very rough drafttt

Kylie Pont
Ms. Sowa
Writing as Inquiry
12 Nov 2008
The Media Affects

This is a very rough draft for my paper. I know my length needs help as well as content but this is the main idea of my paper so far and where the argument is taking it. I need to extend the opposition arguments as well to help my paper. I also need to properly cite my sources both in the text and create a works cited page, but that is yet to come.
The media: a tool that is used to store and deliver information to a very large audience. This is a very common definition that your average person might come up with when asked, what is the media? What many people do not realize is that strong biases and opinions of what is right and wrong are depicted in many ways and through many sources of the media. Newspapers, TV Shows, movies, magazines, and the internet are the most commonly used forms of media (National Institute). The real question of the matter is how much effect does the media have on the people, or the viewers and readers, of our society?
Body image is an individual’s perception of their own body. There are many factors that may affect how a person views themselves from an outside perspective, including family life and self-esteem, but there is no doubt that the media plays a very large role in the matter. The media, by constantly showing the ‘100 Hottest Women’ and ’50 Sexiest Males’ on top of pictures and pictures of skinny girls and bulky guys, gives a viewer or reader the false perception of what they ‘should’ look like (kidshealth). Magazines are a main source to blame for the unrealistic appearance that so many women strive to achieve, size 4 in the hips, size 2 in the waist, and size 10 in the bust (predictors). Few people are aware that is thin-ideal body type is genetically impossible for most all women to attain (predictors). So why do females across the country go to great lengths to achieve such an unrealistic goal?
A person that is regularly exposed to media images is constantly being reminded of what the celebrities of the time look like, how skinny they are, and how much weight they have lost. An easy thing to do is compare yourself to such people, sometimes without even realizing you are doing so. Although, in a perfect world, these images would not affect the people seeing them, but as we all know, it does not quite work like that. Body dissatisfaction starts at a very early age. In a survey of girls aged nine and ten years old, 40% have attempted to lose weight in some fashion, that means 4th and 5th grade girls, not even out of elementary school yet, are already self conscious of their body before most have even fully developed (National Institute). Not only this, but another report has shown that at age 13, 53% of American girls are “unhappy with their bodies” (National Institute). Just a short four years later, the percentage of unhappy girls, has jumped from a 53% to an overwhelming 78%. Over three-fourths of the US female population are not satisfied with their weight or body image already, before even leaving high school. The origins of this wide-spread dissatisfaction are directly linked to the media, and in many cases, more specifically television. Teen-age girls who have viewed TV commercials that depict women who display the unrealistic thin-ideal body type have caused them to feel less confident, angrier and more dissatisfied with their own weight and appearance (National Insititute).
Although it is arguable that there are many other factors that affect a young girls’ perception of her body including family life, self-esteem, and peers, many of these could easily be linked back to the media in some way.

http://kidshealth.org/teen/your_mind/body_image/body_image.html

http://www.mediafamily.org/facts/facts_mediaeffect.shtml

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3852/is_200401/ai_n9352674/print?tag=artBody;co11