Why do we Struggle with Beauty and Body Image?

Why do we Struggle with Beauty and Body Image?

Student Name

San Jacinto College

In today’s society, most Americans rely on their smartphones to send and receive information. These mobile devices help them keep in touch with the world round them whether it be sending an email, checking the weather, or updating their online profiles. More people communicate to each other through social media platforms, such as Facebook, Snapchat, and Instagram, than they do through face-to-face interaction (Knorr, 2017). Since everything is digitalized, people are more exposed to misleading images, thanks to tools such as photoshop. This makes it easier for businesses to advertise their products in such a way that makes it appear better than it actually is. People, especially young women, will also use this tactic to alter their appearance in photos, making them seem more attractive online. But what kind of message is this sending to women and how are they impacted by these distorted images? A Psychology Professor, Tamara Anderson discusses social media’s influence on women and their body image in her article, “Why do we Struggle with Beauty and Body Image?” published in 2007 in the Biola Magazine. Anderson effectively informs the reader about the issues surrounding women and social media by using her own experiences to achieve the appeal of ethos, logos, and pathos but, fails to use outside sources to credit her work.

In her article, Anderson (2007) first introduces the topic of unhealthy body image by describing the difference between healthy and unhealthy behaviors associated with an individual's insecurity issues. Although women are more likely to struggle with these issues, she briefly mentions that men and even celebrities can also have low a self-esteem, especially in California subculture (Anderson, 2007). Anderson demonstrates that the objectification of women in the media has a significant effect on these women. She further illustrates that model, Cindy Crawford, started a new image appealing to thinner waist lines (Anderson, 2007). Tabitha Farrar (2014) verifies this claim with the term, “thin-ideal media” which refers to social media that have very thin female leads in shows and films. Furthermore, Anderson explains the impact that family members have on young women contribute to their low self-esteem (Anderson, 2007). These women are usually surrounded by individuals, such as mothers, who constantly remind them that they are not up to par on appearances (Anderson, 2007).

In 2014, a study found that nearly forty percent of teens have considered cosmetic surgery, and more than two-hundred thousand teens admitted to going under the knife. (Abbondanza, 2015) Plastic surgeries can be done as a quick-fix, but they only mask the issue surrounding body image, according to Anderson (2007). Through research, she finds that women’s perception of themselves is different from how people actually perceive them. Anderson advises women to surround themselves with positive people and accepting themselves as how God created them to be. She concludes her article with a final solution that she actively partakes in herself, teaching her 6-year-old daughter the values of being smart over the values of being beautiful (Anderson, 2007).

Tamara Anderson is a professor in Biola’s Rosemead School of Psychology. She specializes in eating disorders and has directed an eating disorder unit as an in-patient hospital during her sixteen years of clinical practice. She has also previously been on the NCSPP- Women’s Issues Committee and is currently an active member of the American Psychological Association (Biola University, n.d).

With the use of her own personal experiences, Anderson establishes her credibility for the reader in her article while achieving the appeal of ethos. She first mentions that she has “worked with models whose names you’d know based on how popular they are...” when she was asked if celebrities faced the same insecurity issues as other women (Anderson, 2007, para.5). During her discussion on plastic surgery, Anderson (2007) mentions one of her colleague’s clients who has had a breast augmentation when she was just sixteen. This personal experience shows that not only is she working first-hand with these types of women, but she is also invested in other cases with people that she works with. Anderson continues to strengthen her credibility in her article by adding another example of when she worked with girls as young as 9 years old who were suffering from eating disorders symptoms (Anderson, 2007). The amount of personal examples Anderson provides shows her expertise with a variety of women of all ages and from different backgrounds.

Apart from her appeal of ethos in her argument, Anderson also uses the appeal of logos to helps the audience understand the topic in the same way that she does. In her beginning paragraph, she starts by providing a statistic stating that, “one in four women in Western culture will have an eating disorder” (Anderson, 2007, para.2). This gives the reader a sense of importance regarding her topic due to the amount of people that are affected. This engages the viewer to continue reading further into her article. Anderson also appeals to logos by defining terms so that the reader will have a better understanding of the issue surrounding her topic. For example, she breaks down the meaning of objectifying women and how the media uses it to distort information.

“...in advertisements a women is often treated as a body or a collection of body parts and

not a whole. For example, often you’ll see a part of a woman’s body - maybe her head

isn’t

...