I think that the media has played a huge part in influencing teenage girls and boys. But is the media to blame or is it down to the individual?

well yes of course, it shows picturrs of skinny, beautiful women in dresses which triggers the problems.
But shouldnt the parents protect their kids from these mags?

the parents are always to blame

parents can't possibly protect their children from seeing images like these as they are everywhere not just in mags. And i don't think that parents are able to control what magazines their teenage daughters buy, as they are old enough to do so themselves.
But i can see your point and think that parents should do more then what they are doing at the moment which isn't much.

How are the parents always to blame?

totally why are they always showing us films were girls roam around in something skimpy? it's not fair! even in magazines they are urging u to get thinner... i must admit i am not flat stomached or whatever and it really gets to me when u see people like Lindsey Lohan... so u can understand why girl get all depressed u would think that hollywood would do something? but do they? (rolls eyes)

im no brad pitt or whoever but so what. I dont try to be anyone else or look like anyone else and never have done, well maybe a ninja but I was 10. Girls need to be more individually minded. They're like drones or something. It really annoys me when people blame eating disorders on the media. Lets look at the individual in question and find out why they want to be so thin instead of knee-jerk statements

I speak for the majority of red-blooded blokes when i say that girls look better with curves. Curves are sexy, anorexic waifs are not. They simply look ill. The problem is, impressional young girls will always look to their weight obsessed idols, and not the view of blokes like me. I think the media is slowly getting more pro-curves now, but it seems there are still pressures within hollywood circles to be stick thin.

I agree, curvy girls rule! I love a girl who's full in the right places, bones jutting out here there and everywhere look horrible.

i agree curvy ladies r shexxxy

The media eg: Heat, OK,Hello ect do all these things theres too many!!!
and its pressure to look thin from them and the girls around them.
Maybe this has something to do with BARBIEandt-shirts saying ludicrouse stuff like "soo many boys so little time" these are the kind of things that brainwash the little kids

The media has a massive influence on teenage girls. Im not skinny and i find it hard to be confident in myself when theres so many skinny girls out there. I feel that there is only one type of girl that boys go for and thats the one with perfect hair and always have 5inches of make up on their face! lmao! you dont have to be skinny to be yourself x

I'd say most of it is down to the individual. There are as many pictures of musclular blokes in the media but, for whatever reason, most blokes don't feel the need to replicate the look. As much as a woman will drool over a David Beckham or Matthew McConaughy, shirtless & showing 'ripped' torso's, most blokes will just think bully for them & that's the end of it.

I accept that the 'ideal' body shape is different for the sexes and that may be tilted against the girls. After all to emulate the body of Beckham, a bloke has to put in a lot of work, whereas to copy a stick thin model, a girl has the 'easy' option of starving or maybe bulimia. The amount of work a lad would put in would put a lot off, which is an explaination for their not trying. A girl could pull off the starving thing relatively easy, thus making that ideal more easily attainable, thus increasing their perceived pressure.

It's not the models fault, it's a problem within the media, which ultimately is fanned by the readers/viewers. If the general public actively showed distaste of the images of unnaturally thin people, then the media that serves them would have to take notice. This may change the idea's within the fashion industry of only using a particular shaped model. Whilst there is public apathy toward the notion, the 'industry standard' will continue.

I don't think the 'nanny state' method of banning the use of these models is a good thing as the authorities have no place in this. The industry (media/fashion/marketing) has to be self-regulating. Any interference would just breed the wrong type of resentment. Even if they did succeed in banning the models, are they really going to monitor the media/marketing industries, to ensure that they don't use them.

Large topic that will go on & on, I'm afraid.

I think the media does influence women of all ages, not really males tho. I saw an article in a mag recently that was about how to love your body and one of the points was to remember that celebs are nearly always airbrushed in photos and don't really look that perfect in the flesh (who does, we all have flaws, even the most perfect of celebs), plus they've had their hair, make-up and clothes done professionally too so they're bound to look fab with all this help.

I often read stories in magazines about how some celebs (names not mentioned) are depressed cuz they hardly eat a thing, work out constantly and have the added pressure to always look slim. This is now way to live - i personally enjoy my food way too much to give it up and i can't stand the gym at the best of times, lol!

quote:

Originally posted by marlster:
I speak for the majority of red-blooded blokes when i say that girls look better with curves. Curves are sexy, anorexic waifs are not. They simply look ill. The problem is, impressional young girls will always look to their weight obsessed idols, and not the view of blokes like me. I think the media is slowly getting more pro-curves now, but it seems there are still pressures within hollywood circles to be stick thin.

Im 19 and when i was younger i saw all these skinny celebs etc but i love food to much to even think about wanting to be like that. Im a happy curvey (in the right places) girl!

the celebrities hav the right to look how they want. The media call skinny celebs because theyre easy targets, but yet they promote people such as charlotte churches figure, when it was recently revealed that she eats 6 meals a day. I think that people who moan about the celobs looking skinny is the people who can't get to the size they want.

If theses stupid magazines disn't show pictures of thin celebs evri week then how wud girls see them. i personally like thin girls, e.g. Keira knightley and nicole richie, if the media just left these girls alone then there wouldn't be such a thing about it.

I read quite an interesting tongue-in-cheek article once that said that seeing as the majority of fashion designers are gay men, they designed their womens clothes to fit the body type they like, i.e. skinny young boys, so therefore they employ women with the figures of skinny young boys.

Of course thats a ridiculous amount of over-generalised stereotyping, but you get the drift.

Give me Thora Birch, Sophie Dahl( before she went skinny that is), Christina Ricci (before she went skinny as well), and Kate Winslet any day, over any of those anorexic types.

Actually, just give me Dawn French. Go on, please.

quote:

Originally posted by what do you expect?:
I think that the media has played a huge part in influencing teenage girls and boys. But is the media to blame or is it down to the individual?

Actually, reading this original post again, there is no mention of in which why they meant the media influences boys and girls... I think we just jumped on the bandwagon of slagging skinny people off.

If you think about the majority of movie stars (as this is a film forum rather than just a media forum), most are slim or atheltic or even quite shapely, yes, but there aren't that many that are absolutely anorexic-looking or completely obese, unless the role calls for it (I'm thinking more along the lines of Christian Bale in 'The Machinist' and Robert DeNiro in 'Raging Bull' rather than fat-suit rubbish like Shallow Hall & Just Friends)

All teenage girls look like Paris Hilton or Hilary Duff, don't they?? Now that is a creepy development!!

They are totally responsible, im 20 and slightly over weight and when i watching tv and listening to the media i am constantly made to feel bad about it! so how do children cope with this? they are preying on the weak instead of just sitting and saying and spending money on making programmes, mags etc to tell people you are over weight they should be providing more help for people.

If you feel bad about it do something about it. Dont blame everyone else for what is essentially your issue. Why are you overweight? If you were happy to go over your weight limit, why are you unhappy with it now?

I just don't get the obsession with the 'perfect figure'. 100 years ago a fuller figure was the fashion, now its waif like skeletons, you will never have what everyone else wants so do things to make yourself happy, screw everyone else. As long as you're healthy and mobile why does it matter what other make of you.

quote:

Originally posted by Tamora:
All teenage girls look like Paris Hilton or Hilary Duff, don't they?? Now that is a creepy development!!

Well yes, but it's just an extension of them all looking like Britney Spears and (other) assorted porn stars a few years back.

I think I'd prefer to see a few more looking like Thora Birch in 'Ghost World', all kooky specs, curves, clompy shows and tight red sweaters. But that's just me...

It isnt always as easy as "Just doing something" when people have other things in their life for example i have been on a steriod treatment and that is what has caused me to put on weight but people just judge you without knowing these facts!

I think we should let people look how ever THEY want not how we want them to look. I am perfectly happy being 6 1/2 stone and 5 ft 9 in while some would label me as anorexic. But I LOOK HOW I WANT TO. Dawn French is happy the way she is. Nicole Richie is happy the way she is. As long as the person is comfortable and happy in their skin then that is how they should look. Anorexics /Bullimics are generally distressed and unhappy, they can't understand themselves and they can't be comfortable. It doesn't matter about size, it matters about how that size fits you.