there is a lack of diversity shown, many women, if they do not fit into the small box of what is considered beautiful, will begin to attack themselves and feel as though they are not good enough. The media has great biases on women’s appearances, in that; the closer a woman’s features are to that of European decent the closer they are to what is considered beautiful. Television shows like ‘America’s Next Top Model’ or ‘Project Runway’, etc. tend to reinforce these beauty standards creating a cycle of rejection in those that do not suit the criteria. Most of the women shown on those television shows are tall, slender, and what most would consider “hot”. To a woman struggling with weight or her outward appearance, this would be very discouraging and would to “fit in”. The greatest discouragement is that not only does it affect adult women, but it also affects our youth. In todays society girls as young as six years old are more worried about their caloric intake than learning their times tables. The media is subliminally telling these young girls that they need to watch their weight so they can be “normal” or beautiful. In recent times, there has been shift in beauty standards. Now women are striving to be a little curvier, but still remain slim. More women are calling themselves “slim-thick” or “thick-fit” because they want to be considered slim but not skinny. With this body type, women will have a small waist with “thick” legs large breasts. Even this body type is almost unachievable for most women. Because women are over sexualized, the media uses that to their benefit brainwashing these ladies making them believe there is only one avenue for beauty. Beauty is and will always be in the eyes of the beholder.
The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) is a federal agency that is known for administrating and supporting health promotion, prevention and preparedness activities in the United States. Although the agency has many goals, it’s overall goal is to improve public health. According to the CDC the average American woman is 5’3 and weighs roughly around 170 pounds. The average american woman is considered overweight. Despite the fact that the average american woman is overweight, a relatively large amount of the woman that are shown on reality television are underweight. Although many may not be aware but this has a major effect on women's relationships with their own bodies. Reality tv is marketed as being reality. However it isn’t nearly a reality as some may think. The reality of the average american women is shown plain and simple by the CDC. The average american woman is considered overweight, yet for some reason the women in nearly every reality shows have the types of bodies that would be considered underweight. How does reality TV figure into the complex relationship women have with their bodies? How could it not?! Women are constantly being told and shown how the “average” woman is suppose to look when they watch reality tv. Take America’s Next Top Model for instance. The women on that show are already drastically underweight. Now some might say “of course all the girls on ANTM are underweight. It's a show about becoming a top model and most models are underweight”. However when they do have “plus size” models on the show, they are still the type that would be considered underweight by the CDC. Even shows like The Bachelor have a plethora of women who are all drastically underweight by CDC standards. I don’t believe the show has ever even had a plus sized contestant. Women could be watching this and in return begin feeling ashamed and highly critical about their own bodies. Men could watch these shows and think it is how the average american woman is suppose to look and anything bigger is not acceptable. There is such little body diversity for women on tv. When there are women on reality shows who are not underweight, they are often just on tv shows about losing weight and going through makeovers. In this day and social media and reality tv is bigger than it ever has been before. When women and little girls see only certain types of bodies on tv, of course they will be inclined to compare it with their own bodies and start comparing themselves with what the see in the media. Society itself seems to have a very unhealthy obsession with image. By constantly seeing a certain body type on TV and in the media it’s almost as if we are trained to continuously be obsessing over our image and obsessing over staying skinny. Women are taught that what they wear, how they look, and how much they weigh are a lot more important than their opinions, their personalities, and their morals. To make it a bit more simpler, they are frequently being reminded that what is on the outside is and should have a higher importance than what they have on their insides. That their body is more important than their voice.
Plus size models who participated in ANTM were never truly given an equal chance compared to models of smaller figures. An example of this was when plus size model Tocarra Jones, contestant in cycle 3 of ANTM, did not have anything to wear during one of the photoshoots due to a lack of outfits in her size. When Jones became upset over this, the women in charge of wardrobe told her “Do you think I’m going to have a rack of clothes filled with your size?” Scenarios like this can lead women to believe that they have to lose weight just to fill the mold society has of the way their body should be and should look like just so they won’t have to go through situations where they struggle to find or can’t find clothing for their body type. London Levi, another contestant in ANTM, was also shamed when she gained ten pounds while on the show. Levi had previously shared that she was a recovering bulimic before she started the show, however that didn’t stop Jay from shaming her by calling her “unprofessional” for gaining weight. When scenarios like these are portrayed on television it makes women feel as though they should do anything to achieve the so-called perfect body just to be accepted by society. This often causes women to go through unhealthy measures which can lead them to becoming anorexic or bulimic. Although Levi had previously admitted that she was bulimic it didn’t prevent others from judging her over her weight gain which lead her to being eliminated from the show. When this is presented to an audience that includes girls and women of a variety of ages it sends the message that they should go as far as it takes just to have the ideal body figure regardless of the damage it may cause, both physically and mentally.
Reality television, just like most American made mass media, instills an obsessive focus on women’s bodies by creating an unattainable mold of the “perfect woman”. Women look to the incredibly small, often surgery enhanced, “model” bodied girls splashed across every reality television show as a representation of how they should look, yet see completely different depictions of the female body in themselves and in the women surrounding them. When watching reality television, women internalize the notion that being white and a size 0 is the height of American beauty standards and that no other body type is fit to be on TV. For example, plus size model, Bo Stanley, was asked to be a contestant on Chris Soules’ season of The Bachelor in 2015, yet unsurprisingly, other than a perfunctory hello from Chris, she got virtually no screen time and was eliminated on the first night. Bo was probably a size 10 or 12, not plus size by any definition, but instead would fall into the CDC’s category of normal. The message sent by the show was clear— marriage material equals skinny, tall and white, so if your none of those things, pack your bags! So, if straight sized women are not considered desirable or perfect enough in the eyes of reality television, then women who have actual plus sized bodies do not even have a hope of seeing themselves represented on screen in a way that is not degrading or humiliating. Thus the ideology that a woman’s worth is in her body, her appearance, and her sex appeal— and nothing else— is cemented in the minds of the millions that tune into shows like The Bachelor, further damaging the psyche of women who have been battered and abused by the medias depiction of their bodies for decades. The consequences for this unhealthy ideology are gruesome; in Killing Us Softly 3, Jean Kilbourne revealed that after Fijians gained access to American cable television, women across the country developed eating disorders for the first time. Reality televisions depiction of women’s bodies is unattainable for most, and leaves them striving for a perceived perfection they can never achieve. The lack of body representation on reality TV therefore contributes to the chasm between women and positive relationships with their bodies, and encourages women and girls to center their identities and their self-worth in how they look.
Reality TV, like most other varieties of television, features a lot of underweight women that are portrayed as the western standard of beauty. Media outlets showing a majority of skinny women serves two purposes. The first is to make as many women as possible feel insecure about their weight and entire appearance in general. The second is to exploit those insecurities to sell cosmetic products, weight-loss products, and cosmetic surgeries. Reality TV in particular is especially damaging because it is depicted as real-life regular women cast from off the streets as opposed to movies and scripted TV where it is more well known that actresses are held to a higher standard of beauty.
Reality Television is unique in its ability to insert tons of product placement and then have commercials on top of it to multiply advertising and sponsor revenue. Who Wants to Marry a Millionaire was the first of many reality TV shows that constantly humiliated and ridiculed contestants to make women feel like looks were all that mattered. Shows like America’s Next Top Model would tear women apart for gaining weight even though they were literally still underweight. According to the National Eating Disorders Association, Americans, mostly women, were spending more than 40 billion dollars a year just on dieting products; many of which are advertised by the sponsors of these shows. A plus-size model named Toccara was featured as the only overweight contestant on a season of America’s Next Top model and the show intentionally sabotaged her for weeks until she finally admitted they got to her and she was eliminated. Despite being treated like a morbidly obese charity case by the judges, Toccara was actually less overweight, based on height and weight, than the average woman watching at home. She eventually ended up on another reality show that involved weight loss and was called “dysfunctional” for thinking she looked good after losing over 30 pounds.
The brutal combination of reality TV paired with cosmetic product and procedure advertising is successfully lowering the self-esteem of women and generating billions for multiple industries. Cosmetic surgeries are now being done more than 4 times as much as they were 20 years ago despite the still-prevalent health risks and various mortality rates. Nikko A.
Pozner states, Media both shape and reflect culture perceptions of who we are, what were valued for, what we want, what we need, what we believe about ourselves, and others— and what we should consider “our place” in society (pg.21). When it comes to reality TV we desire that conflict in which reality TV draws in. I myself sometimes like watching reality TV because it’s just a bunch of nonsense. But the way some women are perceived on some shows is just wrong. The one thing that reality TV shows does do is depict women and their bodies. The media creates this image of a “perfect women” who has a perfect body, skinny, good skin, etc. They put this idea in our minds that to be considered an ideal woman we must follow all these crazy beauty regimes, beauty products or get work done to be beautiful. But when this happens it sets young girls up for disaster when they idolize a woman who has been altered to be perceived as perfect. Many young girls will suffer from eating disorders, depression, and low self-esteem, all because they want to be beautiful like them. Not only young girls but every woman because when we see these perfect women we want to be like them, and then start to hate ourselves for not being perfect. The way Reality TV (RTV) plays a role in the perception of women is they display the average women who is white, under 24/25, wester, skinny, hyper sexual, and often surgically enhanced. RTV creates these false women to be looked upon. It is always the same type of girl and does not contain diversity among women. It creates an image that this is what you should look like. According to the CDC, the average American women is overweight but they are normal weight 5’3 and weigh 166 lbs. The women seen on TV are considered underweight which would be most reality TV women. An example of this would be the show Americans next top model. The show makes it seems that if you meet the requirements of being tall and skinny you could be a model. But when they cast these girls they tear them down. They give the girls a makeover to alter their beauty but weren't they beautiful before? In my opinion it doesn't make sense. An example Posner used in the book was, Ryan Secrets once thanked Jenna Fisher for being a size zero then compared it to the 80s when mass media trained women to think they were undesirable if they weren't “a perfect size 8”. It portrays women as only being looked at for their looks and not for their intellectual minds. Its will always be based on how they look rather than their personality. -Alexis B.
The world of reality television is full of images that do not convey the truth about the world around us. However, even with the considerably ridiculous behavior and raging stereotypes that appear within the realm of reality television, the word "reality" tends to cancel the logic alarms that should be going off in our heads. Women are consistently getting told that their bodies are wrong; it is not always that they are too big, however that seems to be the most common. The women that are shown on television, at least the ones that are shown in a slightly positive light when it comes to their bodies, are the ones who would fall under the CDC's category of being too thin. Yet, these are the women that most people consider to have the ideal body; these are the women that most other women are trying to look like. The CDC states that the average American woman is overweight. It is not common knowledge that the women in front of us, on reality television, are considered underweight. So, we have "overweight" women striving to look like the "normal" and "average" women they see in reality television, but these women are striving for a dangerous standard. When people are constantly hearing that their body is wrong, and when they are consistently seeing the same type of body on television, it is easy for them to get consumed by the “right” image. There can be an insidious desperation that sneaks into play, causing them to turn to unhealthy habits in an attempt to reach something that will make them the “right” kind of woman. Women are not only facing these issues in the world of reality television, in fact, the toxic ideologies that are presented within these shows are persistently reinforced on a daily basis. Even if women that aware of the problematic visuals and narratives within reality television, and are only watching for an “escape” are having toxic thoughts validated in their minds.
Reality TV is far from what reality even is, since the CDC states the average American women is overweight, why is it that when you turn on any RTV show, the screen is filled with nothing but underweight women? If reality was really depicting reality on these obscure RTV shows, you would see real raw average looking women, but that’s far from what is casted. RTV is all about big breast, lean bodies, big biceps and chiseled abs. And if it does involve any overweight or “average” looking people, it is only because they are giving them a dramatic makeover to look more “appealing” to the “average” person. These shows, whether they are reality or scripted are conveying the wrong messages to Americans. They set high expectations for Americans all over the country (not just to women but men too) because these producers cast the same looking people over and over to scrutinize the rest of Americans. For example, “The Real World” which is a RTV that is supposed to depict people from the real world and put 8 strangers together in a house that are supposed to be unique and different from one another are really more alike that we think. They tend to use women who are extremely slender and who have medium to large breasts, and men who have a “v-shape” body, meaning they are “ripped” and all are generally good looking and what people should look like (flawless skin, lean body, nice appearance) they cast people all on their looks and the people who watch these shows have misconceptions of what reality life is. When you have “The Bachelor” who is demeaning towards women everywhere because it shows a male having dominance and being able to judge women off their looks and not only are these women being judged off their looks on national TV for the world to see, these women all look the same. They are all blonde or brunettes that are white and have lean bodies with big breast. It’s a common myth among teens and young adults that reality cast members are similar to them, but that is not the case and these are not real people. These shows set way to high of standards for women to be objectified and men as well and also display arrogance not reality. People should understand that they don’t need to relate to reality tv cast members because they aren’t “real people”.
Television plays a huge role in our culture and society for our daily entertainment. Nowadays, many teenagers and women are exposed to reality television which have a huge impact on their bodies. However, many of us know that everything is not “real” in reality television, but many women and young teenagers believe everything they see on these shows which affects their self-image and behavior. Reality TV for many teenagers means to be “cool” or “accepted” in society. By trying to be accepted by their bodies, it can affect the women negatively in many ways. The CDC already considers women in the media to be underweight and millions of viewers daily are trying to be like them. Women start to have a complex relationship about their bodies because they want to be like the next model or even be famous to be on TV. Many women especially young teenagers will do anything with their bodies to be like the women they see on TV. However, many don’t understand that everything is scripted and not real in reality television. I personally believe it’s all a business and it is very unfortunate that young teenagers are falling for this trap. For example, Keeping up with the Kardashians is one example which shows how the Kardashian’s all got famous. Teenagers watch these shows and will do anything to become famous. Another reality show that we discussed in our lecture is America’s Next Top Model, which also affects women and causes a complex relationship with their bodies. Some of these women are told that they aren’t pretty enough or some are considered overweight. In reality, most of these models are underweight, which causes problems for the teenagers watching these shows. For example, I have a niece who loves watching reality shows. Nowadays, she’s already on a diet when she is only 14 years of age. We live in a society where mostly everything is based on reality shows for women and social media. Teenagers are very young to understand that we do not have live in this world to fit in with these reality stars. Women do not have to sell themselves and their bodies to these shows. At the end of the day, it’s all a business and women need to understand that their body is more valuable. All these reality shows cause a complex relation for women and their bodies. Many struggle of depression and others stop eating just to gain weight. It’s very unhealthy and could affect their health in the future.
Media plays a major role on women’s bodies. Media influences on how women feel about their body weight. A lot of TV shows and also reality TV shows represent “beautiful” women to have skinny bodies. CDC says that most women are overweight in America however the media is countering this fact by saying beauty is to have a small waste. Having these contradictions causes women to feel shame of their bodies. Mentally and physically are harmed. Women are called ugly but if they lose weight they will be beautiful. For example on Americas Next Top Model, all the women are skinny but if you’re a little too fat you are body shamed and make you do ridiculous diets that have you in skins and bones, and still not acceptable to society. Talking about eating diet, fast food is cheaper than healthy food, that’s why people also eat more fast food than healthy. Women tend to go the extra mile to be famous. Media does not care about anyone’s health as long as they have the money. Median influences all women to be skinny and skinny can make you happy. No women is accepted for the way they are. Men are taught to love a woman by what media says. For example in the show Beauty Swan, women undergo through surgery to keep their husbands because they feel ugly. From cheekbone to knee surgery to be the perfect one. Models go through strict diets to have the perfect waist. Some models when they are photographed, they have to do an extra photoshop in their picture because they are not perfect enough. All these facts say a lot about the expectations of women. Women are not fully accepted in society for who they are, we are socially construct. We face many discriminations.
Reality TV does a fantastic job at misinforming the public about how women are expected to look. In many shows, such as America’s Next Top Model, being extremely thin is applauded. Viewers of these shows, especially female viewers, are being programmed to think that being as thin as the contestants on these shows is what one should be aiming to achieve and that anything else is frowned upon. The way normal and overweight bodies are presented in these types of shows is very warped. An almost anorexic-looking woman is considered normal while a woman that may be just a few pounds larger than her is given the label of plus-size. Women at home watching these categorizations begin to judge their own bodies. The majority of women do not have the extra thin bodies that the judges on reality TV shows look for. Therefore, this creates a mass propagation of information that brainwashes women into thinking that if they are not as thin as the contestants on the television, then they are not good enough, and this means that a majority of women will be dissatisfied with their body image. Pozner makes a point about how reality TV associates thinness with health. BMI is used as an indicator of whether someone is underweight, normal, overweight or obese. Pozner mentions that a woman named Elyse, a contestant on America’s Next Top Model, was given positive feedback for her weight on the scale. According to her height and weight, she had a BMI of 16.4, which is dangerously underweight. However, the millions of viewers at home had just learned something different. An unhealthy weight is what makes you beautiful. -Amber M.
There has always been the excuse that the camera adds ten pounds to people when being filmed and that’s why the thin actors and actresses exist so they can appear “normal” sized on the screen. Of course the camera has a single lens and most people have two eyes and are able to see in 3-d unlike the mechanics of the camera. Standards of beauty have changed drastically over time and it’s all due to artists, in this case reality show cast directors power to change the beauty standard. Hundreds of years ago in Italy full figured women were considered beautiful because it was evident they were well fed and to be too thin was seen as sickly and poor due to the lack of money they had for food which was deemed unattractive. Models like Twiggy and Kate Moss changed the model world because of their underweight appearances and they were considered different from the norm which attracted many people. The idea of something being different looking and standing out stays with people and differences cause the brain to remember that. Thin underweight woman not only became normal in the modeling world but t.v. and film as well as music. Now reality television which is supposed to reflect “real” people only seem to reflect a small percentage of “real” people who many don’t look like, and at times are unable to look like due to skin tone, or maybe even hair type. For example I thought Lauren Conrad was a beauty, in fact I still do and that’s okay, because I have accepted that I will never look like her and have no desire to. I will acknowledge that at one point I did want to have straight hair, light eyes and a heart shaped face, things that I could never attain naturally. Sure I could be thin like her but I could never have the same skeletal structure she has. Her friends on the series were also thin with hour glass figures and had confidence to wear little clothing around the opposite sex. It was something I wanted too but at too young an age. My body is probably still developing. -Claudia S.
Although it’s argued that reality television does not depict real life events, it has become a brand of television that has accumulated a lot of female viewers within the past few years. This type of media plays a big role in influencing the body image of young women. Reality TV provides regular young women with the belief that they can become famous. And these reality TV shows show the bodies of young women that are unlike those of the average American woman. The typical body that is shown in reality TV is that of women that are considered underweight according to the CDC. They are not representative of everyday people. The reality TV stars themselves promote this idea of superficial beauty. Looks are the only things that matter. The average American woman then is left feeling with body dissatisfaction. So we get things like an increase in eating disorders, plastic surgeries, depression, and an increase of beauty products being sold. Women who are exposed to media images depicting thin supermodels or reality TV stars experience weight concerns and influences them having a lower self-esteem. So it is not surprising that reality TV makes the already complex relationship women have with their bodies worse. On another note, because of reality television more and more young people want to be famous and believe they can become famous whether or not they are talented because of reality television. They are willing to go to the extremes just to attain the fame that comes with being a reality TV star. So whether you are at home feeling insecure and dissatisfied with your body because you don’t look like the supermodels they air on TV or you are seeking to modify your body to attain a certain look to become famous you are left with the idea that you must look a certain way to feel happy with your body or the way that you look.
ReplyDeleteGisell O.
Women are constantly questioning the validity of their bodies through their perceived social expectations, thus turning their relationship with their body into a negative and resentful one. The expectations that cloud women`s minds stem from reality television that is full of underweight women, which are seen as the norm when in reality most women are overweight. The bodies on television are mostly women in their early twenties, which is a completely inaccurate representation of society`s numbers in age. It gives the message that after women turn thirty, they are not beautiful and not worthy of being seen on television. This effects men too, who will be more likely to scrutinize a women`s body that is older or not up to the standards of an underweight model. The casting for these reality television shows require the women to be skinny, sexy, and have an overall enviable body. A key point we talked about in class was that the women in these shows would need to look good in a bikini so that a man can come in and judge their appearance. This notion continuously leads women to believe that their bodies must be validated by a man`s approval. Take “The Bachelor” for example; women are fighting for the attention and “love” of one man, based on superficial qualities. These women are set up against one another and will go to long lengths to put each other down. The viewers disregard the emotions of these women and are blinded by the fantasy of having a body like the participants. But it`s not just the skinny stars that leaves women feeling insecurity about their bodies; the complete opposite is seen in “Keeping Up with the Kardashian” who have seemingly unobtainable curves. Women feel inadequate for not having a butt or breasts like Kim Kardashian, yet they overlook the fact that her job is literally to look good and that they can afford a personal trainer, cook, nutritionist, and going under the needle. These are ridiculous expectations that are placed on women and ruining their self-image. Their relationship with their bodies is tainted when they constantly do not measure up to the women seen on reality television.
ReplyDeleteRegina D.
With little diversity of body types in women on television, there is no question that women perceive their own bodies as not good enough, ugly, and “undesirable”. Only if you are tall, slim, and White, with European facial traits are you deemed attractive. From my own experiences, which I am sure are not unique, I remember growing up seeing these women and thinking that since I do not look like them I am unattractive and unworthy. Growing up and watching shows such as, “America’s Next Top Model”, or “The Bachelor”, has definitely impacted my self-esteem and body image. All these women on these shows were attractive, slim, and frankly did not have to think twice before wearing a two piece in front of a camera for the whole world to see. I know that I cannot be the only one. The most discouraging and sad thing is this not only affects older women, but younger girls as well. I remember when I was just nine years old I would hear my fellow girl classmates talking about diets, calories, and how much they hated their “chubby bodies”, and this was all before the age of social media takes over. In this digital age, women and younger girls are even more exposed to media that’s main goal is to make them feel terribly about their bodies. This unrealistic body expectation of women creates many problems, such as body dysmorphia, eating disorders, and low self-esteem, just to name a few. I believe that these reality shows also make women believe that the only thing they can ever offer in this world is their physical appearance. These shows make women forget that they are complex human beings, we are more than just our bodies, and there is definitely more that we can offer this world than what size pants we can fit it.
ReplyDeleteCiarajane D.
Reality television worsens the serious problem women these days have with eating disorders and negative body image. By only casting underweight women as a representation of “reality” women are led to believe that this is the way that they should look, or rather this is the way that “average” women are meant to look. Some of the people who watch reality tv take the people they see cast in the show to be an accurate representation of the women that make up the majority in America, or the ideal look, when in actuality the number of women who actually look that thin is a very small percentage. Most women, in order to achieve that look, end up with eating disorders. Not only are most of the women in these shows underweight, but in the few instances when an average or plus sized person is put on the show, they are ridiculed and mocked for being healthy. In the example from Reality Bites Back, a young girl who suffered from bulimia talked about how a woman on America’s Next Top Model who was built like her, was called out for her weight and how it made her feel bigger because of that. By normalizing this toxic behavior we put more and more young kids at risk for eating disorders, they don’t yet have the thinking skills to realize that reality television is just another scripted show, to them it could be real, and when they see women on the screen that look like them, being called fat or told they need to lose weight, they think that they do as well. It sets an unachievable standard for women by only giving them one weight to view as “normal” and “healthy” when in reality that is not the case at all.
ReplyDeleteSammi L
Many girls have to live up to a certain standard that isn't realistic, due to the content on television. The women on television do not portray the average american woman, most are thin and white. This affects woman in a negative way, they start to self-objectify themselves. This will lead to unhealthy habits that can be dangerous. Young girls look at reality television figures as role models, they see the young woman on television and assume they have to look like that. This is dangerous, the self-objectifying will lead to low self-esteem and depression. There are many negative effects of self-objectification, the body shame girls will develop will lead them to serious psychological consequences. In the recent reality tv shows the figures have altered their look by getting medical procedures. For example, in the show Keeping up With the Kardashians one of the main figure, Kylie Jenner felt ashamed and bullied by others, due to one of her insecurities, her lips. Kylie Jenner succumbed to the pressures of the beauty standards set by the media. Even though , the characters in her show do portray a different body types than most, it is still an unrealistic body type. As, Kylie Jenner grew up in the spotlight, her lips cause her to self-objectify and saw flaws, and so she got her lips enhanced with a medical procedure. After, the procedure she continued to deny, she had altered her face, later in the show she acknowledged she in fact did get her lips done. This reality tv figure is one of the most followed people on social media, her fanbase is mostly young girls. Young girls idolize her, want to be just like her, even if they have to alter themselves to look a certain way. Another example, would involve another family member of Keeping up With the Kardashians. The show is called Revenge Body with Khloe Kardashian, the show is flawed because you should not want to get better for other but yourself. The show focuses on people getting revenge by becoming a “hotter” version of themselves. In the show people not only do the exercise and eat well, they also get medical procedures that are not permanent, the show is artificial and leads us to believe that if one changes for others, they will obtain some sort of happiness. People have to learn to love themselves first, rather than trying to make others happy.
ReplyDeleteMarisela A.
From the beginning of society women have been policed by their bodies. Granted the beauty standards have changed, thankfully they’re all socially constructed, but women continue to take issues with their bodies. From corset cinching, to feet binding, to anorexia women have gone through serious lengths to achieve the usually unachievable, or sometimes dangerously achievable, beauty standard. Now when it comes to my millennial generation I feel as though I can safely say that the stakes are higher and the bar is even further out of reach. We, as the millennials, have been fully immersed in TV culture starting from at least elementary school for most of us. This means that we have had what society considers beautiful (white, skinny, blonde) shoved in our faces for at least a decade. I will give some credit to the entertainment world for finally splashing some color against the white background that they perceive society as, but these women still represent an unattainable beauty standard. We can look at America’s Next Top Model (ANTM) as a prime example of the policing of women’s bodies. As we discussed in class ANTM will always cast a “plus size” model on their season, and excellent illusion to diversity. In the season with Toccara, an incredibly confident “plus size” model, the judges tore her apart for her self-assurance. This type of behavior towards a confident chubbier girl shows the world that chubby girls should not be confident, and if they are they’re lying to themselves. Tearing down the self-esteem of someone who is not “conventionally” pretty sets the example that the only way you can be truly happy and liked is if you are skinny. Not only are women told from, essentially, day one that our value in society is solely based off of how appealing to the eye we are. By supporting and representing only skinny, white, blonde girls the TV industry is telling the rest of us that we are nothing.
ReplyDeleteMadeline R.
Since we were young television has been a major contributor to our daily entertainment. Reality television has become probably the most popular type of programming on air, with millions of viewers per show. On these shows the women are extremely thin and what the CDC considers underweight. This type of body is seen as ideal, and is coveted. In reality, the average woman in the United States has the body type that is considered overweight by the CDC. Constantly seeing a certain body type being portrayed on television can start to negatively impact a woman’s view of herself. They believe that they are supposed to look like the women that are constantly being paraded on their televisions. This can lead to depression, eating disorders, body dysmorphia and more. Most of these shows only focus on a woman’s physical characteristics making it seem like that is the only thing she is valued for. So the women consuming this content at home begin to feel like their bodies are the only thing they will be valued for, which makes them obsess over their appearance. Most of the time if a larger woman is on a reality show she is not treated the same as her skinny cast mates. She is often made the joke of the show or her weigh is portrayed as a major issue that must constantly be addressed. Representation matters, if reality television began to show women with a variety of body types, the women at home watching would be able to identify with the women on screen. If women saw themselves correctly represented in the media, they would not feel the need to conform to the other body types portrayed on screen. Positive representation is also important, larger women on reality shows need to be treated with the same fairness as their smaller cast mates.
ReplyDelete-Lauren W.
Although the average woman in America is overweight, when underweight women are the majority on reality television, this image, portrayed into the homes of Americans everywhere, becomes the “norm.” Because women and men, when watching reality television, connect with these women because since it is called “reality” television, viewers think that it is real. These images of women alter the way that women view women and themselves and also the way that men view women.
ReplyDeleteWhen women and men see these “real” women’s waistlines they think that they should be that thin. The actual reality is that these women are either genetically thin, do not have real jobs so have the time and money to have personal trainers everyday, or have eating disorders of their own. The amount of young girls who have eating disorders in the world continues to grow and it is due, in part, to this image of women. When women view shows such as, America’s Next Top model and women who are the tallest and skinniest women in the nation are told that they need to lose weight, the majority of women watching, who are overweight according to the CDC, are sent a negative message about their body image.
With men, they see images of beautiful but tiny women and then take this image to judge other women with. The problem with this is that everyday women do not look like this. Men’s standards of what women should look like is set based on false reality of what “real” and “everyday” women look like. This manipulation of reality sets a type of lose-lose situation for both men and women. The biggest problem is that both men and women do not always realize that these women are in fact underweight. Especially because women who are categorized as “plus-size” qualify as normal according to the CDC but are made out to viewers as overweight.
-Ali P.
The CDC, or known as the Center for Disease Control, classifies the average American woman to be of an overweight figure, meaning an average of 5’3” weighing in at 160 lbs. ;but reality television depicts women on their show, as 5’8’’ weighing 120 lbs.
ReplyDeleteThe more you analyze the fact on why these women, whom are on these reality television shows, can be broadcasted as an “ideal type of woman” is because of the extreme vocal platform that these reality television shows have. One example of this is The Bachelor, in which has 29 tall, thin women, in which the male chooses one woman he will “spend his rest of his life with” (given the fact that less than 5% of these couples stay together and get married). To add along, the women in the show are depicted as supermodels, these women of course have a career of their own, but also physicality is more focused on rather than their intelligence. In which also gives light into how the average American woman sees herself. These women are shown in their bikinis, with their thin bodies, long hair, done-up makeup, fighting for a man to marry, with millions of viewers tuning in to watch them. When average women, who are not like these Bachelor contestants on the show, they feel the need to want to conform and be like the contestants.
Another prime example of reality television with unrealistic body images for women, is the infamous America’s Next Top Model, which basically is “if you are tall and thin, you can be a top model”; when in fact the women who participate on the show are not top fashion model runways or magazines in the end. As a takeaway, when these average American women, who are not like these reality television women see this unreality, they may develop self-hatred. To add along, a self-hatred that can lead eating disorders, self-harm, and of course body dysmorphia. As some women may consciously not express their self-image because on television it was depicted in a better light of someone with a different body type, or may unconsciously second guess their self-image confident. These unrealistic body images, ironically on reality television, is the reason why we need more shows on television to refer to the positivity of one’s self-image. Rather than depicting what the sells for next-day morning talk-show watercooler gossip; we need shows that reinsure the fact that every woman is wonderful in their own unique way, that our reality is much stronger than unrealistic body types.
Since that can affect women, image what these reality television shows are showing younger girls about how their bodies “should be” and how it affects them. The fact of the matter is that, the unreality of these “reality” television shows calls for unrealistic body images, also affects women and younger girls across the board; reality television truly does remove the reality of the average American woman, by creating an unreality series of television for millions to watch and consume.
-Kim S
Reality Television is a type of genre that claims to continuously record real people in their everyday lives. However, as discussed in class, many reality TV show elements are manipulated such as the cast, picture, and sound in a way to produce as much conflict as possible. Unfortunately, not many young women are completely aware of this fact and a show such as America’s Next Top Model sets a beauty standard that is difficult to naturally obtain.
ReplyDeleteIt is interesting to note that I took part in viewing America’s Next Top Model as I watched it with my sister when I was much younger. Thinking back to it, as a young and impressionable boy, I did very much believe that this was what all females were supposed to look like once they reached adulthood. Fortunately, I was able to get out of that mindset, however, I cannot say the same with others, male or female, that were in the same situation I was in.
The ideal woman for reality TV is seen as a young, skinny, and often surgically enhanced white female. Viewers are then implanted with the idea that these women, as portrayed on television, is how women in real life should look if they want to be seen as beautiful. Not only that, but their beauty is the main factor that is judged so many females start to believe appearance is what will get one far in life. Unrealistic expectations are made that target fragile and unconfident viewers. Female viewers often desire these bodies or start focusing on personal flaws that others may see as minor or not even observable. Male viewers are even effected because of how much television plays a role in society. Since the women on television set the beauty standard, men now have a desired body image that females should not be expected to chase after. Men are also given the power to judge the women seen on TV as they are often objectified and given worth based on how well they look in revealing clothing.
It is not surprising to see a complex relationship women might have with their bodies with all the focus that is put on women’s bodies when their intellect, hobbies, and abilities can be made just as interesting. Sadly, many production companies see the numbers in conflict and sex instead and decide to continue with the stereotype that women are manipulative, stupid, and incompetent.
- Dean V
Women who watch reality television are constantly being bombarded with the idea that being underweight is the only way to be accepted by society. Reality television producers love to cast women on their show ranging in age from 24 to 25 years old. Although the ideal woman on reality television is white, western, and hypersexual, I’d like to focus on the fact that women on reality tv are either just super underweight, or underweight with surgically enhanced body parts. On reality television, a woman who wears a size 7 is most likely considered to be a plus size woman. But, not only is she considered "plus size", she is ridiculed about her weight and encouraged to "take better care of herself" by losing a drastic amount of pounds. Alongside social media, reality television plays a big role in making women feel insecure about their bodies. A woman who struggles with her body image most likely has self-esteem issues. A woman with low self-esteem either begins to suffer from depression or/and searches for love from men to make her feel complete. In the book "Reality Bites Back", Jennifer Pozer states "Reality television has taught us that life is a beauty contest for every woman. Viewers learn that girls who win this genetic lottery (and those buoyed by scalpels and silicone) will be lusted after by lovers regardless of personality and sought after by employers regardless of professional skills" (p.62). Watching reality tv shows such as Bad Girls Club, Basketball Wives, Housewives of Atlanta, Love and Hip Hop, and America's Next Top Model has tremendously affected the way I see my body. I watch women on theses shows body shame each other when in all actuality none of them are even overweight. I think about having a tummy tuck all the time. I have high expectations for myself to look like these surgically enhanced women that I see on these reality tv shows. What I find ironic is the fact that I tune into these “reality shows” hoping it will be a way I can escape my reality to watch someone else's problems. Instead, I find myself watching the shows plotting on how I can make myself look like these unrealistic women they put on reality television shows! And the sad part is, I continue to tune in week after week. CDC makes underweight seem normal on reality tv and makes normal size women feel overweight. I know there is women out there vulnerable like me. The first step to fixing this issue is to be confident in yourself and realize that the only thing that has a “flaw” right now is the system that tries to tell us that we have all the flaws. The system is wrong, cause we are are flawless!
ReplyDelete-Erika D
Being a millennial and having technology constantly shaping ones life, the struggle between fiction and nonfiction consistently affects women and their perception of what is “ideal.” In class, we learned that the average American woman is five foot three and one hundred sixty-eight pounds, not Heidi Klum or Gisele Bündchen body-types. Celebrity women have been seen as the role models and dream bodies of women since the invention of film. We have strived to have the same body shape as Marilyn Monroe, Rita Hayworth, Cher, etc.. but with the creation of Reality Television, it has taken a worsening toll. The shows that have been aired since the start of RTV have put a negative light on women and how we are supposed to look like. “Reality” TV continues to shame natural hair, curves, and imperfections to be what Americans regard as perfection aka Barbie. There is no such thing as perfect in nature, no matter how hard one tries to attempt this unrealistic feat. It doesn’t just stop on TV either, we are blasted with false body types on ads, the internet, and commercials, specifically Victoria’s Secret. Successful women on television are deemed as prude, too smart, or not sexy enough because of how they dress, speak, or an opinion on a subject. Reality television often objectifies a women on her insecurities and how she should fix them, thus leading to a commercial for a product on that easy fix. Crazily, it is mostly men that run these reality shows and control what images women (the viewer at home) sees and is brainwashed into buying that product. Imagine how many businesses would have to close if women one day woke up and liked their appearances.. Reality television is nothing like reality at all and is hurting our youth with impractical ideals of beauty. Hopefully in the future, Reality TV will end and we can just have cooking shows and animal parodies!
ReplyDelete-Skylar A
Reality tv figures into the complex relationship that women have with their bodies in harsh ways. If women sees women on tv that are considered underweight, they do not know that the women is considered underweight. They see the women as an average sized women because the same type of women is shown all over television, which is dangerous because they are confusing and mixing up the terms underweight, average, and overweight. If a women who had considered herself as in the average weight range sees underweight women all over tv, she can make the assumption that she is overweight, and this can lead to numerous problems, like body dysmorphia and eating disorders. Reality tv confuses the terms underweight, average and overweight, and since women make the assumption that thin means healthy and overweight means unhealthy, then an average sized women who thinks she is overweight because her size is not represented on tv, may also make the false assumption that she is unhealthy. This also can lead to body dysmorphia, eating disorders or other mental disorders.
ReplyDeleteWomen are shown the “ideal beauty standard” on tv, which is dangerous alone as it is, but add the factor of weight into it, and it blows up to be an even bigger issue. Young women, or even children, who see the same type of women on tv, may think they need to conform to societies idea of the “ideal beauty standard” and do something to change themselves to do this. This gives off a dangerous outlook to people that are still growing and developing. They may feel the need to do whatever it takes to get themselves to e level where society's “ideal beauty standard” is.
-Lorena C.
According to the CDC, many women are overweight. The media also normalizes underweight women, and the viewers at home strive to become like those they see on TV. Reality TV makes the complex relationship women have with their bodies worse because they think that those underweight women are healthy. With these unrealistic expectations that are constantly seen, these women begin to have eating disorders such as anorexia and bulimia in order to achieve the thigh gap and collar bones that they see on a regular basis. Not only is this a dangerous mindset, but it can also lead to serious health complications and extreme cases that result in fatal consequences. Eating disorders such as anorexia can cause hair loss, organ failure, etc., while bulimia can cause tears in the esophagus and malnutrition. In addition, both eating disorders can cause psychological problems such as body dysmorphia.
ReplyDeleteWhen a woman turns to eating disorders, she is trapped in a never-ending cycle of yoyo dieting, reaching an unhealthy weight, and gaining all the weight back causing them to be overweight again. The weight gain when recovering also encourages psychological problems like depression to occur. Reality TV shows are to blame because they normalize these unrealistic ideas of what a healthy body should be. Evidence of this is when the rate of young girls developing eating disorders in Fiji dramatically increased after they were introduced to American reality television. Even if people are aware that reality TV shows are not actual reality, just the idea of normalization of underweight women is enough to push anyone into a mental illness. This idea is like that of people who are aware of commercials and don’t think that they are affected by what is show to them. However, just like commercials, what is shown to us over and over subconsciously influence our decisions and our preferences.
Christine N.
The average woman on reality television according to the CDC falls into the category of underweight but in actual reality the average woman is overweight. Most women do not even know that the average woman is overweight. The other day I told my girlfriend that the average size of a woman according to the CDC is 5’3 and 166.2 pounds and she was very surprised. This is what reality television is doing, it is creating this perception that the average woman is like 5’7 and 118 pounds. This is very detrimental to women in society because the women they see on television, the majority from reality television, puts this idea that this what every women looks like. Then it creates these expectations that are just not achievable. Viewers especially adolescent girls and young women believe that this is what women are supposed to look like. These young girls start wanting to be like 5'9 or taller and thin and those kind of measurements only represent a very small portion of the population. If they do not look this way they start to develop problems such as self-esteem, body image, and even eating disorders. Reality television also creates the idea that the only way to be successful is to be beautiful or to have the body type of one of these women. Because of these images and ideas that are created from reality television women start to only focus on what is considered bad by reality television standards. Women do not look at themselves in the mirror and think about the good, they look at they think are flaws.
ReplyDeleteMen are also affected these ideas and images because they also start to believe that this is what every women should look like. So this is what they come to expect from women. Also how women are portrayed as to be the ones to do all the work to get the guy like on The Bachelor, they start to believe that. Also how much women are objectified on reality television start to make its way into the real world and guys will talk about women as if they are only a nice butt or body part. Reality television is causing many problems and few people seem to care. The people who make these programs only care about money and not the well being of the viewers.
-Philip P
With Reality Television, comes conflict. Not only within the show but what they project to their audience. According to CDC if you are at a normal height and weight in America, in Hollywood you are considered to be plus size. If you are underweight in America, you fit into the category of what is "normal" in Hollywood and which are majority of women on Reality Television. The ideal Reality Television woman consists of women who are usually under the age of 25, white, skinny, and often surgically enhanced. The conflict within the audience starts exactly there. Women of these audiences raise questions about their bodies in comparison to Reality Television women. If women who are casted into these shows are "over-weight" they are usually shamed for their body figures and are pushed to drop the weight. If a confident woman was pointed out her "flaws" by the judges on these Reality Television shows, her confidence is broken and she becomes the "Ugly Duckling" only to be the "Swan" she once was but with a different face or body. These Reality Television shows play a huge part in their audience's lives and I believe the power these shows have subliminally to their audience is just insane. Women in the audience are not necessarily told to their faces, that they are ugly, they are too fat, or too something that they “shouldn’t” be but the women on these shows are and if you look anything similar to the women on these shows, you begin to feel and think the same way about yourself. Not only does Hollywood give women a standard of what women should look like themselves, they also give men what the “ideal” women should look like. Men watch these shows just as much as women do. Why? Because men like to look at women and what they see on television is what brain washes them into thinking what’s on their screen is what should be under their arm.
ReplyDeleteBrianna F.
There was picture shared by women in instagram which showed her body transformation. In this case, the transformation was from a thin body to a fairly overweight body. She received many negative comments about her body which is also called Fat shaming. Throughout our media culture, women are often portrayed as thin, sleek and underweight as a new normal. We used to see in movies, music videos, magazines and finally in Reality TV shows. Many people might fall in to the authenticity of these Reality TV shows. Reality TV shows also get very high media attention which increases the viewership and many of these shows are targeted to women. We see the underweight and thin women are often called beautiful, hot, and sexy and you need to have a very thin with no fat in your body to look good in bikini. I remember a case in my high school, where a girl who was just 14 was skipping her lunch in order to lose 15 pounds for summer. These shows are often scripted and produced in control settings and often pressure women participants to lose weight. These elements not only encourage the young women to hate their body but also influence men’s perception of women’s beauty. Reality TV shows also set the standards for other components like makeup, skin products and a perception of unattainable perfect skin. The cases of anorexia also increases among the young women who are often bullied or fat shammed for their body.
ReplyDeleteReality TV shows are often marketed as real people and real scenes. These shows set the standard for the body, beauty and women who watch these shows might try to imitate those elements. It encourages the bad behavior among women and undermines their health and well being. It is also physiologically harmful because they try to meet the expectation of perfect body. Social pressure and peer pressure is often problem when your peers are try to follow these TV shows.
~SESAN N.
The CDC labels most women in the United States as overweight, yet all media outlets are littered with women who are considered underweight by the CDC. As we learned in the screen of Killing Us Softly the superficial, objectifying and unreal portrayal of women in advertising and media lowers women’s self esteem. Reality television is just another outlet where women are misrepresented. Most women on reality television are white, underweight and in their early 20’s. This is a tiny pool of women that are used to represent women as a whole. Most women do not fall under this category; leaving them asking, where do I fit in? The ideal women placed on reality television is an unattainable goal for most women. As I stated before the women on these shows are not even an average healthy body weight. My generation grew up watching reality television, there was never any question of the true message being relayed by the programming. We were never taught to question or even think critically about what our minds were consuming subconsciously. The effects of this are high percentages of young girls who are unhappy with their bodies. This is a vicious cycle of never being skinny enough or pretty enough. We look at shows like America’s Next Top Model. All those girls are gorgeous, yet they are picked apart for the littlest things and even they are not good enough. When producers cast for these shows they are looking for underweight, model type perfect bodies. If we look into the ads that play during these RTV shows they are targeting women. Sneaking in infomercials about how you can lose weight or the next great diet plan. The focus is to make you feel like you are not enough and their products will help you achieve ideal beauty. Reality television plays a huge role in how women see themselves not just in weight, but overall.
ReplyDeleteElexus T.
I remember always being a little excited at the idea of a sick day in high school, because it meant I got to stay home and watch daytime TV reruns of America’s Next Top Model. I was always stunned by the amount of eating disorders on the show that were pushed aside as “normal” part of being a model. But that didn’t stop me from skipping meals now and then—I mean, we all did it to stay trim. It wasn’t anorexia as long as it didn’t become a habit. I just wanted to be normal sized, and I was surrounded by media that told me normal meant skinny and pale. Still, I was lucky because I was in a supportive environment which never allowed me to become unhealthy. This is a mild case of how Reality TV manipulates young girls’ minds, how the size 2 white woman becomes an unattainable aspiration plastered on our TV’s, billboards, and smart phones. It’s a constant and inescapable message: this is what you should be, and if you’re not, you’re less. The shocking truth is that contestants of America’s Next Top Model and The Bachelor’s represent less than two percent of the population, and even these “ideal” women are scrutinized and humiliated for every possible flaw, until it seems like no one is good enough.
ReplyDeleteIn Reality Bites Back, Pozner states that research has shown that “exposure to sexualized female ideals with lower self-esteem, negative mood, and depression among adolescent and adult women” (67). Reality TV is not only affecting women’s physical health, but their emotional and mental stability. The more women are exposed to unrealistic body imagery, the less they think of themselves, which then turns into body dysmorphia, eating disorders, and self-harm. We place our worth in our appearance—not because we want to, but because society dictates that we must in order to fit in.
Confident women who don’t fit society’s mold are dangerous. America’s Next Top Model plus-sized contestant Toccara Jones, who was cast for her “strength and personality,” is a perfect example of this. Because she’s not a size two, she can’t be cast for her external beauty—in fact, anyone larger than size two can only be internally beautiful. And then that must be stripped away. After weeks of persevering through one humiliation after another, Toccara showed that the abuse was affecting her. The moment she did, she was labeled as “weak” and sent home. This is the image we put on display for women. If you can’t be skinny, you must be everything else. We are taught to look for flaws, to complain about our weight to seem humble, to shame each other as well as ourselves. Reality TV perpetuates normalcy as skinny, white, and hyper-sexualized, and it teaches us to self-deprecate if we are anything else (and even if we aren’t). It sets unreal standards for real women, and has led us to define beauty as exclusion rather than acceptance.
Kali H.
With the media's over-representation of underweight women, this body image is posed as a healthy norm. This misrepresentation of the average american body leads to a skewed perception of what a healthy body weight actually is. This distortion has lead to a drastic increase in eating disorders, depression, insecurity, and other mental problems.
ReplyDeleteReality TV in particular has a dramatic effect on how women see their own bodies. The term "Reality TV" is misleading in itself and leads both women and men to believe the innaccurate notion that what goes on in these shows depicts the same reality that we live by every single day. This constant exposure to unhealthy body weights, be it underweight or overweight, completely alters and distorts what people believe to be a healthy weight. This perception has become so distorted that often times, both men and women see a woman of a healthy weight and still believe that she is over-weight.
Evidence of this distortion is prevalent in nearly all forms of social media. Nearly every time I scroll through my instagram or twitter feed, I see pictures of women who struggle with weight loss and their body image. I'll also come across before-and-after pictures of women who have gone from being over-weight to extremely underweight or vice versa. If I go through the comments under a picture of a women who is at a perfectly healthy weight, I will still find hateful comments of people who believe that she is fat or even go as far as obese.
Not only does Reality TV perpetuate this underweight body type as the norm, it also associates this body weight with beauty. If a woman's weight does not match up with the body images depicted in the media, she is seen as less-than or unattractive. This association between weight and beauty further increases the rates of depression and eating disorders that we see in our society.
- Shira T.
The media has strong constructs on the appearance of women’s bodies and what is considered desirable and undesirable. Being that there is a lack of diversity shown, many women, if they do not fit into the small box of what is considered beautiful, will begin to attack themselves and feel as though they are not good enough. The media has great biases on women’s appearances, in that; the closer a woman’s features are to that of European decent the closer they are to what is considered beautiful. Television shows like ‘America’s Next Top Model’ or ‘Project Runway’, etc. tend to reinforce these beauty standards creating a cycle of rejection in those that do not suit the criteria. Most of the women shown on those television shows are tall, slender, and what most would consider “hot”. To a woman struggling with weight or her outward appearance, this would be very discouraging and would to “fit in”. The greatest discouragement is that not only does it affect adult women, but it also affects our youth. In todays society girls as young as six years old are more worried about their caloric intake than learning their times tables. The media is subliminally telling these young girls that they need to watch their weight so they can be “normal” or beautiful. In recent times, there has been shift in beauty standards. Now women are striving to be a little curvier, but still remain slim. More women are calling themselves “slim-thick” or “thick-fit” because they want to be considered slim but not skinny. With this body type, women will have a small waist with “thick” legs large breasts. Even this body type is almost unachievable for most women. Because women are over sexualized, the media uses that to their benefit brainwashing these ladies making them believe there is only one avenue for beauty. Beauty is and will always be in the eyes of the beholder.
ReplyDelete-Levi S
The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) is a federal agency that is known for administrating and supporting health promotion, prevention and preparedness activities in the United States. Although the agency has many goals, it’s overall goal is to improve public health. According to the CDC the average American woman is 5’3 and weighs roughly around 170 pounds. The average american woman is considered overweight. Despite the fact that the average american woman is overweight, a relatively large amount of the woman that are shown on reality television are underweight. Although many may not be aware but this has a major effect on women's relationships with their own bodies. Reality tv is marketed as being reality. However it isn’t nearly a reality as some may think. The reality of the average american women is shown plain and simple by the CDC. The average american woman is considered overweight, yet for some reason the women in nearly every reality shows have the types of bodies that would be considered underweight. How does reality TV figure into the complex relationship women have with their bodies? How could it not?! Women are constantly being told and shown how the “average” woman is suppose to look when they watch reality tv. Take America’s Next Top Model for instance. The women on that show are already drastically underweight. Now some might say “of course all the girls on ANTM are underweight. It's a show about becoming a top model and most models are underweight”. However when they do have “plus size” models on the show, they are still the type that would be considered underweight by the CDC. Even shows like The Bachelor have a plethora of women who are all drastically underweight by CDC standards. I don’t believe the show has ever even had a plus sized contestant. Women could be watching this and in return begin feeling ashamed and highly critical about their own bodies. Men could watch these shows and think it is how the average american woman is suppose to look and anything bigger is not acceptable. There is such little body diversity for women on tv. When there are women on reality shows who are not underweight, they are often just on tv shows about losing weight and going through makeovers. In this day and social media and reality tv is bigger than it ever has been before. When women and little girls see only certain types of bodies on tv, of course they will be inclined to compare it with their own bodies and start comparing themselves with what the see in the media. Society itself seems to have a very unhealthy obsession with image. By constantly seeing a certain body type on TV and in the media it’s almost as if we are trained to continuously be obsessing over our image and obsessing over staying skinny. Women are taught that what they wear, how they look, and how much they weigh are a lot more important than their opinions, their personalities, and their morals. To make it a bit more simpler, they are frequently being reminded that what is on the outside is and should have a higher importance than what they have on their insides. That their body is more important than their voice.
ReplyDeleteJagtap K.
Plus size models who participated in ANTM were never truly given an equal chance compared to models of smaller figures. An example of this was when plus size model Tocarra Jones, contestant in cycle 3 of ANTM, did not have anything to wear during one of the photoshoots due to a lack of outfits in her size. When Jones became upset over this, the women in charge of wardrobe told her “Do you think I’m going to have a rack of clothes filled with your size?” Scenarios like this can lead women to believe that they have to lose weight just to fill the mold society has of the way their body should be and should look like just so they won’t have to go through situations where they struggle to find or can’t find clothing for their body type. London Levi, another contestant in ANTM, was also shamed when she gained ten pounds while on the show. Levi had previously shared that she was a recovering bulimic before she started the show, however that didn’t stop Jay from shaming her by calling her “unprofessional” for gaining weight.
ReplyDeleteWhen scenarios like these are portrayed on television it makes women feel as though they should do anything to achieve the so-called perfect body just to be accepted by society. This often causes women to go through unhealthy measures which can lead them to becoming anorexic or bulimic. Although Levi had previously admitted that she was bulimic it didn’t prevent others from judging her over her weight gain which lead her to being eliminated from the show. When this is presented to an audience that includes girls and women of a variety of ages it sends the message that they should go as far as it takes just to have the ideal body figure regardless of the damage it may cause, both physically and mentally.
Elizabeth G.
ReplyDeleteReality television, just like most American made mass media, instills an obsessive focus on women’s bodies by creating an unattainable mold of the “perfect woman”. Women look to the incredibly small, often surgery enhanced, “model” bodied girls splashed across every reality television show as a representation of how they should look, yet see completely different depictions of the female body in themselves and in the women surrounding them. When watching reality television, women internalize the notion that being white and a size 0 is the height of American beauty standards and that no other body type is fit to be on TV. For example, plus size model, Bo Stanley, was asked to be a contestant on Chris Soules’ season of The Bachelor in 2015, yet unsurprisingly, other than a perfunctory hello from Chris, she got virtually no screen time and was eliminated on the first night. Bo was probably a size 10 or 12, not plus size by any definition, but instead would fall into the CDC’s category of normal. The message sent by the show was clear— marriage material equals skinny, tall and white, so if your none of those things, pack your bags! So, if straight sized women are not considered desirable or perfect enough in the eyes of reality television, then women who have actual plus sized bodies do not even have a hope of seeing themselves represented on screen in a way that is not degrading or humiliating. Thus the ideology that a woman’s worth is in her body, her appearance, and her sex appeal— and nothing else— is cemented in the minds of the millions that tune into shows like The Bachelor, further damaging the psyche of women who have been battered and abused by the medias depiction of their bodies for decades. The consequences for this unhealthy ideology are gruesome; in Killing Us Softly 3, Jean Kilbourne revealed that after Fijians gained access to American cable television, women across the country developed eating disorders for the first time. Reality televisions depiction of women’s bodies is unattainable for most, and leaves them striving for a perceived perfection they can never achieve. The lack of body representation on reality TV therefore contributes to the chasm between women and positive relationships with their bodies, and encourages women and girls to center their identities and their self-worth in how they look.
Reality TV, like most other varieties of television, features a lot of underweight women that are portrayed as the western standard of beauty. Media outlets showing a majority of skinny women serves two purposes. The first is to make as many women as possible feel insecure about their weight and entire appearance in general. The second is to exploit those insecurities to sell cosmetic products, weight-loss products, and cosmetic surgeries. Reality TV in particular is especially damaging because it is depicted as real-life regular women cast from off the streets as opposed to movies and scripted TV where it is more well known that actresses are held to a higher standard of beauty.
ReplyDeleteReality Television is unique in its ability to insert tons of product placement and then have commercials on top of it to multiply advertising and sponsor revenue. Who Wants to Marry a Millionaire was the first of many reality TV shows that constantly humiliated and ridiculed contestants to make women feel like looks were all that mattered. Shows like America’s Next Top Model would tear women apart for gaining weight even though they were literally still underweight. According to the National Eating Disorders Association, Americans, mostly women, were spending more than 40 billion dollars a year just on dieting products; many of which are advertised by the sponsors of these shows. A plus-size model named Toccara was featured as the only overweight contestant on a season of America’s Next Top model and the show intentionally sabotaged her for weeks until she finally admitted they got to her and she was eliminated. Despite being treated like a morbidly obese charity case by the judges, Toccara was actually less overweight, based on height and weight, than the average woman watching at home. She eventually ended up on another reality show that involved weight loss and was called “dysfunctional” for thinking she looked good after losing over 30 pounds.
The brutal combination of reality TV paired with cosmetic product and procedure advertising is successfully lowering the self-esteem of women and generating billions for multiple industries. Cosmetic surgeries are now being done more than 4 times as much as they were 20 years ago despite the still-prevalent health risks and various mortality rates.
Nikko A.
Pozner states, Media both shape and reflect culture perceptions of who we are, what were valued for, what we want, what we need, what we believe about ourselves, and others— and what we should consider “our place” in society (pg.21). When it comes to reality TV we desire that conflict in which reality TV draws in. I myself sometimes like watching reality TV because it’s just a bunch of nonsense. But the way some women are perceived on some shows is just wrong. The one thing that reality TV shows does do is depict women and their bodies. The media creates this image of a “perfect women” who has a perfect body, skinny, good skin, etc. They put this idea in our minds that to be considered an ideal woman we must follow all these crazy beauty regimes, beauty products or get work done to be beautiful. But when this happens it sets young girls up for disaster when they idolize a woman who has been altered to be perceived as perfect. Many young girls will suffer from eating disorders, depression, and low self-esteem, all because they want to be beautiful like them. Not only young girls but every woman because when we see these perfect women we want to be like them, and then start to hate ourselves for not being perfect.
ReplyDeleteThe way Reality TV (RTV) plays a role in the perception of women is they display the average women who is white, under 24/25, wester, skinny, hyper sexual, and often surgically enhanced. RTV creates these false women to be looked upon. It is always the same type of girl and does not contain diversity among women. It creates an image that this is what you should look like. According to the CDC, the average American women is overweight but they are normal weight 5’3 and weigh 166 lbs. The women seen on TV are considered underweight which would be most reality TV women. An example of this would be the show Americans next top model. The show makes it seems that if you meet the requirements of being tall and skinny you could be a model. But when they cast these girls they tear them down. They give the girls a makeover to alter their beauty but weren't they beautiful before? In my opinion it doesn't make sense. An example Posner used in the book was, Ryan Secrets once thanked Jenna Fisher for being a size zero then compared it to the 80s when mass media trained women to think they were undesirable if they weren't “a perfect size 8”. It portrays women as only being looked at for their looks and not for their intellectual minds. Its will always be based on how they look rather than their personality.
-Alexis B.
The world of reality television is full of images that do not convey the truth about the world around us. However, even with the considerably ridiculous behavior and raging stereotypes that appear within the realm of reality television, the word "reality" tends to cancel the logic alarms that should be going off in our heads. Women are consistently getting told that their bodies are wrong; it is not always that they are too big, however that seems to be the most common. The women that are shown on television, at least the ones that are shown in a slightly positive light when it comes to their bodies, are the ones who would fall under the CDC's category of being too thin. Yet, these are the women that most people consider to have the ideal body; these are the women that most other women are trying to look like. The CDC states that the average American woman is overweight. It is not common knowledge that the women in front of us, on reality television, are considered underweight. So, we have "overweight" women striving to look like the "normal" and "average" women they see in reality television, but these women are striving for a dangerous standard. When people are constantly hearing that their body is wrong, and when they are consistently seeing the same type of body on television, it is easy for them to get consumed by the “right” image. There can be an insidious desperation that sneaks into play, causing them to turn to unhealthy habits in an attempt to reach something that will make them the “right” kind of woman. Women are not only facing these issues in the world of reality television, in fact, the toxic ideologies that are presented within these shows are persistently reinforced on a daily basis. Even if women that aware of the problematic visuals and narratives within reality television, and are only watching for an “escape” are having toxic thoughts validated in their minds.
ReplyDelete- Tessa B.
Reality TV is far from what reality even is, since the CDC states the average American women is overweight, why is it that when you turn on any RTV show, the screen is filled with nothing but underweight women? If reality was really depicting reality on these obscure RTV shows, you would see real raw average looking women, but that’s far from what is casted. RTV is all about big breast, lean bodies, big biceps and chiseled abs. And if it does involve any overweight or “average” looking people, it is only because they are giving them a dramatic makeover to look more “appealing” to the “average” person. These shows, whether they are reality or scripted are conveying the wrong messages to Americans. They set high expectations for Americans all over the country (not just to women but men too) because these producers cast the same looking people over and over to scrutinize the rest of Americans. For example, “The Real World” which is a RTV that is supposed to depict people from the real world and put 8 strangers together in a house that are supposed to be unique and different from one another are really more alike that we think. They tend to use women who are extremely slender and who have medium to large breasts, and men who have a “v-shape” body, meaning they are “ripped” and all are generally good looking and what people should look like (flawless skin, lean body, nice appearance) they cast people all on their looks and the people who watch these shows have misconceptions of what reality life is. When you have “The Bachelor” who is demeaning towards women everywhere because it shows a male having dominance and being able to judge women off their looks and not only are these women being judged off their looks on national TV for the world to see, these women all look the same. They are all blonde or brunettes that are white and have lean bodies with big breast. It’s a common myth among teens and young adults that reality cast members are similar to them, but that is not the case and these are not real people. These shows set way to high of standards for women to be objectified and men as well and also display arrogance not reality. People should understand that they don’t need to relate to reality tv cast members because they aren’t “real people”.
ReplyDeleteAlexis M.
Television plays a huge role in our culture and society for our daily entertainment. Nowadays, many teenagers and women are exposed to reality television which have a huge impact on their bodies. However, many of us know that everything is not “real” in reality television, but many women and young teenagers believe everything they see on these shows which affects their self-image and behavior. Reality TV for many teenagers means to be “cool” or “accepted” in society. By trying to be accepted by their bodies, it can affect the women negatively in many ways. The CDC already considers women in the media to be underweight and millions of viewers daily are trying to be like them. Women start to have a complex relationship about their bodies because they want to be like the next model or even be famous to be on TV. Many women especially young teenagers will do anything with their bodies to be like the women they see on TV. However, many don’t understand that everything is scripted and not real in reality television. I personally believe it’s all a business and it is very unfortunate that young teenagers are falling for this trap. For example, Keeping up with the Kardashians is one example which shows how the Kardashian’s all got famous. Teenagers watch these shows and will do anything to become famous. Another reality show that we discussed in our lecture is America’s Next Top Model, which also affects women and causes a complex relationship with their bodies. Some of these women are told that they aren’t pretty enough or some are considered overweight. In reality, most of these models are underweight, which causes problems for the teenagers watching these shows. For example, I have a niece who loves watching reality shows. Nowadays, she’s already on a diet when she is only 14 years of age. We live in a society where mostly everything is based on reality shows for women and social media. Teenagers are very young to understand that we do not have live in this world to fit in with these reality stars. Women do not have to sell themselves and their bodies to these shows. At the end of the day, it’s all a business and women need to understand that their body is more valuable. All these reality shows cause a complex relation for women and their bodies. Many struggle of depression and others stop eating just to gain weight. It’s very unhealthy and could affect their health in the future.
ReplyDelete-Mohemmad M.
Media plays a major role on women’s bodies. Media influences on how women feel about their body weight. A lot of TV shows and also reality TV shows represent “beautiful” women to have skinny bodies. CDC says that most women are overweight in America however the media is countering this fact by saying beauty is to have a small waste. Having these contradictions causes women to feel shame of their bodies. Mentally and physically are harmed. Women are called ugly but if they lose weight they will be beautiful. For example on Americas Next Top Model, all the women are skinny but if you’re a little too fat you are body shamed and make you do ridiculous diets that have you in skins and bones, and still not acceptable to society. Talking about eating diet, fast food is cheaper than healthy food, that’s why people also eat more fast food than healthy. Women tend to go the extra mile to be famous. Media does not care about anyone’s health as long as they have the money. Median influences all women to be skinny and skinny can make you happy. No women is accepted for the way they are. Men are taught to love a woman by what media says. For example in the show Beauty Swan, women undergo through surgery to keep their husbands because they feel ugly. From cheekbone to knee surgery to be the perfect one. Models go through strict diets to have the perfect waist. Some models when they are photographed, they have to do an extra photoshop in their picture because they are not perfect enough. All these facts say a lot about the expectations of women. Women are not fully accepted in society for who they are, we are socially construct. We face many discriminations.
ReplyDeleteDenise M.
Reality TV does a fantastic job at misinforming the public about how women are expected to look. In many shows, such as America’s Next Top Model, being extremely thin is applauded. Viewers of these shows, especially female viewers, are being programmed to think that being as thin as the contestants on these shows is what one should be aiming to achieve and that anything else is frowned upon. The way normal and overweight bodies are presented in these types of shows is very warped. An almost anorexic-looking woman is considered normal while a woman that may be just a few pounds larger than her is given the label of plus-size. Women at home watching these categorizations begin to judge their own bodies. The majority of women do not have the extra thin bodies that the judges on reality TV shows look for. Therefore, this creates a mass propagation of information that brainwashes women into thinking that if they are not as thin as the contestants on the television, then they are not good enough, and this means that a majority of women will be dissatisfied with their body image. Pozner makes a point about how reality TV associates thinness with health. BMI is used as an indicator of whether someone is underweight, normal, overweight or obese. Pozner mentions that a woman named Elyse, a contestant on America’s Next Top Model, was given positive feedback for her weight on the scale. According to her height and weight, she had a BMI of 16.4, which is dangerously underweight. However, the millions of viewers at home had just learned something different. An unhealthy weight is what makes you beautiful.
ReplyDelete-Amber M.
There has always been the excuse that the camera adds ten pounds to people when being filmed and that’s why the thin actors and actresses exist so they can appear “normal” sized on the screen. Of course the camera has a single lens and most people have two eyes and are able to see in 3-d unlike the mechanics of the camera. Standards of beauty have changed drastically over time and it’s all due to artists, in this case reality show cast directors power to change the beauty standard. Hundreds of years ago in Italy full figured women were considered beautiful because it was evident they were well fed and to be too thin was seen as sickly and poor due to the lack of money they had for food which was deemed unattractive. Models like Twiggy and Kate Moss changed the model world because of their underweight appearances and they were considered different from the norm which attracted many people. The idea of something being different looking and standing out stays with people and differences cause the brain to remember that.
ReplyDeleteThin underweight woman not only became normal in the modeling world but t.v. and film as well as music. Now reality television which is supposed to reflect “real” people only seem to reflect a small percentage of “real” people who many don’t look like, and at times are unable to look like due to skin tone, or maybe even hair type. For example I thought Lauren Conrad was a beauty, in fact I still do and that’s okay, because I have accepted that I will never look like her and have no desire to. I will acknowledge that at one point I did want to have straight hair, light eyes and a heart shaped face, things that I could never attain naturally. Sure I could be thin like her but I could never have the same skeletal structure she has. Her friends on the series were also thin with hour glass figures and had confidence to wear little clothing around the opposite sex. It was something I wanted too but at too young an age. My body is probably still developing.
-Claudia S.