The results of the combination of the knowledge gained from these scholarly sources all show a very similar pattern. High exposure to magazines, especially ones in which white women are models, results in college women expecting and wishing that their bodies could be thinner and more beautiful than they already are. From these results, it can also be gathered that because women want to be thinner, undergraduate women thus believe that men expect them to look a specific way. Men have an ideal image that they want women to comply to, making women more prone to insecurities and a lack of self-confidence. This research inevitably illustrates teh problems that women face in daily life because of the standard image described by advertising companies.
This research also conveys that white women are often presented in a more revealing and sexual ways, more so than any other race (Thomsen, 2002, p. 998). Presenting women, specifically white women, in a more provocative way, causes women to want to mimic what they see. Women thus try to wear more revealing clothing and act more scandalously to mimic the ideal image of sexually appealing and beautiful women that the media exemplifies to its audiences. In contrast with previous research, an outlier article demonstrates how those who are prettier and more attractive generally receive better outcomes in life due to overexposure to such media in today’s society (Bloch & Richins, 1992). This illustrates how the previous research, indicating that the image of beauty is acceptable only according to the media’s portrayal of beauty to its audiences, is false. This particular source proves that it is crucial for women to be pretty so that they can succeed in life.
These articles all included studies in which undergraduate women were surveyed. This is a great way to collect such data because it reflects personal feelings over a wide population. It also demonstrates immediate reactions. The surveys are helpful in this research because it allows for researches to gather accurate results: this research does not reveal the media’s reaction to beauty, but it depicts actual reactions to beauty of real people who are exposed to the media daily. These methods of research were used to draw such conclusions (as stated in the first paragraph) because the numerical results all showed that the majority of women surveyed had low self-esteems due to magazine exposure. When compiled, the scholarly sources all display the same conclusion: the negative impacts on women’s self-esteem due to magazine exposure.
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