While many often say that as a society, we as Americans are growing increasingly larger, our media demonstrates something entirely different. Men and women alike are shown images of pop stars, actresses, models, talk show hosts, and countless other celebrities which set the beauty standard for the general public. When we see a glowing Drew Barrymore with her “New Body” in love on the beach, a Fitness magazine telling us how to “Banish Cellulite” when the model likely didn’t have an issue with cellulite to begin with or an image of Heidi Klum captioned, “Too Fat To Model” we clearly see the standard for American beauty is becoming thinner and thinner. We see that thinness not only means beauty, but in many cases love, acceptance, power and success for women.

The pervasiveness of these images has caused several body image issues in girls and women including eating disorders, over exercising, low self-esteem, and a distorted viewing of themselves. The average woman, including celebrities, battle these body image issues on a daily basis, even harming themselves physically and emotionally because of the pressure to be the “beautiful” they see in advertisements, magazines, television and so on.

Do you think the media offers us an accurate portrayal of women’s bodies? Why do you think we strive for an impossibly perfect body? Why do we care so much about what other people think?

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(This series of articles is from Lauren Hays and the Between the Sheets women focused on what it means to be beautiful. You can find more analysis of media messages and the portrayal of women in the media on their blog.)

Find more of their media analysis in the beauty and faith sections.