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A growing issue in our society is that a distorted perception of our body image has been manifesting over a period of over a decade and counting. A large portion of the media focuses on appearance and how we should 'look', which has been seen to draw our members of society away from the minority that promotes a good, healthy lifestyle. The prime focus of 'the perfect body' has manipulated how society perceives the diverse body shapes of today. This can have very detrimental health and psychological effects, which brings me to my knowledge issue: 'To what extent is the media's manipulation of body image ethical?'
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I’m going to present to you a representative example of how society targets the adolescents of our age and the effects that altering their body image has, and what this may indicate about the ethical nature of the media’s actions.
Charlotte was a healthy 17-year-old who has turned into an obsessive follower of the media’s demands on how her body should look. Advertisements and pictures of malnourished models have distorted her perception of the ideal body and the appealing nature of the extreme diets and weight-loss articles have led her to develop an obsessive nature with food, magazines and exercise. This has spiraled into a vicious circle and she began to develop an eating disorder. I am now going to read to you a diary entry that she has written: |
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Using empathy, I can understand that and derive that Charlotte feels a compulsion to have an emaciated looking figure which, in her perception, is the equivalent of a beautiful figure. We can see here that the masses of pictures and advertisements have triggered in her emotions of inadequacy, anxiety, guilt and jealousy. She feels inadequate with her body shape which makes her anxious to change this. Worse more, this is driven by the guilt she feels by the media somewhat ‘ordering’ her to change the way she looks and the envy that she feels when she sees these malnourished models. Therefore, using Emotion as a way of knowing, the psychological effects that the media has had on her indicate that their actions are unethical.
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The biological area of knowledge can be used to argue the ethics of the actions of this sector of the media. Going back to the real-life example again, a medical diagnosis was made on Charlotte’s physical and psychological condition. It was concluded as follows:
Diagnosis: Anorexia nervosa, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and depression Advertisements and images promoting dramatically slim figures and size 0 models trigger Charlotte to enter an obsessive state. Frequent browsing and looking over triggering photos fuel her obsession with being thin and she often finds herself comparing her body to that of the edited, airbrushed and photoshopped models she sees in the media everyday. The constant presence of these triggering images have caused her to develop obsessive compulsive disorder as well as depression due to the constant feelings of inadequacy. This brings me to a sub-knowledge issue that can be argued: Is the 'pro-skinny' side of the media responsible for unethically creating a poisonous environment in which serious ailments are developed, for vulnerable individuals? Using Biology as an area of knowledge, and Medical reasoning as a way of knowing, this sector of the media is unethical and veering society towards destructive impulses and body image. |
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However, it is important not to generalize the media as it does contain a wide variety of perspectives in its vicinity. There are sectors of the media, in journalism, TV and art, where eating disorders and malnourishment are fought against and the extreme diets of today stripped of their glorification. We must not neglect the health journals that guide us towards healthy eating and exercise, and ways to relax one’s body and mind. There are health guides and medical journals on display available for our society to immerse itself in, yet many of us admit to being more drawn to the headlines telling us how to achieve ‘skinny’ or ‘muscular and fit’ instantly. This brings me to another sub-knowledge issue: Are we in reality, not targets of an unethical media, but a part of society that choose obsessiveness with appearance and use the media as a crutch to manifest it? Are we the ones manipulating media, are we responsible for distorting our own body image?’ Perhaps we must be held responsible for a flawed perception of body image because we have chosen to neglect a healthy lifestyle for a ‘magic pill’ or ‘quick fix?’
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In addition to this, Language as a way of knowing can be used to argue that the media actually isn’t unethical or necessarily responsible. There has been an ongoing rivalry between critics and the media- lash out after lash out and law suit after law suit have been posed against the media for seemingly encouraging society, particularly targeting adolescent boys and girls, down the path of eating disorders and compulsive exercise. However, the media has fought back with statements saying that although their visual representations and headlines encourage weight loss and may have triggered an obsessive behavior due to an ‘incorrect’ interpretation, they have never linguistically or deliberately used the words ‘starve’, ‘obsess’, ‘purge’ or statements such as ‘skinny is beautiful’. They justify their representations of body image with the argument that they do not explicitly force a particular body mentality. This brings me to yet another knowledge issue: Do we incorrectly interpret the representations of appearance, beauty and body image and take them too much to heart? A counterargument to this would be that the media is concealing its unethical representations by manipulating language to dislodge beliefs that it openly encourages unhealthy behavior, and so the media has done what society tends to do, which is blame the other side. The media perhaps blames society for overreacting or jumping to conclusions on how it represents body shapes and tries to defend its actions. This could be seen as a defense mechanism performed out of guilt, which indicates that this sector of the media is perhaps aware that its actions and its destructive impact on society have violated some sort of ethical code that testifies against trying to take an authoritative position on appearance, be it implicit or explicit. Therefore, we can argue that this portion of the media is being unethical yet conceals it, and tries to shift the blame on society. This in itself can strongly be viewed as unethical as it tries to shift the media’s responsibility on society’s shoulders.
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A counterargument to this would be that the media is concealing its unethical representations by manipulating language to dislodge beliefs that it openly encourages unhealthy behavior, and so the media has done what society tends to do, which is blame the other side. The media perhaps blames society for overreacting or jumping to conclusions on how it represents body shapes and tries to defend its actions. This could be seen as a defense mechanism performed out of guilt, which indicates that this sector of the media is perhaps aware that its actions and its destructive impact on society have violated some sort of ethical code that testifies against trying to take an authoritative position on appearance, be it implicit or explicit. Therefore, we can argue that this portion of the media is being unethical yet conceals it, and tries to shift the blame on society. This in itself can strongly be viewed as unethical as it tries to shift the media’s responsibility on society’s shoulders.
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What worsens the media’s manipulation of our body image is that it gives this stereotype of being fit, ‘ripped’ or ‘buff’ a ridiculously high significance. It manipulates the position of our supposed ‘role models’ to fit what the media’s perception of the perfect body is, which in a way domineers us as a vulnerable people and makes us feel obliged to conform to what this appearance-driven media says should be the accepted norm. Could we then argue that the media tries to dodge an unethical portrayal with its actions by molding them to the qualities of a certain significant or authoritative figure?
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To conclude, I believe that the appearance-driven sector of the media is in effect unethical in its actions. This is because despite the choice of following its path being laid in our hands, its temptations and dominance over the market and the day-to-day aspects of our lives, such as relationships and social acceptance, feed our temptations of succumbing to its portrayals of ‘healthy’ lifestyles with the absence of medical evidence. Also, its superficial and alleged obliviousness to the destructive impacts that the creation of a distorted body image that it can have indicates its denial to see the unethical nature of its actions, and its continuation of shallow demands on appearance despite the increasing percentages and age diversity of eating disorder diagnoses and psychological loathing with self-perception proves that its actions defy an ethical code. Overall, reasoning and emotion as ways of knowing, as well as biology as an area of knowledge, have been shown to prove that the media’s alteration of body image is indeed unethical.
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Thank you
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