The mass media influence on molding public comprehension and attitude towards reality has grown immensely. People are dictated not only on what to wear and how to spend their money, but even such moral concepts as love, beauty and sexuality are forcefully imposed and left without any objections possible. Women are surrounded by the flawless images of female beauty and have nothing left but to feel embarrassed and humiliated for being different in some respect. The consumer society of the 21st century is not interested in moral features of a person, but puts a drastic emphasis on physical appearance and its adherence to the promoted perfection.
Being treated by default as things or objects which should lack any visual downsides, women tend to get more critical and less caring to themselves. They presuppose that only ideal parameters and skeleton-like stature can guarantee success. Their self-esteem is suffering because the issue of unreal absolute beauty is speculated in media as a mandatory requirement. In the constant pursuit of this illusive target women may lose their psychological stability and uniqueness and have to fight severe health-related consequences.
Obsession with the gender representation in media is the public health problem and the only possibility to solve it is to change the environment. Thus, educational stimuli are brought to rescue. Already at the very young age girls get to know that being beautiful demands a lot of time, effort and money. The parents’ task is to make their daughters love their body and accept it without feeling ashamed or guilty for being not as thin as the girl on billboard. They should encourage girls to keep a healthy lifestyle and remember that their body is just a covering for their amazing personalities.
References
Koppelkam, S. How to talk to your daughter about her body. Retrieved from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/sarah-koppelkam/body-image_b_3678534.html
