Shrek and Fiona…. Feel beautiful yet?

If you’ve ever watched Shrek, you’ll understand that the image portrayed about body image is negative. Movies like Shrek show differences in body image portrayals by which princess Fiona is green, overweight, and more masculine being portrayed as ‘ugly’ and the “beautiful” princess Fiona is thin and extremely feminine. Movies such as these are also a way of the media influencing kids at an early age that fat is bad and thin is good.

“We’ve demonstrated that it doesn’t matter what the exposure is, whether it’s general TV watching in the evening, or magazines, or ads showing on a computer,” says Grabe. “If the image is appearance-focused and sends a clear message about a woman’s body as an object, then it’s going to affect women.”

Grabe, S, 2008, ‘Concern Over Strong Media Influence On Women’s Body Image’ (http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/107269.php)

TV shows often show real life women on reality TV shows, representing the ‘average woman’ in America. These are prime examples of how the standard of attractiveness for America as a culture has reached an unhealthy level.

It wasn’t bad enough that all fashion and gossip magazines bombarded us with negative body image references, but now these ‘reality shows’ with ‘real people’ are portraying the same message.

This shows how multiple mediums portray views on body image and how this can influence peoples perceptions on beauty, and reality.