THU PHUONG DANG - TRACY
ENGL401: RESEARCH ESSAY DRAFT
11/07/2017
Why social media has huge impact on body shaming issue?
Last month, I just heard a shock news about committing suicide from a young Vietnamese influencer
who had many fans as well as haters after a long period of time living with depression and judgment from
society about her overweight look. She was just 26 at the time she ended her life, and I know that it had not
been the only example of young people being affected by the comments from media. When I was still in
Vietnam, I had known a girl same age with me and she also had an unattractive appearance because of her oversized body. She was always received numerous negative comments from people around her about her body,
though she was a funny and humorous girl and she usually tried to pretend these comments as jokes, when she
was alone at home, she forced herself to eat less and even used drugs to lose her weight. Unfortunately, her
body could not be stand with these unhealthy activities and the girl gradually destroyed her sensitive digestive
system enough to be fainted once and had to be brought to hospital. Although she is recovering well now, her
health has been damaged heavily that she could get illness easier than she used to be. These examples are all
from victims of the issue “body shaming” like those girls who are living under the pressure of beauty standard
of media under several different occasions and methods, and I believe these cases do not exist only in Vietnam
but also in America or anywhere around the world. In this research essay, I am going to present the detail
impacts of media which I consider as the biggest consequence of the discussed issue and I expect to make
changes in community’s awareness of this problem by showing the statistics I have collected.
In the early of twentieth century, the utterance of social networks like Facebook and Instagram have
created more worrisome to people about their images when they upload photos or videos on Internet. According
to U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 80 percent of women say images of other women in the
media make them feel insecure (Body Image Statistics, 2017). Woman, who are the main victims of this issue,
have been in their nerve of comparison with others and they usually take care of their outlook as the increase of
using social networks time by time. As a result, there has been 70 percent of women reported to have the largest
impact from media on how they feel about their bodies (Anna, How 1,000 Women Feel). These statistics are all
connected together and all say one thing that the concern of women about their bodies-related problems is huge
and accounted for a large percentage in current life, which has been more common these days and applies for
most of the girls I have met and even myself, literally. Especially, when in comparisons with men, women
tends to have higher percentages in several surveyed areas than men do, such as women have the belief that
they are too much fat when they are actually perfectly healthy, despite of the fact that men are twice much
overweight than women. Another example is women are likely to do more weight-loss training than men (more
than double) but they still have less satisfaction of their appearance than men do, it is only 63 percent of female
compared to 74 percent of the other gender (Infographic, 2015). In spite of the fact that both men and women
have been impacted in this body shaming issue, women have responded to receive much more influences than
men, even since the teenage age that they are the victims of body shaming, an alarming number of 94 percent of
teenage girls experienced the issue according to the survey results of Yahoo in 2016 (Korin, The Shocking
Results).
Talking of media, it is mainly related to social networks and the booming of accessing Facebook,
Instagram or Twitter has brought about the health-conscious awareness of people while using these networks.
Until now, Facebook has more than 2 billion users throughout the world and has been the greatest social
network in the world with this huge active users monthly (Facebook, 2017). Due to that large access, any
photos or personal images can be widespread very easy and fast and of course, the whole community is able to
join to criticize a person at anytime and anywhere without borders. Just one able to approach the owner’s
photos or videos and share on a public page or group where millions people attend, the network will do the next
things to transfer personal images to the whole online users even when the owner removes theirs on his
personal Facebook wall. The danger of Facebook comes from that and this is also the beginning of body
shaming approach widely on the Internet as Facebook has a lot of outside connections to other Internet websites
and social networks which also have huge number of users. It is estimated that each Internet user has an
average of 5.54 social media accounts (Kit, 96 Amazing), it means that the more convenient the sharing is and
the faster the online access is, the threat of being assaulted, as a consequence, is higher and higher. It is not to
mention the threat of being stolen personal images and being spread the personal things, the Internet wireless is
definitely able to do so. One of the ways to do that is using the fake accounts that bad people disguise anyone
that they even do not know to upload photos and videos of that one anonymously. There are an estimated 81
million fake Facebook profiles that have not been removed currently and this number is likely to increase more
(CNNMoney, Facebook Tops 1.9 Billion). Sadly, last year, there was a victim of a girl being assaulted by
someone else using fake accounts but uploaded her own personal photos that led to her committing
suicide(Carma, Bullied Teen Kills Herself). Vela, the name of that girl, chose to end her life right in front of her
family after being bullied for her weight during a long time by that stranger who always created fake accounts
and used them to destroyed the little girl’s life. Even when family of Vela reported to police, they could not still
do anything as that stranger used an app to prevent police from recognizing him or her. This is absolutely a
terrible consequence of the easiness to create an account on Facebook without the certain control, so that bad
people are keep going with destroying other’s life like this example. And the pain will not be on the victims
only but also their families, friends or anyone else caring about this issue and wanting some strict rules or
controls from the network management. Moreover, another side of Facebook contributes to the increase of
concerning appearance is the comparison with others as I mentioned above, in the survey that author Emily
Cramer of “Computer Behavior” while she is talking about the social comparison on Facebook, she points out
the number of respondents that “69 percent agreed they engage in comparisons on Facebook” (Emily, Social
Comparison).
Another contribution of media comes from variety means of media such as TV shows, movies and
advertisements, where the images of skinny bodies appear usually and gradually transform the standard of
beauty that being thin, weightless and muscular (with men) is the motivation for everybody to reach to. It starts
with the creation of overweight characters on movies are the ones who always under the circumstances of not
being able to earn good values like thin characters have, or the overweight ones have to perform as comedian
characters by making fun from their outside look. Melissa McCarthy, an overweight female actress who is
associated with comedy movies, usually makes fun and jokes with her size and weight in her movies. For
example, in the movie “Spy” of Melissa, she is chosen to be an underground spy with the disguise, however,
while her colleagues who are thinner could have the beautiful look, Melissa’s character has to be an old
unappealing lady or a “grandma” disguise. Therefore, I regard it as an unfair treat with the overweight
characters in Hollywood movies and these things occur several times on the movies of Hollywood a
popularity,so that it is a problem the audiences easily accept these scenes as a norm or it can be said that
overweight people are considered as “old”, “ugly”, “untidy” and “fat” like the way most people describe the
characters on their movies they have seen. As the comment from Carolyn Abate, a health issue expert of
Healthline Media, said : “Overweight characters are jokes on TV”. (Crystal Karges, Eating Disorder Hope),
body shaming has been a normal matter on TVs and movies. Besides, the images of models used on
advertisements and magazines are perfect skinny women and muscular men who are even photoshopped to look
attractive and appealing to customers with their products but gain the unconfidence of customers and make
them “lose themselves to an internal battle of self-consciousness” even though they are told to be confident and
think positively, the purpose of using these images from advertisers is opposite to what they say with their
customers. (Haley, It Is Not Okay). Several studies shown in the book “Social Psychology” by Saul M. Kassin
point out the impact of media images to female college students that feel less confident and independent in
themselves after watching fashion commercials, or other cases with individuals who have already had
appearance concerns as well as men’s body images make boys and young men take drugs and steroids as a
solution to look more like their role models. With men, there is an issue called “metrosexual” that is defined as
“the prime example of the image-conscious man for whom leanness and youthfulness have become important
standard of male beauty” (Justin Healey, Positive Body Image). The negative consequences has also been
named as “almost two thirds of young adult men from the United States and Australia have removed their body
hair”. Hence, body shaming from the perfect images on commercials has serious impact on men as much as on
women. Talking of girls, the main effect is eating disorders in order to follow the standard beauty that media
has created inside their minds to be thinner as much as possible, by skipping meals, not eating enough food
each day or avoiding certain kinds of food that leads to the lack of nutritions, the same way the girl I knew in
Vietnam did, just to change the body shape and weight. Unfortunately, the consequences of eating disorders are
ranging from high blood pressure and high blood cholesterol levels to heart disease and even certain types of
cancer. ( U.S. DPHS). More than that, both girls and boys can become more sensitive with the word “fat”, even
between this word and “overweight”, maybe they have the same meaning but the former word is still more
terrible with people heard so. Paula and Victoria in their research has done some studies to prove that “fat” is
regarded such a slang term with people and they feel being insulted with the word (Paula and Victoria, What’s
In a Name). Nevertheless, manufacturers also have their own reasons to do that as beauty is persuasive to gain
more sales for companies and regarding the competition of economics, firms have to find the best way to
maximize their profits by selling as much as possible, and to do that successfully, they have to use the
appealing images of slender supermodels and muscular men models to promote their products (Saul, Social
Psychology).
Beside the majority of overweight body shaming, there is a new type that has just been come up with as
an impact of the society change in perspective of overweight body shaming. It is skinny shaming, when our
community has been reacted for unawareness of overweight body shaming, producers - as a solution for not
being judged due to the usage of skinny models images on their products - moved to using curve models on
their catwalk (with fashion industry) and their advertisements. Thus, a number of skinny models become
“unemployed” and they are no longer be involved in the media industry as they used to be. As a model being
influenced from this, Jaime King in the interview with New York Post told her perspective about this and she
regarded the new trend as skinny shaming with people like her (Alev, Jaime King wants people). She reviews
her own problems with gaining weight that it is not her fault but she also has to receive the assaulted comments
from people on Internet and it is also a kind of body shaming, not too much different from the old kind one.
And because it is not her fault to be unable to gain weight, it is unfair for models like her to be excluded from
catwalk and advertising videos to be replaced by her overweight colleagues. About the issue of gaining weight
of thin people, there is another opinion from a student of University of North Texas sharing on her articles that
“gaining weight puts me at risk for health complications just like being overweight does” (Orooj, Yes, Skinny
Shaming Does Exist). Moreover, using curve model does not work as representative for average women
(Soraiya, Here’s Why Fat Size), as the author concerns that models performed on the catwalk on the shows are
exceed the average size of women, so at somehow, the meaning of supporting women to feel more confident of
their bodies is not conveyed fully and completely. In contrast, it is considered as a supporting for women to eat
more and become fatter is fine without any problems. However, in actual fact, if people are suggested by that
way to do whatever they want with their bodies instead of encouraging them to aim to have an average healthy
body, there is a health issue that can be associated with, obesity. In comparison with the past, 9 million teens in
America below 15 years old are obese and it is three times more than in 1980 (Obesity, Ygoy Health
Community). It is inevitable that although people do not want to be body shamed, they also want to aim to
healthy body that can make the beautiful appearance and it is the thing media should do, not to guarantee
people to be free with taking care of their bodies and to say that it is the confidence to love whatever size and
look people have. One more problem of overweight people that should be taken into account is the social
opportunities they can have such as finding a job are lower than those of their colleagues; many employers
argue that overweight people “wouldn't be able to do the job required” or “they are lazy”. (Clare, Obesity
Discrimination). Therefore, although society should be more opened with overweight people, there are still
some certain factors that could not be changed for these people only because of external reasons like the
essence of business environment as the above example shows.
I totally believe that the body shaming issue has increased much in current life these days due to the
expanding of social media and it does bring about the negative consequences to we individuals. However, our
community should make changes in creating beauty standard of a healthy body with the variable size for people
but not the body either too skinny or too overweight. I suppose the solution is that social media, starting from
social networks, should have campaigns and advertisements with the performing of healthy-body models or
celebrities and utilizing the functions of social media in promoting these new images of twenty-first century, as
well as the projects to prevent body shaming like the one created by Dove brand which is “Self-esteem project”
that they motivate to educate children from enjoying their beauty, or online hashtag #bodyshaming on Twitter
for victims to share their stories and find sympathy from others, so that we can prevent any bad situations
happen more.
Works cited:
1. Abate, Carolyn. “Body Shaming in an Age of Social Media.” Healthline, Healthline Media, 17 Nov. 2016
2. Aktar, Alev. “Jaime King wants people to stop ‘body-Shaming’ skinny models.” New York Post, New York
Post, 9 Sept. 2017.
3. Allerton, Clare. “Obesity Discrimination: Study Reveals Prejudice among Employers.”Personnel Today, 9
Apr. 2015
4. Binge Eating Disorder. [Electronic Resource]. [Bethesda, MD] : U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services,
National Institutes of Health, National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, [2008],
2008. NIH publication: no. 04-3589. EBSCOhost
5. “Body Image Statistics.” Statistic Brain, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, PBS, National
Association of Anorexia Nervosa and Associated Disorders, 19 Feb. 2017
6. Brochu, Paula M., and Victoria M. Esses. “What's in a Name? The Effects of the Labels ‘Fat’ Versus
‘Overweight’ on Weight Bias.” Journal of Applied Social Psychologyy, Richard J. Crisp, editor, vol. 41,
issue 8, Bellwether Pub. Ltd., 2011, pp. 1835–2075
7. Cramer, Emily M., et al. "Social Comparison on Facebook: Motivation, Affective Consequences, SelfEsteem, and Facebook Fatigue." Computers in Human Behavior, vol. 64, Nov. 2016, pp. 739-746.
EBSCOhost.
8. Dick, Haley. “It Is Not Okay To Body Shame.” The Odyssey Online, 30 Aug. 2017
9. “Facebook Tops 1.9 Billion Monthly Users.” CNNMoney, Cable News Network. 3 May 2017
10. Feig, Paul, director, Melissa McCarthy, actor, et al. Spy. 20th Century Fox, 2015.
11. Fuda, Soraiya. “Sports Illustrated: Here’s Why Fat Size 20-Somethings Don’t Belong on the Runway.” The
Daily Telegraph, The Daily Telegraph, 1 Aug. 2017
12. Hassan, Carma. “Bullied Teen Kills Herself in Front of Family.” CNN, Cable News Network, 1 Dec. 2016
13. Healey, Justin. Positive Body Image. [Electronic Resource]. Thirroul, New South Wales : The Spinney
Press, 2014., 2014. Issues in Society: Volume 372. EBSCOhost
14. Kassin, Saul M., et al. “Attitudes.” Social Psychology, 10th ed., Cengage Learning, 2017, pp. 210-260
15. Kassin, Saul M., et al. “Stereotypes, Prejudice, and Discrimination.” Social Psychology, 10th ed., Cengage
Learning, 2017, pp. 155–207.
16. Malby, Anna, editor. “How 1,000 Women Feel & Talk about Other People’s Bodies & Their Own”. Women
Survey on Their Body Image, Body Type Positivity. Survey: How Women Really Talk about Bodies. 23
May 2017. Web. refinery29.com.
17. Miller, Korin. “The Shocking Results of Yahoo Health's Body-Positivity Survey.” Yahoo!, Yahoo!, 4 Jan.
2016
18. “Obesity.” Obesity Site Wide Activity RSS, YGOY Health Community
19. Smith, Kit. “96 Amazing Social Media Statistics and Facts.” Brandwatch, 5 June 2017
20. “Stats.” Facebook Newsroom, 30 June 2017
21. Syed, Orooj. “Yes, Skinny Shaming Does Exist.” Her Campus at University of North Texas, 9 Apr. 2017
Junyao Zhang (Estelle)
Professor Joseph Gilbert
ENGL 401A.03
November 6, 2017
How to control the gun in the United States?
When asked whether or not we would own a gun, it is helpful to remind ourselves that
not only does it mean to use for self-defense, but also to hurt or kill human beings, even some
innocent persons. Vladimir Lenin said: “One man with a gun can control 100 without one.” It
is obvious true that guns are deadly weapon so that without control, if someone holds gun to
intend to hurt others, the consequences will be unimaginable. Hence, gun control is necessary
and imminent. From related researches, the statistics demonstrate that approximately one
million Americans have died from gunshot wounds in homicides, accidents, and suicides
during just three decades—more than the sum total of combat deaths in all the wars in US
history (Cook and Goss 34). The question of the severity of owning guns is an issue that has
gathered attention due to the increasing number of shootings in the last several years. Thus,
according to the facts, we should have measures to control guns.
In statistics, “There were 372 mass shootings in the US in 2015, killing 475 people and
wounding 1,870, according to the Mass Shooting Tracker, which catalogues such incidents”
(bbc.com). Actually, the gun violence frequently exists behind the peace of society.
Nevertheless, not all people support controlling guns. The numbers of people who object
controlling guns are also taking a great proportion, and these sides mainly include shooting
lover, gun collector, and people with inadequate self-preservation. To individuals who
demand guns as a way of self-protection, guns make their life safer. In general, a stronger
man could protect himself better compared with a weak baby or an elder. In a similar
position, owning a gun substantially improves a person’s self-protecting strength. However,
let us suppose that every one, all ages, all nations, with any background, is allowed to have a
gun, how long does the peace last? It is no doubt that human will involve in a messy situation
with uncountable murder one by one. To be honest, gun should be banned, because it puts
people in danger to a greater extent.
First of all, the decrease of supplement of bullets is also effective to protect human.
According to the microeconomics theory, as the supplement of goods decreases, the demand
of their supplements will decrease as well. “Bowling for Columbia” has an extract used to
talk about bullets. Aimed at massacre in Columbine High School on April 20, 1999, when
two murderers Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold who were the students in the Columbine High
School killed 13 people and caused more than 20 others injured, the movie talks about the
damage of the gun violence. “We need some bullet control…$5,000 for a bullet…there’d be
no more innocent bystanders. Every time somebody shot, people be like, ‘Damn, he must
have did something. Shit, they put $50,000 worth of bullets in his ass!’ And people would
think before they killed somebody if a bullet costs $5,000. ‘Man, I would blow your fucking
head off, if I could afford it. I’m gonna get me another job. I’m gonna start saving some
money… and you’re a dead man! You better hope I can’t get no bullets on layaway.’ ”
(Moore, 00:06:50 – 00:07:45). The joke is humorous, but it is correct that increasing the price
of bullets to extremely high will lower gun violence. To be more specifically, the limit of
selling bullets could solve the problem.
Second, a stricter background check law is useful to protect people. In general, people
who are shooting lovers or have history of murdering are more possible to use guns as they
decide to make violence, so law specifically designed has to be formulated. Actually, Dr.
Henry Bello passed the background-check of Federal government with the limit of buying
guns only for “felons, illegal immigrants, active drug users, people with dishonorable
discharges from the military, people with orders of protection in family disputes and people
convicted of misdemeanor domestic violence…Dr. Bello had a criminal record, but he had
been convicted of a misdemeanor, which would not have kept him from buying the gun”
(Santora). Indeed, these potential criminals could make use of the loose background check
law, but government won’t perceive that an evil seed is buried until murder happen.
Although gun used to push human in danger, actually, its industry has become an
important part of American business, that create a huge profit annually. In statistics, “Annual
revenue of gun and ammunition manufacturing industry is $13.5 billion, with a $1.5 billion
profit … the whole industry estimated overall $42.9 billion economic impact in the U.S”
(Porken). It is clear that a group of people who benefited from gun industry, such as gun store
owners, gun factories bosses and workers. Besides, the funding of the United States is also
improved. However, the lose caused by using guns cannot be ignored. “The cost of fatal and
non-fatal gun violence to the U.S. in 2012, $229 billion represent 1.4% of total gross
domestic product” (Porken). Compared to the quantity of loss, the contribution of gun
industry is tiny. As the government notices the total lose taken, gun industry should be
stopped.
Not all of researching materials support that free gun policy brings danger to people. On
the contrary a part of researchers persist in their view that as more people own gun legally,
the rate of crime decreases for some years. As a report say, the violence rate decreases as
Right-to-carry laws were rose in the U.S in 1990s. According to the NRA, “Through 2010,
the nation’s murder rate has decreased 52 percent to a 47-year low, and the total violent crime
rate has decreased 48 percent to a 37-year low (Ridder)". It might be true that as more people
equip a gun with themselves, and they could prevent crime.
However, as we analyze this data seriously, the question appears. Whether higher
population of owing guns privately represents safer society? According to the data mentioned
in report, the rate of crime came to the lowest point in 2010, but other elements might became
the reason of crime rate decreasing. For example, demographics might affect crime rate at
that year, which mean the number of people in the age of highest crime rate becomes the
lowest point in that year. According to research, “The median age in the US has reached its
highest point ever at 36.7 years, according to a 2010 estimate by the Central Intelligence
Agency's World Factbook. This is up from 35.3 years in 2000 and 32.9 years in 1990,
according to census figures” (Haq).
Therefore, crime rate decrease is not related to make owning gun legal. In addition,
nobody could promise that free gun policies won’t result in more death. Suicide always
became a serious element reminding of the fact that gun makes human more dangerous.
Clearly, suicide could not be included in crime. In this position, as the number of private gun
increases, it is unavoidable that more people have motives to suicide will finish their life
easily. As a result, gun still makes human have more dangers.
In the modern society which emphasizes human highly, the safety is always put at the
highest position. To the situation that guns updated to advanced, the original purpose should
be making human safer. Nevertheless, because of incomplete background-check laws, and a
large quantity of selling of guns and bullets, and mental impact, the situation become terrible.
Therefore, government has to take measures to solve problems, for example make a stricter
background check law, limit bullets supplement, and build mental care system. Above all,
guns truly don’t make human safer compared to no guns. In order to create a peace, human
should take actions.
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