How body image of men and women can influence sexual experiences? Body image is known as mental image, or the subjective picture of person’s body. Peer and parental influences, weight, sexual activity can be factors that have an impact on one’s body image. A positive feeling about the body is essential for sexual body esteem and is linked with a pleasurable sex life, while weak body image might cause cognitive distractions. Negative body image is not an uncommon problem for many girls and women. Indeed, woman is concerned about how her body may appear to her sexual partner.
Women with low body image get worried and try to avoid social situations because of the fear that others might see their flaws and reject them. Also, many individuals probably experience anxiety and sadness. The three discipline I choose to discuss in this essay are sociology, physiology, and gender and women studies. In my opinion, body image can have big impacts on the sexual health of women, as well as on their overall mental health and view of healthy relationships. First discipline I choose from social sciences discipline category is sociology. Poor body image could result in avoidance of social situations, and could interfere with develop of healthy social and romantic relationships as well. The high pressure on individuals to conform to a certain body type is actually more intense than ever because of the huge rise in modern technology. Women, who have different ages, have high pressure because of the media to be a certain size.
The media is a platform that does reinforce cultural beliefs and shows strong views on how we should look, that we as individuals usually unknowingly validate. It is kind of frustrated when girls look at strong image of others and then look to find those same idealized characteristics in themselves and do not find them. In fact, the bigger our dissatisfaction with how we do measure up when compared to the societal or media supported norms, the more negative our body image, and the higher the risk for extreme weight as well.
In order to build a strong body image, involves understanding that healthy attractive bodies come in different sizes and shapes. This shows that the physical appearance can actually show a very little about person’s character and the value. Development of body image is based on our friends because we place high value on them since they are so important to us. Spending a lot of time with friends to develop shared experiences and beliefs. The first discipline is very different than physiology, and gender and women studies.
According to physiology, mental image of a person can strongly influence their behavior because of mental representation they created. While in gender and women studies, body image issues could cause depression to women. The second discipline from applied sciences discipline category is physiology.
People are more likely to think about aspects of physical appearance and attractiveness whenever they think about their body image. and people who have a low sense of body image could be affected in many different ways. For example, performance in academics or career, relationship satisfaction could be affected. In serious cases, people may suffer from dysmorphic disorder where she or he imagines a physical defect. Often the person zeroes in on a specific area in body like the legs, nose, and breasts.
Furthermore, people who suffer from that dangerous disorder obsess over the flaw to a point of dysfunction which is related to sadness and anxiety. Body image is actually the mental representation people create but it may not bear any relation to how others actually see each other. I think that body image is subject to all kinds of distortion from early experiences we have like attitudes of our parents internal elements like our moods and emotions. Moreover, girls who do suffer from body image issues tend to have a high chance of having eating disorder later on because of their mental image result from negative body image. Indeed, that mental image is a driving force in eating disorders, not to mention mood conditions like anxiety. Body image is actually defined as the subjective concept of physical appearance. It can be either negative or positive.
The relationship of body image and exercise is shown in the fact that related issues such as body displeasure has consistently high as motivators to do exercises. Bad body image includes social physique anxiety which is the experience of worrying in the presence of real or imagined negative physical evaluation. Individuals, with high levels of social physique anxiety including those who perceive themselves as overweight, are less likely to place themselves in situations where their bodies may not be evaluated positively. That discipline from applied sciences, Physiology, is different from other disciplines since it has more negative side effects which can be a little bit harder to be handled. Negative body image can cause health issues to women. The third discipline that I will be discussing is Gender and Women Studies. Cultural forces can influence body-image development in gender conditioned ways. Women in our society actually possess a little bit more dysfunctional body image attitudes than men do which is normal.
Few studies have shown that women’s body image experiences does relate to their own gender attitudes. Indeed, men and women do not think, feel, and behave the same regarding to their bodies. Gender informs body image through the different fictions about men’s and women’s bodies related to the media. Moreover, That discipline, gender and women’s studies, is different than the other perspectives since today’s advertisements always encourage women and men to be aware and self-conscious about their physical appearances in order to not have problems during relationships. Women are actually taught that they are more beautiful when they are thinner.
In fact, women are willing to do whatever it takes to reach societies idea of what is attractive. Women have become more exposed in the media and this has changed women’s body image dramatically to where they now focus on the structure and body type of the models more than the clothing that is being modeled. That is a growing issue and one that does not look like it will be resolved anytime soon, so people should try their best to overcome the issues of body image. How does culture impact body image? A lot of different cultures don’t have the same standards and norms for appropriate body size and shape which can probably effect how children perceive their body image. Cultural rules can shape body image in variety of ways. Body image can be affected by different factors. There are many factors that contribute to body image such as the media, peer influence, and family socialization. Also, another aspect contribute to body image is the actual environment where people are immersed in.
These factors are considered culturally. Culture has a big impact on the types of media that are created and actually the types of media to which people are exposed as well. Culture can significantly influence the kind of people one bonds with and how parents raise their kids. The culture in which people are surrounded by has a huge impact on how they actually feel about themselves and the manner in which they think about the look of their bodies. Cultural contribute to body image does influence positive/negative body image and also self-esteem. For example, Western culture tends to hyper-focus on dieting and body appearance. Although culture overlaps with ethnicity, culture and ethnicity intersect.
In addition, Ideal body shapes are actually related with positive values in women. Thin girls are correlated with beauty and good health, while being fat could be associated negatively with a bad healthy lifestyles and weakness. Also, the relationship between media and the development of body displeasure from the assumption that the ideal of beauty can strongly impact on women’s. This will negatively affect women’s health during relationships. Body image can affect sexual functioning. Body image is about how men and women feel about their own body. If women do not have a strong body image, they do not like how their bodies look. So, it is essential to have a positive body image in order to have a good mental health when you view yourself in a positive way.
Indeed, a part of having positive body image isn’t comparing yourself to other people around you. While negative body image can cause low self-esteem which can cause a self harm. Furthermore, body image and media are closely related to each other. I learned that the body image advertising can easily affect our own body image in particular. Other things that impact body image are parenting, education, intimate relationships but media has the strongest impact among them. That is because of many advertisements that have messages linked with physical attractiveness and beauty, and this have effects on women’s body image. As matter of fact, people who do not have a strong body image are going to try to change their bodies in different ways such as dieting or by undergoing cosmetic surgery.
An advice for women who have low body image is to find good ways to improve their mental health even when they have too much stress. Women should love their own bodies, and try to feel comfortable in them no matter what other people say. Women should realize that no one can love anything on them until they love it themselves. Women’s mental health can be affected by their body image. The media shows strong view to women on how they should look. This can impact on women’s sexual health. Women who have positive body image are going to have more sexual desire with a partner.
Great body image is linked with a better overall sexual functioning, while people with low body image are anxious and hopelessness. There are many factors that can significantly affect women’s body image. For instance, people’s culture does influence their beliefs about body image. It’s very helpful for girls and women to realize how culture influences their feelings and also the way they always think about the image of their bodies.
