A imagem de um corpo em relação com a auto-estima e eu-o conceito

The body image is closely related to self-esteem and self-concept. Poor body image and low self-esteem contribute drastically to body dissatisfaction. During adolescence, poor body image might be especially harmful, because all of the rapid changes both physically and mentally occurring during puberty. Also, adolescents are becoming more and more exposed to the media and the media keeps getting more and more provocative.

Media has greatly influenced people into falling for the trap of what they say is stylish and what is not. Teenage girls are affected by compulsion to receive a degree of thinness that they see in models. Women who look at fashion magazines want to lose weight and are worry more about getting fatter than the women who read news magazines. Over the years the media advertising models have been getting thinner and thinner; making women more dissatisfied because they want to look like that “girl” in the advertisement. The media has developed the ideal body shape in the hope that it will create more sales of the product that they are trying to sell. But it seems like the advertisement and media industries are not caring about how a person feels in trying to achieve the ideal body. By promoting the ideal body image the media contributes to eating disorders.

Young girls are looking up to women with unrealistic body shapes as role models. It’s hard to find, in today’s media, a “normal” looking woman. The thin-ideal is constantly advertised, and some researchers even believe that this constant reminder of thinness may be desensitizing our youth and thus making them think and feel that this is normal. However, it’s not normal and never will be. These models are thin to the point of unhealthiness; also, to reach such a level of thinness one would have to take drastic measures. There will be a constant state of shame or guilt for those who compare their own bodies to those of the models on TV and magazines. This is not healthy, physically or mentally.

For many people, especially people in their early teens, body image can be closely linked to self-esteem. Therefore, poor body image can result in poor development of social skills and social relations in children which can leave a life long negative impact. It is good to be aware that the obsession over thinness has been in the past, is here in the present, and will be in the future.