The Dangers of Tabloids

It is a common act to flip through a tabloid magazine while standing in line at the grocery store. A person will subconsciously look at its pages and ignore every message it is giving through the models in it. Tabloids and magazines have created the false sense that for a woman to be beautiful, she must be thin. This misconception is the reason why today women of all ages have so many insecurities. Therefore, change in the way women are depicted in the media is needed, and there should be efforts made so that women of every size and shape are represented in the pages of magazines rather than only the stick- thin models.

Many magazine editors and Fashion designers would fight this point that what is printed in a magazine is not meant to create chaos to all the women in the world. They would argue that thin models are without many of the curves an average sized woman would have, and therefore, it is much easier for clothes on the runway to be fitted on them. Also many magazine editors would cover up any accusation of harmful propaganda due to dietary supplements being advertised in its pages by saying it’s the advertising business that sells space for a company to use up. Also as a fashion or women’s magazine, they encourage healthy lifestyles which would include reducing the amount of excess fat on a person’s body.

The reason I believe this portrayal of women in media is problematic is because the tabloids show women as skinny Barbie doll “look-alikes”. In the world today this is unrealistic and unfair. It is fine if you are thin, but the world cannot assume all women even have the capability to become that thin even if they wanted to. Human beings grow to be all different shapes and sizes, so it is unrealistic to believe all women must fit a certain standard just to be thought of as beautiful. “An average woman in today’s [society] is 5’4” and [usually] around 130 to 140 pounds” (ParentingTeens). Based on this calculation, it is unfair to declare all average sized women are not beautiful due to their weight in proportion to their height. According to tabloids, a truly beautiful woman looks like a runway model which on “average is 5’11” and about 115 pounds” (ParentingTeens). This would mean only two percent of all women living today could be classified as beautiful because “around ninety-eight percent of women are larger than the average super model” (ParentingTeens).

The second reason the tabloid’s portrayal of women is misleading is because the tabloids create a false sense and definition of what beauty is in modern society. The pages of magazines are full of skeletal-looking models who show off lose fitting clothing and the latest trends. Covers of tabloids and magazines alike criticize celebrities for being either too skinny or too fat. And everywhere a person looks, there is another advertisement on a weight loss supplement or fad diet that is sure to make a person thin and trim in just weeks. This stress put on young women is developing worries of weight in younger and younger girls as the years go on. “Eighty-one percent of ten-year old girls have a fear of becoming fat sometime in their life” (ParentingTeens). There is also a shocking statistic that “ninety-one percent of women college students have tried to lose weight by dieting while living on the college campus” (ParentingTeens). This constant publicity has created a false definition of beauty in a form of a tall thin model. The true definition of the word beauty is “a lovely person or thing” (Merriam-Webster). There was no definition anywhere that stated that beauty was meant to be thin or light weight, so beauty really is in the eye of the beholder.

The third reason I believe women of all shapes and sizes should be represented in the pages of magazines and tabloids is because it will eventually create a new found confidence in women of the modern age, and hopefully encourage a healthier life style in young girls. Women are so easily influenced when looking at a magazine full of stick-thin models. They see that as a sign that this is how the world wants them to look. But if magazines were to ditch the propaganda for diet supplements and exchange them with local gyms and work out facilities in cities, women would realize that being fit and healthy is just as beautiful as being thin. If young girls could look through a fashion magazine and see the glamour that every sized woman can have with the right outfit that would prove to them that you can look beautiful in your own skin. Beauty truly is in the eye of the beholder, and all women can represent beauty in different ways. Now all magazines need to do is market this idea that beauty is everywhere and not just on the runway.

The fourth and final reason why I think this change in media is possible is because we are the future leaders of this country and the world. As the upcoming leading generation in our society, we should not only demand change but also form the right to set the standard of beauty for ourselves. Media viewers do not need a magazine telling them how they need to look to be thought of as a beautiful person. No runway model or definition in a dictionary can tell the women of this world what true beauty is, because there is no definition. Human beings were created to be different and look unique from one another. So in theory, it is impossible to categorize all women to look the same. So by representing all the different forms of beauty in the pages of a magazine, no definition ever has to be made.

Some form of change needs to take place as soon as possible to stop this crime from occurring any longer in the society we live in today. Years ago, women embraced curves, and plumpness was a sign of wealth and status. I am not saying we need to make that radical of a change, but magazines do need to start including more well-rounded groups of women on to their pages. Women of all shapes, size, ages, and ethnicities should be in some way honored. If a magazine or tabloid wants to target the female population as its viewers, then those magazines should do the courtesy of representing there viewers in the pages rather than only unrealistic runway models.

Work Cited
“Beauty.” Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary. 2009. Merriam-Webster Online.
2 November 2009 .
"Eating Disorders Statistics." About.com:Teen. The New York Times Company. Web.
2 Nov. 2009. http://parentingteens.about.com/cs/eatingdisorders/a/eatingdisorder5.htm.

BY: Jordan Turner