Who's To Blame For The Desire To Have The "Barbie" Body
Online, March 14, 2014 (Newswire.com) - One of the most pressing social issues these days is the pressure many women feel to have the perfect body. It seems to be socially acceptable for men to be out of shape, but women are not allowed the same luxury. Many open forum discussion boards online focus on this hypocrisy, but while many are quick to assail this belief, few have the answer as to where it stems from. Social media, with its culture of real-time commentary that gives anonymous people the ability to immediately judge others, certainly plays a role, but the question remains: who puts the pressure on the women that suffer from body dysmorphia… the women that suffer from it or the society that surrounds them? This is the question that Melanie Berliet and Kayt Sukel plan to address on their upcoming "Tawk" on Wednesday March 26th.
"Many people quickly assume that the pressure to have the 'perfect body' is something that is internalized at a young age, thanks to the disproportion, body-wise, of the dolls many girls play with," Ms. Berliet recently said when announcing her upcoming interactive discussion with Ms. Sukel. "While this is certainly an issue that can lay the foundation for a young woman to suffer from body dysmorphia and seek to obtain the 'Barbie Body', we believe that a greater responsibility lies in the society as a whole. There is no aspect of the media, whether it is television, the movies, or even just advertising, that doesn't hold women to a higher standard, physically, than it does men."
As social media becomes more ubiquitous and people are being flooded with advertising on a constant basis, this is a concept that is getting constantly reinforced. The idea of the 'Barbie Body' has been in the media lately thanks to one young woman whose effort to personify that look through extreme dieting and massive plastic surgery has gone viral. This is just one aspect of this situation that Ms. Berliet and Ms. Sukel will cover when they host their online discussion on Wednesday March 26th at 1:00pm. Hosting this discussion, which is open to its members, is Tawkers.com, the leader when it comes to open forum interactive discussions with real-time commentary on the internet.
Jack Terry is a South Florida based writer who writes extensively about interactive discussions.
