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Go to Feminine Beauty Ideals to see the improved paragraphs.

Mass Media Impact

Mass media is one of the most powerful tools for young girls to learn and understand about feminine beauty ideals. Before the mass media existed, our ideas of beauty were limited to our own communities. (UNKNOWN) http://www.ourbodiesourselves.org/book/excerpt.asp?id=2 Because of that, people would stick to seeing each other in person in order to see the beauty ideals but as mass media developed, the way people see feminine beauty ideals is different. Each day, girls are expose to images of beautiful models and advertisments about beauty and fashion. “The average teen girl gets about 180 minutes of media exposure daily and only about 10 minutes of parental interaction a day, says Renee Hobbs, EdD, associate professor of communications at Temple University.” (Heubeck) In most advertisments, every female model would always portray the same kind of look. By that, they would have a very thin body with an hourglass shape, beautiful soft and smooth skin hair, and just look absolutely beautiful. Because of the images that young girls are expose to, they start to believe that physical appearance is highly seen upon every female in society. “Girls today are swamped by ultrathin ideals not only in the form of dolls but also in comics, cartoons, TV, and advertising along with all the associated merchandising…” (Dittmar, 290). Furthermore, mass media is also a way to advertise all the cosmetic products, clothing, fashionable items that girls can buy in order to become beautiful. “Targeting markets to sell products such as diets, cosmetics, and exercise gear, the media construct a dream world of hopes and high standards that incorporates the glorification of slenderness and weight loss” (Groesz, Levine, & Murnen, 2). Girls become persuaded by media, which could lead them buy a certain kind of product will make them get the same results as the products says.

'''Consequences '''

There are consequences when young girls learn about feminine beauty ideals. When girls are expose to the ideas about female beauty, there is always a major setback. In most cases, young girls can start developing low self- esteem about their physical appearances especially with their body. Because of media, “...[g]irls learn that their bodies should be used to attract others” (Groesz, Levine, & Murnen, 2). They tend to follow that kind of ideology.

In Disney movies and fairytales stories, beauty is often associated with skin color. Majority of the main female characters and (supporting characters) is often associated having light skin which represents good and beautiful while the antagonist is associated with dark skin, which that represents bad and ugly. For young girls who read or watch these movies or stories, they will get the idea about their skin color and how they are seen in society. Those who are dark skinned could develop low self-esteem esteem because of that. Besides skin color, there is also body image that is a major concern for female in today's society. “Body image becomes a major issue as females go through puberty; girls in midadolescence frequently report being dissatisfied with weight, fearing further weight gain, and being preoccupied with weight loss.” (Sedar) By having low- self-esteem, it can lead to depression also. This happens a lot with girls around the world. The more they are expose to all the ads in magazine, commercials, or billboards with thin looking models; they feel as though they have to be that way. “Thus, social comparison theory would predict that women may compare themselves to societal standards of beauty in order to assess their own level of attractiveness” (Evans, 154) There is a lot of pressure for girls to conform to the feminine beauty ideals and that they understand they must look that kind of way to be accepted in society. Girls who do not categorize as being thin but want to be, they tend to go on a exercise plan, a diet and even worse, develop eating disorder. “By promoting an ideal of feminine beauty that is impossible to achieve for the average woman, the media created increased dissatisfaction with one's body which may lead to weight control behavior and increased risk for developing eating disorders.” (Mondini, Favaro, & Santoastaso, 112) Girls who tend to develop eating disorder would start to have health issues.