Page 145 - Essencials of Sociology

118 CHAPTER 4 Social Structure and Social Interaction

Mass Media in Social Life

“Nothing Tastes as Good as Thin Feels”:
Body Images and the Mass Media

When you stand before a mirror, do you like what you see? Do are bubble-heads, they attract and marry higher-earning men
you watch your weight or work out? Where did you get your (Kanazawa and Kovar 2004).
ideas about what you should look like? More popularity and more money? Maybe you can’t be thin
enough after all. Maybe those exercise machines are a good in-
“Your body isn’t good enough!” Daily, you are bombarded vestment. If only we could catch up with the Japanese, who have
with this message. The way to improve your body, of course, developed a soap that “sucks the fat right out of your pores”
is to buy the advertised products: diet programs, hair exten- (Marshall 1995). You can practically hear the jingle now.
sions, “uplifting” bras, butt reducers, and exercise equipment.
Muscular hulks on TV show off machines that magically produce
“six-pack abs” and incredible biceps—in just a few minutes For Your Consideration
a day. Female celebrities go through tough workouts without ↑ What images do you have of your body? How do cultural
even breaking into a sweat. Members of the opposite sex will expectations of “ideal” bodies underlie your images? Can you
flock to you if you purchase that wonder-working workout recall any advertisements or television programs that have influ-
machine. enced your body image?
We try to shrug off such messages, knowing that they are
designed to sell products, but the messages penetrate our ↑ Most advertising that focuses on weight is directed at
thinking and feelings. They help to shape the ideal images we women. Women are more likely than men to be dissatisfied with
hold of how we “ought” to look. Those models so attractively their bodies and to have eating disorders (Honeycutt 1995; Aus-
clothed and coiffed as they walk down the runway, could they be tin et al. 2009). Of all cosmetic surgery, 90 percent is performed
any thinner? For women, the message is clear: You can’t be thin on women (American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery
enough. The men’s message is also clear: You can’t be muscular 2012). Do you think that the targeting of women in advertis-
enough. Everybody loves a hulk. ing creates these attitudes and behaviors? Or do you think that
The message is powerful. With impossibly shaped models for these attitudes and behaviors would exist even if there were no
Victoria’s Secret and skinny models showing off the latest fash- such ads? Why?
ions in Vogue and Seventeen, half of U.S. adolescent girls feel ↑ To counteract the emphasis on being skinny, some clothing
fat and count calories (Grabe et al. 2008). Sixty percent of girls companies are featuring “plus-size” models. What do you think
think that the secret to popularity is being thin (Zaslow 2009). of this?
Some teens even call the plastic surgeon. Anxious lest their child
trail behind in her race for popularity, some parents pay $5,000
just to give their daughters a flatter tummy (Gross 1998). And the
mothers? To remain or become slender, some inject themselves
daily with hCG, a hormone that comes from the urine of preg-
nant women (Hartocollis 2011).
Cruise the Internet, and you will find “thinspiration” videos
on YouTube that feature emaciated girls proudly displaying
their skeletal frames. You will also find “pro-ana” (pro-anorexic)
sites where eating disorders are promoted as a lifestyle choice
(Zaslow 2009). The title of this box, “Nothing Tastes as Good as
Thin Feels,” is taken from one of these sites.
And attractiveness does pay off in cold cash. “Good-looking”
men and women earn the most, “average-looking” men and
women earn average amounts, and the “plain” and the “ugly”
earn the least (Hamermesh 2011). Then there is that fascinat-
ing cash “bonus” available to “attractive” women: Even if they

All of us contrast the reality we see when we look in the mirror with
our culture’s ideal body types. The thinness craze, discussed in this
box, encourages some people to extremes, as with Nicole Richie. It
also makes it difficult for larger people to have positive self-images.
Overcoming this difficulty, Rebel Wilson is in the forefront of promoting
an alternative image.