Etch a Sketch: Body image is not a game to teen girls

Third Place

Editorial Column

Division 1

Etch a Sketch: Body image is not a game to teen girls

Amanda Kennedy

Grade 11

Intelligencer Journal

Penn Manor HS

Adviser: Claudia Esbenshade

The Etch A Sketch is the quintessential American toy. Its design entails a shiny red box with a screen in the middle. When the two knobs are turned in specific directions, the lines form to make pictures; when the Etch A Sketch is shaken, the drawn lines begin to fade until they reach non-existence.

The effect of the magazine industry is quite similar to the Etch A Sketch’s premise, especially when it targets the audiences of teenagers and women. These publications lure girls, who already have insecurities about themselves because of a submersion into the intricacies of adolescence, into believing they are not superior as they are. Pages practically drip with beauty products and call for readers to rush to drugstores to purchase them. The May 2006 cover of Cosmo Girl! Magazine shouts “4 Fun Moves to a Hotter Body;” and “885 Ways to Look Hot!” is screamed from the cover of Seventeen magazine’s September 2006 issue. The contents of teen magazines urge readers to add so much superfluous shimmer to their bodies that their genuine selves are actually diminished to nothing.

The overpowering scents of perfumes waft from inserts in such magazines also. An article in the November issue of Seventeen magazine attempted to correlate perfume products with astrology signs and empowering characteristics. For example, if a girl is a Sagittarius, she is “positive” and must consider spraying herself with the fragrance of DKNY Delicious Night. This statement carries a false sense of self for readers; they believe that coating their bodies with perfume ensure a better persona. Furthermore, article author Rachael Nichol made characteristics assumptions assigned to each astrological sign based on the scent of the perfume, which is completely ludicrous.

In addition, the advertisements found in teen and women’s magazines further exacerbate a reader’s image of her body. Stunning, slim models with shiny hair stare with narrow eyes at readers as paradigms of so-called “perfection.” A typical model presented in these ads wears size 2 clothing and has legs the width of bean poles, which are definitely not the idealistic measurements of a typical American girl. The physical characteristics of a model are stretched so far to the radical extreme that American teenagers can no longer identify with the body attributes they see in glossy magazines. If a model represents the dress that she flaunts in a advertisement for the department store Macy’s the teen “Average Jane” feels inferior to the point of disgust compared to the pretty model when the same dress conforms to the ample curves of Jane’s body.

Furthermore, the advertisements and photographs found in culprit magazines intensify the beauty predicament by painting false images. Just as an Etch A Sketch artist shakes the toy to render fading in their picture, photograph specialist are able to alter an image in which the subject of the photo shoot appears exaggerated. A recent controversy involving country music singer Faith Hill’s photograph on the July issue of Redbook magazine cover exemplifies the danger of injecting touchups to a person’s image. When comparing the original and touched-up photographs, a stark difference is noticeable: Hill’s face is gaunter; certain facial wrinkles and a pouch of skin that folded over her sundress were eradicated. A blog on www.jezeel.com called attention to this grave method of modification, and stated concerning the original photograph, “Look at the picture above and tell us that faith Hill is not (expletive) gorgeous and vibrant just the way God- and not Photoshop- made her.” Jezebel continued by pointing out other altered covers produced by other magazines.

The actions produced by Redbook and other magazines epitomize the failure of their intentions. If magazines and ad agencies must doctor photographs to their likeness, then the core values of beauty and sense of self are doomed. These companies have created a realm of beauty that is unattainable, by anyone, by merely erasing the elements of a female that do not add aesthetic appeal to her photograph.

An exaggerated perception of beauty can lead to devastating effects on teenage girls. According to a study published in an article on the Discovery Health Web site, “nearly two-thirds of 548 girls surveyed, ranging from fifth to 12^th grade, said that they thought that they needed to lose weight. However, only 29 percent were considered medically overweight.” The central cause of this body image problem, according to the author of the study, is the portrayal of women as waif-like figures in television shows and magazines.

Therefore, the media must recognize the strain that has been inflicted on the self-confidence of young women concerning their bodies. Instead of painting a glorified image of the female persona that the average teenager is unable to identify with, the media must capitalize on the natural beauty of American girls.

Girls of all shapes and sizes should decorate the pages of magazines instead of the models with abnormal body structures. The Etch A Sketch mantra created by the media must not bring these girls down.