Alyssa Quinn
English 114-39
Argumentative essay
September 25
th
, 2017
The Female “Image”
The perfect body image is, as Dian L.G. Borzekowski and Angela M. Bayer describe it,
“the internal representation of one’s own outer appearance which reflects physical and perceptual
dimensions” (“Effects of the Media on Body Image”). However, in most cases, that is not true
for women. The media projects this “perfect” image of an American women to be petite with
curved features and a gorgeous natural glow, which most women in the nation cannot meet up to
such specific standards. I believe that media sets a negative expectation of a women’s
appearance. Beauty standards strongly impacts how women see themselves, how men see them,
and how the status of their own socioeconomic class reflects on what they can achieve.
Today media sets an image for women and their physical features which models are one
of the biggest factors to this issue. When you see women published all over the media,
magazines, or in movies, they all have the ideal perfect figure. As one article expresses, “the
average American woman is 5’4” and weighs 140 pounds, while the average American model is
5’11” and weighs 117 pounds” (“Depleting Body Image: The Effects of Female Magazine
models on the self-esteem and Body Image of College-aged Women”). In other words, the media
places women in standard beauty groups that most feel that they should undergo the process to
be in the norm of this image. However, that shouldn’t be the case. Women should not feel
pressured to look or feel a certain way based on what the media expects. Consequently, Kendyl
M. Klein emphasizes, “Social media has made constant the ability to critique and analyze bodies
in such a way that promotes body dissatisfaction, constant body surveillance, and disordered
thoughts” (Klein 13). Perhaps, if media starts to show more variety of body types or body
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