Hi, need to submit a 3500 words paper on the topic The Perception of the Adolescents Body Image. With continued exposure to this kind of media, the female adolescents begin to perceive thinness as the ideal norm and that they need to make more sacrifices and effort to attain it.

Extended exposure to this type of media and body image makes adolescent girls view their bodies as objects which have real value to the world only in the ideal form. Values and the ability of girls to control and improve their lives, in general, are based on physical beauty and the success to control weight. The media shows that thinness is a measure of how a woman is able to control their body and therefore has power over their social world (Goodman, 2002).

The normalized ideal body image affects the adolescents more since the pressure to become thin comes at the time when adolescents are going through major changes in their bodies. As they mature, more weight is gained and deposited around the thighs, hips and lower torso thereby leading to a deviation from the standard body. This makes them very dissatisfied with their body image. The perception of the adolescent’s body image is therefore far from being an objective evaluation, but rather it is a mental construct that affects how they feel and think about themselves and their appearance.

The second part of the survey was intended to collect data on student’s perception of their own body image. The information from this survey was collected from the teachers. The following questions were asked:

4. Do you think that teachers have a role to play in shaping the perception of students on their body image? If so, how can teachers be supportive to help students suffering from negative body image and low self-esteem as a result of deviant body images?

This study, alongside other studies, have examined this phenomenon by targeting popular beauty and fashion magazines and the influence they have on adolescents’ body images as well as their role in supporting the idea that success and happiness are derived from body image. Specifically, female adolescents are more affected since their happiness and success are linked to normative mental constructions that are meant to enhance the promotion of thinness as the epitome of beauty and a good state of health. Such ideals are, however, very unhealthy and unrealistic due to the inherent choices that adolescents make in a bit to look healthy and beautiful such as making poor and unhealthy choices in order to prevent the excessive gain of weight.