Is society putting forth the wrong image?

Is it?

Magazine covers, Celebrities, advertisements all broadcast incredibly thin people with white teeth who do inadvisable things and don't display any consequences.

It's not always all of these things, but it is usually at least one.

That's what people today are seeing.

Are people feeling bad about themselves becuase of what is advertised?

What exactly IS the wrong image?
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I believe on the person that see the "wrong" image that it affects. Like some one with a low self-esteem will probably feel worse about themselves cause society has deem them unworthy. So to a degree yes I think some people who view this stuff feel bad about themselves and take action to look like the people in magazines, tv, movies, and ect...

 

I don't quite understand your first sentence, but I think I understand what you're saying, and I agree.

If society deems you unworthy, even if nobody goes out and says it to you, you could be thinking that simply based on outside influences.
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I think society is... putting forth the wrong image.

Yes, in today's world there is a problem with obesity, but they are not helping with this strain to be thin. There is a point where being 'thin' is too thin. So we have so many people today tortured by their inner demons to reach society's 'norm' that turn to illnesses like annorexia nervosa and bulima. It's quite sad to see a person waste away like that, just striving to reach others' expectations.

Some models and such are in great shape, but there are others that will just starve themselves to stay on top. No one should feel forced to look a certain way, and certain ads, people, and messages are not helping. Instead messages should revolve more around how any person is 'beautiful.'

 

I agree with you. As far as a person striving to reach expectations goes, I don't think anybody really expects them to be like that. They've just convinced themselves that they have to be becuase of the advertisements society is blinding them with. The expectations they are trying to reach are impossible.
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Sometimes, I believe society puts out the wrong image. When the models are like, super-skinny, air-brushed to have perfect skin, teeth, etc. However, I've read some magazines with advertisements of truly normal people with imperfect qualities not covered, advertising for people to love their body. So sometimes, society tends to place out wrong images, but not all the time.

 

someone with low self esteem will see a pic of a skinny girl and feel worse, but someoen who feels good about them selves, will see the pic, laugh and say "Anorerxic" and say no more (except to they're friends XD)

 

Sadly a lot of magazines portray these images of airbrushed and even photo-shopped pictures of models and celebrities which portray this super thin, anorexia inducing image that hits the part of society that has low self esteem. Not all companies are however guilty of this and at least one company in the UK is hitting back. The Campaign For Real Beauty uses real women with all their imperfections and is actively campaigning against the standards of the beauty and glamour industry.

Here's the link for their campaign. Campaign For Real Beauty

I strongly believe in this.

Here's one of their adverts
Dove Advert

 

Hardly enough to have a lasting effect on the people who try to change their appearance becuase of the other ads. Where have you read this? I'd like to see an article about that.
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Hmm...it's in the magazine Seventeen, which calls it "Body for Peace". Here's a link for an example:
http://www.seventeen.com/magazine/ann-blog/anns-blog-101207

But I have to admit that the other ads do affect people with weak self esteem...however, I think slowly, society is beginning to learn how this is affecting people, and eventually, they'll have better advertisements like the one above.

 

Very true.

Here's a couple of examples from both ends of the age spectrum of a more enlightened approach to beauty:
True colours
Pro Age

Both adverts were run successfully in the UK.

 

Must be very slowly. The beginning of that article also says "AND CARRIE UNDERWOOD WAS ON THE COVER LOOKING BEAUTIFUL"

*sigh*

Baby steps. Hopefully we'll get there eventually.
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I think that we're forgetting that the "right" image has been subjective to whatever society dominates. We're never going to achieve anything that remains permanent, and we're certainly never going to find an image that doesn't come to be a two edged sword. During the early Greek period curved and voluptuous was the ideal beauty-- much of which was achieved by eating rich and heavy foods. In the Victorian era there was the dominant hour glass shape that was achieved using the corset-- which subsequently led to a number of spinal malformations, injury, and death by suffocation. In the early1900's lead based powder was used to get that beautiful pale look all the while poisoning it's user. Later on the pale look was achieved by drinking vinegar which caused stomach ulcers and and scarring. In another hundred years we'll be criticizing the next image fad.

 

Oh of course society Is putting out the wrong Image. You see It on Billboards, T.V, Magazines etc. and you hear It on Radios, T.V etc. Theres always some skinny girl who's teeth are perfect, body Is perfect, boobs (If not big, quite small) /muscles are big and they are always smiling. Of course Its not always like this, but most of the time It Is. People expect this world to be beautiful and perfect, well NEWS FLASH, nothing Is perfect and not everything Is going to be beautiful. But who really CARES If your not the best looking In the world?
Company's try and make money by selling products to make you look beautiful, they don't actually WANT you to look beautiful, they just want the money and they don't realize how much their ad's are effecting women and men. Look, not all company's do this and the people should actually REALIZE that It doesn't matter If your beautiful on the outside, It matters whats In the Inside. But this world Is turning worse and all most people can see Is Judgment.

 

I do agree that there are a lot of public displays on the media, magazines etc with women and men who are polished up, air brushed, photoshopped pics, etc where they seem to have flawless skin, perfect bodies, or anorexic forms etc. Also, to make the deal worse, sometimes the magazines, when paparazzi feel hating, have pictures of the models, actresses and singers in horrible pictures to show they think they are 'too anorexic' or they have gained weight to 'obesity' (which is usually around 140 lbs...) or they fell out of shape, or look like 'trash' because they aren't wearing make up etc.

I do think that in quite a few ways, 'beauty' that is skin deep can go too far in portrayals as the people we see are so polished up and almost at times seem so 'perfect' they are inhuman. However, in movies or videos I don't tend to mind it. However, when I see articles that suddenly say nasty things about someone because they don't 'look' like they do in the movies or videos...well, that just is stupid. Everyone can't stay all shiny and perfecto forever and as people age, weight changes, if women have babies, their bodies change, if someone stops working out, they may get some flab, if someone is sick, he or she may get too thin or overweight, etc. We can't forget the 'stars' are still human, despite what some may want us to believe. Money can't eliminate the symptoms we all face of life, to include pimples.

I think that there will always be images that are seen as what 'some' deem beautiful or handsome, but it doesn't go with everyone in a society so extreme as many of ours. Even in quite a few polls, men have voted more strongly in favor of a girl that is of 'average' weight, rather than the size 0 twig girl. We all, whether people want to admit it or not, do at some points care what we look like and if we are at all appealing to those of the opposite sex (or if you are gay, to the same sex), so these fashion icons can be impressionable. Since though we can never hope to look as awesome as they do, becoming obsessed with it is pointless. If you want to see what you look like all posh'd up, I suppose you could take a picture of yourself and go photoshop crazy on it. Then you become one of those models or actors etc for a moment in time.

Though I think that these impressions of 'real' people are rather ridiculous at times, I really also think that people should stop trying to be so damned impressionable. People should spread around that we cannot possibly look like these people and that a majority of them don't even look like themselves without all the glamour fixtures. It doesn't matter what era we are in. There will always be some people that have low self-esteems and all, but seriously, they should wake up and stop looking down on themselves and realize that if they had all that money, fame etc, they too would be on a magazine that either shows them as super cool and ungodly gorgeous or they will be on that magazine being misshapen worse than they are in reality. There are no 'in betweens' except for some special groups that try to push forth what 'real people' look like. The only people I can ever say that I would consider 'ugly' on the outside tend to be those who do not bathe but once every two weeks, smell like crap and sweat, wear dirty clothes, have grimy hair and just sit around and complain they can't get a guy or girl.

Self-esteem is important and people should NOT be looking for it from beauty ads but instead working with what they have and accepting that's how it goes. If more people realized that, they wouldn't be so affected by what is on the cover of a magazine. I do think, however, that 'touched up' photos etc for beauty advertisements, health care, teeth, skin care products etc should have to post -real- people who were treated and also not use touched up photos because to me that is false advertising.

 

Well, I think society puts alot of pressure onto people on how they should look in America. We are one of the few countries with an abundance of food, yet we have a huge anorexia problem. Not to mention, we are the only countries where everyone wants to be on a diet whereas other countries barely get food. Also, middle class girls ages 12-15 have an increasing suicide rate and has been linked to image perceptions.

 

I'd say society goes too far with things only to fulfill the creator's 'selfish' ambitions. Otherwise, they probably wouldn't need to go through so much trouble to make magazines and all those other crap so attractive.

 

The wrong image is saying "you can do this and this and this wiht no consequences but you have to be beautiful or else you dont deserve to live" and this can make alot of people feel like they have no meaning to themselves.

 

...Well, it's not so much of society as the machine named media in my opinion when it comes to matters like that. However the ethic problems with celebrities getting away with unlawful deeds is a fault on the public who, like drug addicts, are addicted to some aspect of that celebrity and are willing to bend the rules to "get another fix". It's ludicrious to people who can see past this, but to people who are "fans" it seems logical...which is really a matter of self-control rather then society.

However, overall, society fawns over the "sad cases" rather then the "normal" or balanced cases....you don't read the newspaper or watch TV about the perfectly or nearly normal people like Jane Susy who's perfectly healthy and happy with life but you hear about poor Emily Doe who nearly killed herself because she was too -insert something sympathetic-.

What the media propogates into society though is the idea that "people will like you if you are this and this" and despite what many people think about their level-esteem....people want to be connected to society, the moreso the better; so to do this they emulate what they might see in popular media in hopes of achieving this. But really, this all spawned from a certain "ideal" of beauty somewhere earlier....

 

People feel bad about themselves when they see those perfect celebrities, of course. I have friends who envy Lindsay Lohan. <,< It's the need to have that nice looking face, body, and wear all that expensive clothing that makes people love it. The problem with that, is that celebrities are just misleading the public to something that isn't true, about real life. Some realize that real life isn't actually walking the red carpet, some don't. I know when I was in like 2nd grade I always wanted to meet those Disney stars. xD

So the wrong image wouldn't be the people themselves... but the projection being produced from them. The magazines, movies (love stories with common celebrities in them, for example), toys, Barbie's. Those things. The serious factor can be taken a little to seriously, is all.