Get Adobe Flash player
GET REAL! Toolkit • Digital Media Literacy Media and Your Body Image In our media-saturated culture, it's hard to escape the onslaught of messages about our bodies. Media messages tell us how we should look and feel and sell us ways to achieve it, pressuring us to diet and exercise, even take supplements or undergo surgery, to attain the media culture’s ideal body standard. Learn to think critically about unhealthy body image messages. Every time you see advertisements, watch TV, videos or movies, read magazines, listen to music, and go online, question and challenge messages about body image. Who created the message and why? • Who wrote and produced the message? • What is the purpose of the message — to entertain, persuade, inform or make money? • Who paid for and profits from the message? What techniques are used to create the message? • What words or images got your attention? • If models or celebrities are featured, do they really look like that? • Are the bodies airbrushed or altered in any way? What values, beliefs, and lifestyles are represented? • What is the message about appearance, weight and food? • What body shape and size does it suggest is desirable? • What does it suggest to do to achieve that look? • Is the information accurate and true? What’s not said or left out? What you see, hear and read in the media will not cause eating disorders, BUT can influence YOUR body image, make it hard to feel good about your body shape and size, and lead to weight and food issues. How might different people interpret the message? • How might the message make people feel about their body? • How might a person with weight or food issues interpret the message? • What expectations might someone have about different size people? What does the message mean to you? • How does it make you feel about yourself and your body? • Does the message make you want to change something about yourself—your looks, eating habits or exercise routine? Is this positive or negative? • If you could remake the message, what would you do? Media tell females: thinner is better Media tell males: muscular is better Voice YOUR opinion about body image CRITICIZE unhealthy messages COMPLIMENT healthy messages Adapted from the media literacy framework developed by the Center for Media Literacy at medialit.org Get REAL! about Media and Body Image | California State University, Northridge | National Eating Disorders Association