Media analysis

Media analysis

Image Ad.

The image is about weight loss in which it has a slim, fit woman in oversized pants and some products to help women lose weight. It is an advertisement about losing weight for women using natural cosmetics. The choice of the image to use for the ad was crucial as the advert had to show that the products work and therefore using a woman with a slim, fit body was necessary. Also, she is wearing oversized pants which were aimed at showing that she has indeed lost weight and hence her pants are now too big for her. Additionally, the woman in the advertisement is wearing a crop top to expose her flat tummy which was necessary for the target audience to see that the products being advertised can help women attain a flat belly, which most if not all women desire. The other images are of the products being promoted so that the audience can get an idea of what the products look like.

The advert uses some texts. The most visible text is the “BODY CARE” text which is in bold an in red. It is different from other texts so that it is the first text that the audience reads so as to pass the message that the products being advertised are for body care. The other texts are not in bold and are written in black, and they are names of the products being advertised. Overall, the advert advertises about body image and mainly through the image on the advert and using texts

Music Video Ad.

The music video is of the “Strip” music video by the famous British girl group, Little Mix. The music video involves a number of models of all shapes and sizes being featured in the video, in underwire, showing off their bodies. All the girls featured in the video, whether slim or plus-size, are seen dancing and having a good time. The video encourages girls to love themselves no matter their body size, and no matter how they look. Whether they have freckles on their skin or stretch-marks. Generally, the video is about loving your body and loving yourself without comparing yourself with other people. It also encourages women to love themselves without their makeup on as it shows the girls getting their make up and do not seem to like it. The song’s lyrics are supported by the video as most of them are about body image and loving yourself despite your body type and despite how your face looks. The whole video is in black and white to eliminate the skin tone difference and show that everyone is the same despite the color of their skin. Apart from the video, the song’s lyrics support the video.

As the music video ends, the four girls are seen naked but hiding their private parts and breasts with different words such as fat, slutty, ugly, and weak written on their bodies. These are the names that some girls come across every day simply because of how they look or how they dress and the music video aimed at discouraging this. The music video encourages girls to be comfortable with being who they are and ignore all the bad names that other people might call them. Generally, the video advertises being comfortable with being unique and being different.

Relationship Between eating Disorder and Western Culture.

Eating disorders have become a serious problem, especially in the 21^st century, where there are many contributing factors, such as the type of food that people eat and technology. Even though eating disorders affect people from all parts of the world, research has found out that eating disorders such as Anorexia Nervosa, Bulimia Nervosa, and Binge-eating disorder are most common in Western culture where food is abundant, and there is great technological advancement. The biggest contributing factor leading to the development of eating disorders is the social pressure resulting from the standards of female beauty imposed by Western culture. Also, the growing exposure to Western media suggests an increase in the rate of eating disorders in other non-Western countries.

Both anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa are characterized by clinical disturbances in body image and eating behaviors. As a result, people suffering from these disorders often feel fat and emaciated and therefore work tirelessly to lose more weight or refrain from eating even if they feel hungry. Such people deny their significance of low body weight and always fear to gain weight with the persistent pursuit of becoming thinner. The western culture has put much emphasis on body shape and figure, and this puts a lot of pressure on many people who strive to get the perfect body that everyone desires and that which is considered attractive and to some extent, healthy. People from the western culture, therefore, attach huge importance to their physical appearance and will do anything to get the dream figure. Most people, especially the female youth, end up cutting on their food consumption and eating less since there are anxious about their body size and shape. Some of them spend huge amounts of time at the gym trying to burn fat and lose more weight, even though there are already slim enough.

The Western media portrays that having a slim body is what beauty is. That if one has fat, she is not attractive. This is mostly due to the fact that most of the beauty icons that are seen on the media, especially social media, have perfect slim bodies and have beautiful faces. As a result, most girls who admire such icons want to become like them and also be considered beautiful and therefore end up developing eating disorders while trying to gain the perfect body. Different sociologists studying how eating disorders have developed across time talk about how beauty ideals have changed over the years. There before, being thin was not considered attractive. Before, the 1950s, curvy bodies were considered more attractive and were the accepted body type, especially among women. Due to technological development, children are exposed to smartphones and tablets where they see commercials and media messages in which most have images of female models who have slim bodies. Conversely, men are shown as buffy and strong. As a result, young girls are influenced by the media through technology to think that the underweight models shown in the ads, movies, and magazines are of normal body shape and weight. They, therefore, start to believe that being thin will make them more attractive, popular, and more successful and therefore happier. The Western media presents a greatly idealized and unrealistic fantasy version of reality. The images portrayed by the western media and culture end up being unconsciously rooted in people’s minds, even if they know that they are not realistic, and this leads to the development of eating disorders.

Apart from the media, some occupations influence the participants to have slim bodies such as dancing and acting. For many dancers in western culture, having a slim and fit body is crucial for their performance. Most of these dancers strive to become good at what they do so that they can also appear in music videos of famous western musicians. As a result, some of them end up developing eating disorders so that they can attain a perfect body which will enable them to dance better and become better at their profession. Also, many actors are required to have perfect bodies for a different role in different movies. This mostly affects the women since again, many roles require women with perfect figures which is also aimed at getting more sales for the movies. This is a major problem, especially in Hollywood where most people have aspirations to become actors and therefore are put under a lot of pressure to lose weight and gain the perfect shape for TV. From this research, it is clear that people’s strive to get a perfect body is the main cause of eating disorders in western culture. The strong emphasis on slim bodies which is mostly propagated by the western media has led to many people, especially women, developing anxiety concerning their bodies and overall beauty. This leads them to obsess about their weight and body shape and end up reducing their food intake and exercising excessively.

Finally, apart from the eating disorders associated with less eating, eating disorders associated with more eating are also a common occurrence associated with Western culture. Even though some of these cases are related to genetics, most of them are as a result of people’s lifestyles. Some children grow up eating more junk food and as a result, they develop eating disorders such as binge eating. Such eating disorders often lead to the individuals becoming overweight to the extent where they cannot be able to perform some day to day tasks such as walking for long distances or even picking something from the ground. Such eating disorders can also be caused by emotional instability or psychological issue, which cause individuals to eat uncontrollably. Such eating disorders have more health risks as they are associated with health problems such as heart disease. The western culture is mostly associated with such disorders compared with other countries, mainly due to the technological advancement, which has led to the production of more junk food and also has led to people becoming lazier. Almost everyone in the United States has a car, and therefore not many people walk for long distances. As a result, since they do not burn the calories, they experience the signs symptoms of eating disorders. In conclusion, even though there is limited research on non-western countries, it is known that the western culture has a huge influence on the eating disorders in other non-Western countries and this is mostly due to the Western view of body image. Therefore, it is clear that the Western culture has a huge influence on eating disorders both in the Western countries and the non-Western countries.