“I'm bringing booty back
Go ahead and tell them skinny bitches that
No, I'm just playing
I know you think you're fat
But I'm here to tell ya
Every inch of you is perfect
from the bottom to the top.”
Meghan Trainor’s 2014 pop hit "All About that Bass" encourages young women to embrace their curves and defy the pressure to be thin, citing Barbie dolls and airbrushed photos in magazines as sources of the societal expectations of how a girl should look. Media messages, even ones as subtle as toy dolls, abound in the digital age, which raises the question: How do depictions of women in media affect one’s body image, specifically that of adolescents?
In the process of researching for a paper on this topic, I have been pleased to confirm many of the things I already knew. Teenagers are more likely to be negatively-affected by media messages promoting the "thin ideal" because they are in a period of development, change, and uncertainty. This supports my argument for stricter regulations and a better awareness of media directed towards teenagers, because it is so impactful to their self-perception.
I was surprised to learn the depth of the effect that media can have on young women. According to objectification theory, girls who see women being objectified in media contexts will begin to see themselves as sexual objects. There are studies that support this theory in the contexts of magazines, television, and music videos. I am interested to learn more about the different effects of media in varying contexts.
Body image is a relevant topic in today’s society, both in mass media and social media. In my paper, I will be exploring more of the former and examining the responsibility of both producers and consumers for the messages sent and received respectively, but I also hope to touch on the response that has been made by social media and in popular media. Meghan Trainor’s music video is an excellent example of push-back on the thin ideal, and media trends such as “#bodypositivity,” “#fitspo,” and even the positive connotations of thick, now spelled in slang terms as “thicc,” are a way of showing appreciation for a variety of body types. Though media dictates many ideals for the ways people perceive the world, including their own bodies, new technologies are creating opportunities to show realistic body ideals.
(1) Trainor, Meghan. (2014, July 11). Meghan Trainor - All About That Bass (Official Music Video) [Video File]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7PCkvCPvDXk.
(2) Bell, B.T. & Dittmar, H. (2011). Does Media Type Matter? The Role of Identification in Adolescent Girls’ Media Consumption and the Impact of Different Thin-Ideal Media on Body Image. Sex Roles, 65(7), 478-490. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11199-011-9964-x
(3) Grabe, S. & Hyde, J. (2009). Body Objectification, MTV, and Psychological Outcomes Among Female Adolescents. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 39(12), 2840-2858. DOI: 10.1111/j.1559-1816.2009.00552.x
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