The Influence of Media on Young Chinese Female s Body Image

Transcription

1 The Influence of Media on Young Chinese Female s Body Image LIU Yi, LIU Dongbiao College of Foreign Languages, Hebei United University, P.R.China, liuyi-ivy@163.com Abstract: This paper is a survey study which is to investigate the influence that media have on the Chinese females body image and to what extent these women are actually affected, and their awareness of the influence of media on their body image. The findings from this research show that the mass media play an important role in influencing the attitudes of women on how they view themselves in term of body image, and have caused a positive effect on body dissatisfaction among Chinese women. What s more, Chinese young women are not fully aware of the influence of the media. Keywords: Mass media, Body image, Influence 1 Introduction According to Slade (1988, cited in Wade et al., 2003: p.1395), body image is defined as the picture, that we have in our minds, of the size, shape and form of our bodies, and our feelings concerning characteristics and our constituent body parts. The issue, of the perfect female body image presented by the mass media and its effects on the attitudes and behavior of women, is widely discussed in the western countries, and in recent years, much research has shown that the mass media have played an important role in influencing the attitudes of women on how they view themselves and their behaviors as well. A large amount of research shows that the images portrayed by the media generally have positive influence on body dissatisfaction among women. For example, in one study, two-thirds of female university students reported that they felt worse about their physical appearance after reading women s magazines. One in three of these women also reported that fashion advertisements made them feel less satisfied with their appearance. (Then, 1992, cited in Wykes & Gunter, 2005: p.150) Sandra Bartky (1990) pointed out that the media not only present us perfect female images but also put these images everywhere which make us inescapable from them. The ideal image of feminine attractiveness currently portrayed by the media is rigid with a particular emphasis on thinness (Posavac, et al., 1998: p.188) and the thin-ideal internalisation is thought to directly foster body size dissatisfaction because this ideal is virtually unattainable for most women (Thompson et al., 1999, cited in Borland and Akram, 2007: p314). Another issue raised by researchers is how the media not only present us with unattainable female images but also contribute to supplying the definition of what it means to women at the same time. Several authors (e.g., Tiggemann, 2003; Dohnt and Tiggemann, 2006) have identified the mass media as the most powerful conveyor of socio-cultural ideals. These authors have suggested that these perfect images in the media have powerful effects on their readers and the society. Another researcher Susan Bordo (2003) sees the contemporary female images and fashion presented by the mass media as a cult of femininity to restrict women. She says that these images are giving women the wrong message, encouraging them to modify themselves to meet so-called fashion. What s more, Wolf (2001) reports that she sees the images of female beauty as a political weapon against women s advancement. Much research has been conducted in western countries on the media s influence on female body image. However, in China, little literature exists on how the images portrayed by the media s influence affect Chinese female s body image and to what extent women are being influenced. Thus, the purpose of this study is to explore what influence the media have on the Chinese females body image and to what extent these women are actually affected, and their awareness of the influence of media on their body image. The current research is a survey study which examines the viewpoints of 50 young female participants, in their twenties, whose professions are varied, including college students, teachers, doctors, government 108

2 servants, businesswomen and etc. All the participants are from two cities, one is a southern city Ningbo, and another is Tangshan in the north of China. Both questionnaire and focus group discussion were used. First, questionnaires were answered anonymously. Later, 10 from the 50 women were interviewed in 2 sets of focus groups with 5 people each, conducted respectively in these two cities. 2 Results Analysis The results mainly focus on the themes in questionnaire and focus groups, and they are grouped into the areas of the ideas about the ideal body image and its source, the view of women on their own body image, and attitudes on the way that the media portray women s body image. 2.1 Ideas about the ideal body image and its source On the issue of ideal woman s images, almost all the participants (48 among 50 women) ticked healthy. Moreover, slim, curvaceous shape, long legs and fashionable clothes are generally thought as the typical features for an ideal body image. 8 women of them chose big breasts and 19 ticked tall as factors of good body shape and none chose small breast. Interestingly, from the answers of questionnaire, being healthy seemed to be the most important feature of ideal female images, however, when participants talked about this topic in group discussion, the first three words spoken out by them are slim curvaceous shape and long legs, but not healthy. In addition, most participants believed that she (ideal woman s image) should be tall, at least have a proper height. When respondents were asked about the source of the ideas of the ideal body image, magazines, TV advertisement and films were stated to be the main sources of the perfect female image. In discussion, six of ten said that magazines were the biggest source of this image with comments such as this: You can not actually find a magazine without fashion or female bodies. Moreover, nine out of ten said that they generally saw this image on the TV advertisements. Some interviewees also noted that the Internet had also become another source of these images. Moreover, the participants also pointed out that they usually saw the articles which were related to female body images in magazines and the Internet. For example, there are many articles teaching women how to dress and lose weight and there are also many advertisements promoting the products for enhancing the body, such as having bigger breasts. From the results mentioned above, it can be concluded that Chinese young women s ideal body image are from media, and there was an overwhelming view that this kind of image has appeared too much in our sights and we are unable to escape the images of beautiful slim women. Meanwhile, the media not only present us everywhere with images of perfect female beauty, but also are believed to encourage us and provide information on ways to achieve this image, which is based on the assumption that every woman can achieve it if they take the ways or methods they provide. 2.2 Attitudes on the way that the media portray women s body image On the question Do you approve of the media images of the perfect women?, about two-fifth of the participants (21 women) answered yes. They also said that these images are really beautiful and attractive; they coincide with the public taste. Some wrote that the images are like a dream: I like them because they are a dream for most women, and they are attractive and eyes-catching. A young woman commented on how she wanted the praise of others: I want to be them because they can get people s praise. However, the disapproval seems to be stronger than the approval. The majority (29 among 50 women) showed that they disagreed with these images portrayed in media. Most of them think that these images are unrealistic. They are too perfect to be true and hard to achieve. A woman expressed her conflicting feeling: Actually, it s hard to say. I wish I could be just like those women in the media, but I know I couldn t change myself to that extent. Sometimes, they make me feel very disappointed with myself. In this case the image is rejected as being unattainable, but it still has a powerful impact on the woman 109

3 in that it affects her sense of her own well being and perhaps lowers her self esteem. Other participants were more forceful in rejecting the images and noted their potentially harmful effects. These participants claimed that too much attention paid on slim figures is not correct and reasonable. Heath is beauty. Being too slim is not good to health. It may lead some women to lose weight by using inappropriate ways. Media just focus on beautiful appearance but pay little attention on something inside. Moreover, some of them show the reasons that they disagree the female images portrayed by the mass media is that the media just shape similar patterns of female images. Some of them argued our standard and belief about beauty has been greatly influenced by western society so that we have lost our Chinese traditional features. Although there has been in some way a general criticism of the way media portrayed female body, interestingly, nearly all the participants said that they enjoyed reading these magazines. Moreover, some interviewees also pointed out that in some way some types of media such as films and some articles of women s magazines do contribute to encouraging women to care more about themselves and lead a happy and independent life. 2.3 The view of women on their own body image Although most women disagree with the media images of perfect women, an interesting point is that most of them still want their images to be similar with them. For the question what expectation you have towards your body? they wrote in their questionnaires that I want to be slim ; I want to have curvaceous shape to be sexier. Moreover one fifth wanted to be taller and 17 of 50 participants noted that they wanted to look healthier. In group discussion, when the participants were asked this question do you have any expectation on your own image? their response was Of course, I have. Eight in ten noted that they wanted to be slimmer. Some of them gave very specific descriptions on their expectation. They commented as follows: I want to be slimmer, but not skinny, I want to be slim yet curvaceous, I want my breasts bigger, my hip rounder, my waist slimmer, I hope to own a tight and flat stomach, I hope the skin of my body can be tighter and smoother, I want my lower legs to be longer, etc. What s more, to question in questionnaire do you feel pressured to have a better body? three-fifth participants chose No. In discussion, these interviewees explained their ideas further We want, but do not really feel pressured. Among the 20 participants who answered yes, half of them think that the pressure was from their husbands or boyfriends. 7 think that it is form the request to get a good job. 4 ticked media ; 3 ticked peers and 1 parents. In group discussion, nearly all the interviewees admitted that they indeed wanted to improve their bodies. While, whether they feel pressured or they just want, most of them said that the biggest pressure to look good is from boyfriends or husbands. What s more, all of them believed that the mass media have changed men s attitudes towards a perfect woman image. They think these body images portrayed by the media encourage men to expect those slim sexy curvaceous body shapes from woman. One wrote: Men may hope their girlfriends or wives images are similar to those perfect woman images. From what these interviewees said, we can see that their descriptions of the expectation on their bodies are so specific and precise. And the images they want to have are very similar with these female images portrayed by the mass media, which confirms the saying that media set up a standard of beauty against which women measure themselves up. We can also see that women still pay much attention to men s sense on them as most the women think that the biggest pressure for them to have a better body is form their boyfriend or husband. 3 Discussion From the results of the research, we can see that the mass media play an important role in influencing the attitudes of women on how they view themselves in term of body image. The media have 110

4 emphasized certain body form over others in terms of what may be judge desirable and attractive, which is believed to establish a standard of beauty to make women measure themselves up. The representation of such unrealistic images of female beauty in the media has a positive effect on body dissatisfaction among women. Although young women are critical of the narrow range of the female body images presented in the media, it is hard for them to avoid being affected by media exposure. What s more, the influence of the media also contribute to shaping perception of the female body in the whole society, which also creates social pressure on women to strive for the slender and toned body shape that is associated with women s happiness and success. However, there are contradictory points appearing in my research, which may show that the Chinese young women are not fully aware of the influence of the media sometimes. First, as it was mentioned above, most participants rejected the images portrayed by the media and also gave their specific reasons for their disagreement, however, their expectations on their own bodies described by them, in both questionnaires and group discussion, such as being slimmer being curvaceous, are just similar with these images from the mass media. This may show that the media indeed play an important role on shaping women s concept of beauty and have created a standard to make women measure up. Although most women hold a critical view to this standard, in fact they can not avoid the influence and have already been influenced unconsciously. Second, many participants think that the biggest pressure to look good is from boyfriends and husbands, not the media. From questionnaire, only 4 participants ticked the media as one of the sources of the pressure. Similarly, in discussion, when the interviewees were asked about how much is the media s influence on them, a bit or not too much are general answers, with one of the 10 participants believing no influence at all. However, later, when they talked about the media s influence on the society, they answered: I think the impact is very very big and the media have influenced our society greatly. There was a general agreement that the media not only reflect but also shape the trend of fashion and have significant influences on people s mind and the society as a whole. This is interesting because those participants who answered that media has a little or no influence on them seem to distinguish themselves from the whole society, ignoring that they also belong to the society. From these points, we can see that the influence of media is not clearly noticed by Chinese young women. Therefore it can be concluded that the influence caused by media could be greater than they think. The contradictory views from women themselves are complicated. While this can show that when women make choices from several sources of pressure, they usually chose the ones which give them more direct influence or pressure and ignored the impacts of the media which are thought to be a bit far from them. Therefore, young women should be better informed and education to be aware of the influence of the mass media. 4 Conclusion To sum up, the body image portrayed by the mass media has set standards of beauty, limits and controls on Chinese women s attitudes, behaviors and even on women s self worth. And unfortunately, Chinese young women are not fully aware of the influence of the media. In another word, we are letting the so-called beauty industry define reality for us, and encouraging body hatred. (Kirkwood, 2006) Therefore, it is important to be aware of the influence of the mass media about the body image on women. It is important to consider how media representation might affect not only on young women but on all women. Moreover, it is also important to think that such representations say about our society and its attitude towards women and how the media might be actively engaged in reproducing and legitimating idea about femininity that neither comply with the reality of their experience and potential nor combat the ongoing inequities, abuses and self-violation which are the familiar everyday business of women s lives. (Wykes and Gunter, 2006) At the same time, woman need educate themselves to recognize that advertising is not a slice of reality. Woman need to quit giving other people permission to define who they are and what they are worth. Women need to begin to see healthy bodies as the ideal, 111

5 and need to make clear that good health is not defined by size; it is a state of physical, mental, and social well-being. References [1]. Bartky, S. Femininity and domination: studies in the phenomenology of oppression, New York: Routledge, 1990 [2]. Bordo, S. Unbearable Weight. London: University of California Press, 2003 [3]. Borland, H.and Akram, S. Age is no barrier to wanting to look good: women on body image, age and advertising. Qualitative Market Research: An International Journal Vol. 10 No. 3, 2007: 310~333 [4]. Dohnt, H. K. and Tiggemann, M. Body Image Concerns in Young Girls: The Role of Peers and Media Prior to Adolescence. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, Vol. 35, No. 2, April 2006: 141~151 [5]. Kirkwood, L. An Artist s Perspective on Body Image, the Media, and Contemporary Society. Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior, Vol. 37, 2006: 125~132 [6]. Posavac H. D., Posavac S. S. and Posavac, E. J. Exposure to Media Images of Female Attractiveness and Concern with Body Weight Among Young Women. Sex Roles Vol. 38 Nos. 3/ Psychology, Vol. 35, p232~245 [7]. Tiggemann, M. Media exposure, body dissatisfaction, and disordered eating: Television and magazines are not the same! Eur. Eat. Disord. Rev. Vol. 11, 2003: 418~430 [8]. Wade, T. D., Wilkinson, J. and Tovim D. B. The Genetic Epidemiology of Body Attitudes, the Attitudinal Component of Body Image in Women. Psychological Medicine, 2003, 33, p1395~1405 [9]. Wykes, M. and Gunter, B. (2005). The Media & Body Image. London: Sage 112