Media And Body Size And Social Relations - 1397 Words

Media’s Body Image Introduction Body size and media has been an ever-growing topic in the recent years. As more people are becoming aware of how media portrays this idea of the ideal body size, the media still has a huge influence on how others interact with each other. For example, one study shows how because of media, high school aged girls begin to form relationships around the ideal body size. In this paper I will review three articles that discuss media and body size and how culture influences body size. Then I will discuss how the articles are related and the findings. I will discuss how body size influences high school aged individuals, and because the relations to body size and making social relations can then influence the†¦show more content†¦The article discusses how the body plays a bigger part in social relations during adolescent years and is used as a marker for value and status in ones life. It also discusses how larger individuals have a harder time keeping social relations because of how media or certain individuals portray them. The purpose of this article was to express and show how body size can negatively affect social relations between people, especially the affects seen in larger body sizes. The general hypothesis of this study was to examine the affects body size has on the formation of friendships. The hypothesis was tested taking a number of friendships from a high school setting over a time span of two years, because that is where a sense of body size is heightened. The findings from the study suggest that there is a tendency for physical characteristics, such as body size, that influences how individuals view themselves and how others view the said individual. The results also suggest that the reasoning for groups of similar body size forming is not because they are similar in appearance but because those of similar body size are one of the only ones to respond in social settings. This idea of body size and social relations differs from culture to culture based on exposure. The second article I reviewed was titled â€Å"Morality and Health: News and Media Constructions of Overweight and Eating