societal pressure, and are developing insecurities traditionally associated with women. Much of the body dissatisfaction that we see today can be attributed to the enormous disparity between our current cultural beauty ideals and our actual bodies. Although most of the research surrounding the influences of media on body image has taken the form of analyzing exposure through the examination of such things as magazine content, recent

research has begun to focus on an individual's awareness of societal pressures, as well as one's acceptance, or internalization, of these societal standards (Cusumano & Thompson,1997).

Every culture has standards of beauty. Through the ages and around the world,people have evaluated the appearance of themselves and others. A person's body image is his or he

Renee A. Botta explored body image in relation to television using social comparison theory and critical viewing of 214 high school girls. Her results indicated that media variables accounted for 15% of the variance for drive for thinness, 17% for body dissatisfaction, 16% for bulimic behaviors, and 33% for thin ideal endorsement. Botta goes on further to suggest that body image processing is the key to understanding how television images affect adolescent girl's body image attitudes and behaviors (Botta, 1999).

image disturbance, both directly through body image processing and indirectly by

The present study seeks to examine the influence of exposure to media ideal body images and the awareness and internalization of those ideals on males and females. The results of previous studies indicate that the media plays a role in not just reflecting societal perceptions of male and female body image, but in shaping those perceptions. Media stereotypes, advertising ploys, and the fashion industry have all lead to the introduction of the unrealistic ideal body shape that we compare ourselves to. How we feel about our bodies and how our bodies look to us in the mirror is an important aspect of our self esteem and for many Americans the media tells us how we should feel and look.

news magazines (Turner, Hamilton, Jacobs, Angood, & Hovde Dwyer, 1997).

who these people are, but we do know how they look. We try to size them up based on how they are dressed, how they talk, how they move and their overall physical appearance. People tend to judge a fat person as lazy and self-indulgent and a thin person as organized and disciplined and these stereotypes are reinforced by the media. A study done by Franzoi and Herzog (1987) examined what body parts and functions young adults use in judging physical attractiveness and how they are related to self esteem. They found

lower than one's expected weight is a criteria for anorexia nervosa.

encouraging males and females to endorse their respective ideals and by establishing what they see as realistic ideals (Botta, 1999).

Some common words found in the essay are:
Cusumano Thompson1997, Fouts Burggraf, Franzoi Herzog, Sweeney Wagner, According Botta, Hovde Dwyer, Body Image, Renee Botta, McIntosh Bazzini, Schwartz Thompson, body image, ideal body, body size, self esteem, ideal body size, sexist ads, body dissatisfaction, fashion magazines, eating disorders, body shape, fouts burggraf, fouts burggraf 1999, body image satisfaction, body image processing, viewed fashion magazines,
Approximate Word count = 1985
Approximate Pages = 8 (250 words per page double spaced)