"How Do Film Industries Influence Women's Perception of Body Image"

In my case study, "How Do Film Industries Influence Women's Perception of Body Image", we discussed that the film industry has become one of the most powerful influences on women and their perception of sefl-image. Over time, from the Victorian Era of the 1800s to the present, media has begun to set an unrealistic standard for the "ideal" body of women.
Body image is a term that relates to an individual's internal perception, evaluation, and thoughts about one's person appearance. With the ever growing film industry women are constantly finding themselves conforming to the molds that are illustrated in the Hollywood sphere. Media has formed a habit of only casting one type of woman for their leading roles, neglecting to inform the audience of the digital or surgical alterations, airbrushing, or other editing effects. Women are increasingly objectified to unnatural expectations od beauty that are put forward by models and actresses who do not reflect the average appearance of women in society.
The "ideal" body of women has changed profoundly, but it seems to be a continuous vicious cycle to follow. During the Victorian Era of the 1800s, women's ideal body type was plump and full-figured; women accentuated their hips and buttocks with restricting corsets. At the start of the 19th century, slenderness was more fashionable. The 1920s gave way to the slim flapper who bound their curves to achieve a washboard look. Energy and viltality became central and body fat was a sign of self-indulgence. In the 1930s the film industry had begun to produce the first movie stars and it was referred to as the "age of glamour". A tall slender figure was the most sought after. Marilyn Monroe set the standard for the 1950s and even into the 1960s. Acceptance of the voluptuous woman, and the need to build back the curves that defined a women was imperative. The 1960s saw a split between the supermodels and the movie stars. The models were leaning towards one end of the body mass index with the "thin is in" look while the actresses were still illustrating the classical womanly figure. From the 1980s to the present, being ultra thin is the look women are trying to obtain. More recently, the thin has become thinner, and the ability of most women to achieve this look is near impossible.
Mass culture and the media serve to project the body ideal and turn gentle concern into obsession. The media has given us very rigid, uniform beauty ideals. TV, magazines, and movies mean we see beautiful people more often then our friends and family; the ideal becomes more familiar to us and thus appears more normal and attainable. The movie industries reinforce the importance of a thin body as a measure of a women's worth.