Schuyler Boggs
Karen Morris
ENGL 1002-XX
23 February 2011
When the Media Exploits Celebrity Bodies: How it Influences Average Women
In a society where the media reveres perfect, flawless bodies, what happens when the worshiped perfect become imperfect? What happens to an idolized singer when she gains a few pounds? What happens to a beloved actress when she tries to hide her eating disorder? Instead of supporting the idol, the media brutally turns on them. The media viciously slashes away the remnants of any self-esteem and replaces it with shame and humiliation. For what purpose do they mortify the admired? The answer is money and fame. Magazines exploit celebrities for their benefit; they subject them to this discomfiture for profit. With the exploitation of celebrities, real women receive the impression that they too are inadequate. The media unfortunately has the power over its audience, including celebrities and average women, to sway society’s opinion of what a beautiful person looks like.
Singer, actress, television personality, and fashion designer, Jessica Simpson, has recently been under the scrutiny of the merciless media. Once notorious for her remarkable figure, she is now the focus of the media’s abuse. With articles littering the Internet, calling her fat and commenting on her mom- jeans, Jessica Simpson has been forced to hide her face. Michelle Tan, People Magazine author, reported that although Jessica is comfortable with her body, the negative comments that the media imposes on her figure definitely bother her (Tan). Who are these faceless media representatives to tell people that they are fat, therefore, unattractive? What message could this be sending to the average person? From our society’s developing teens to homemakers, when compared to Jessica Simpson, who can measure up? If Jessica Simpson is considered fat, what does this say about the average woman who might be larger?
The media is always on the prowl for celebrity victims. However, some of these victims are not hard to find. Not only do media sources highlight the imperfections found within the mass of celebrities, the media plays a hefty part in creating the imperfections. Mary Kate Olsen has been under the scrutiny of the media since she was six months old. A few years ago, when rumors began that she had an eating disorder, the media quickly picked this up and exploited her for it. According to CBS author, Lauren Johnston, Mary Kate’s family noticed a significant change in Mary Kate’s health, and quietly tried to fix it (Johnston). However, as soon as family and friends affirmed that she had been suffering from anorexia since the age of ten, media sources mocked surprise. However, it is incredibly obvious who caused her body issues, especially since her anorexia started at a young age. The culprit is the media. Mary Kate has been in the media for twenty five years; she has been battling its opinion of her body her whole life. It is clear that the toll of being in the spotlight for this length of time has shown her the importance of being perfect. When the media portrays perfect as being painfully skinny, it is obvious that the young actress is going to do all she can to live up to this ideal beauty. Shelly Grabe, professor in the department of psychology at the University of Wisconsin, reported, “ . . . exposure to media sources that depict thin-ideal body image cause disturbances in women” (Grabe). When women view unattainable beauty standards and discover that they could never fulfill them, self-esteem is shattered and any positive body image views are crushed. When women view beautiful, glamorous celebrities and witness their idols being addressed as fat and unattractive, it causes them to believe that they do not have a chance at being beautiful.
In conclusion, when the media harshly criticizes celebrity bodies, average women are affected, too. If women are persuaded by the media to accept that skinny celebrity bodies are the ideal, when they are then taught that their celebrity ideals are fat, it compromises their mental and physical health. Eating disorders, such as anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa cause tremendous health problems for women seeking a quick fix in order to look like the media’s ideal body. If beauty icons, like Jessica Simpson, are ridiculed and called fat in public, what does the average woman have to compare herself to? The media is literally brainwashing its audience into believing what is beautiful based on thinness. Beauty industries are advertising super thin models for profit and diet industries are offering quick weight loss plans for their advantage. Beauty is becoming a standard so unrealistic; soon, no woman will be capable of being perfect.
Works Cited
Grabe, Shelly, L. Monique Ward, and Janet Hyde. "The Role of the Media in Body Image Concerns Among Women: A Meta-Analysis of Experimental and Correlational Studies." ScienceDirect 134.3 (2008): 460-476. Web. 4 Mar 2011.
Johnston, Lauren. “Olsen Treated For Eating Disorder.” CBSNews.com (2004):Web. 3 Mar 2011.
Tan, Michelle, and Charlotte Triggs. “Jessica Simpson: Don’t Call Her Fat.” People. Web. 3 Mar 2011.
Schuyler Boggs
Karen Morris
ENGL 1102- XX
9 March 2011
Process Reflection for Human Interest Essay
Something about this essay had me stumped. This was probably one of the hardest essays I have written in this class, but I do not know why. I do not know if it was because of my topic or because I was experiencing writer’s block. Regardless, I would not be surprised to get a bad grade on my Human Interest Essay. No matter what I added to this paper, it still seemed to be missing essential ideas. Although I believed it to be salvageable after my first draft, when I began to write my conclusion, my mind went blank. Ideas could not be tied together and it seemed impossible to relate how the media’s effect on celebrities also affects average women. Although I added a large amount to my original first draft, nothing seemed to make it an A-worthy paper. Peer review helped me very little for this paper. My partner made little to no corrections on my rough draft. However, my teacher helped most with my revision. She told me what I was missing and the corrections that were necessary to make my paper better. After her helpful comments were made, writing my paper seemed easier. I continued writing my paper late Friday night; I was honestly surprised that it was coming together. When it came time to send my paper in, disaster struck. My paper was lost. I searched the computer’s various folders for over an hour. My paper had vanished. After a small, mental breakdown I decided that I should take what I had left from my rough draft and use your comments to revise it in the time I had left. In the end, my paper was not too atrocious. It was nothing like the paper I had worked hours on, but I had to send in something that was decent and I believe I did a respectable job.
My topic was slightly difficult to form. I had to pick a person that had recently suffered from the media’s criticism; I also needed to find someone that I could make people empathize with. Once I established who I was writing about, my thesis statement and research were relatively simple. However, finding credible sites with information about Jessica Simpson’s weight gain proved to be considerably challenging. I am confident that my writing style saved my paper. I believe that my word choice and sentence structure makes my essays easy and enjoyable to read. I am most insecure about my ability to correctly cite and follow MLA’s rules. Yet, I believe that this paper was not as good as my first essay. Not only was the type of essay harder, my topic, the media, seemed overdone. Discussion five only helped me realize that my topic choice was the reason my essay was incredibly hard to write. I saw what my classmates were writing, and their topics and summaries seemed clear and more organized than my topic. Exploring my topic emotionally was a somewhat tricky. I typically use logic in my papers, opposed to emotion. I believe that my chosen topic can be easily portrayed as an emotional issue, but I do not think I portrayed it emotionally very well. Exploring a topic emotionally does make the research harder, but overall it proved to be very painless to write.
