Do Media Cause Individuals to Develop Negative Body Images?

Before reading issue 4, my personal opinion weighed more on the yes side when answering this question, do media cause individuals to develop negative body images because there are just so many advertisements, images, videos, etc that effects ones body image negatively. Answering yes to this question, both Shari Dworkin and Faye Wachs believe that different types of media, such as magazines, advertisements, commercials, etc are giving consumers a negative idea of themselves and their body because they show how a healthy body should look like. An example is that for advertisements, by selling their product, the business makes the consumers think that by buying their product you will look and feel like the people in their ads. Because my own opinion already agreed with the idea that negative body images are developed through the media, I found it really easy to read through Dworkin and Wachs examples, facts, research, and opinions. One of the examples that they used was the idealized body and how a body with no fat is featured on the covers of magazine ads giving the public the idea that this is how they should look like. In connection to this idea, Dworkin and Wachs mentioned that because the “fat body” is a sign of a “lazy, undisciplined, and poor member of the social body,” the ideal body becomes a fit and healthy image that is a sign of success and a good citizen. In contrast, Michael Levine and Sarah Murnen argue that the media does not cause individuals to develop negative body images because other cultural, social, and psychological issues play a much larger role in giving citizens a negative impact on their own body image. Already having strong support for the examples and research brought up by Dworkin and Wachs, I found that in the end Levine and Murnen didn’t really have evidence that showed that the “Media” doesn’t cause individuals to develop negative body images. All Levine and Murnen did through their research was state examples and facts of how things like eating disorders are caused by psychiatric issues, not an issue in the media, or how peers and people in general who have a “thin-ideal” body image influence others to diet in order to fit in with them. Overall, Levine and Murnen basically used other examples such as psychological and social issues as an influence towards the public to want to change their body image, ignoring the fact that the media is just another one of those influences. In conclusion, do media cause individuals to develop negative body images? I say yes because the media has just become so controversial through advertisements, websites, videos, etc, that only want to show the “ideal” body image of how people should look like, discouraging others lifestyle and making them feel like their body image is completely unacceptable in society.