Disclaimer: This is an example of a student written essay.
Click here for sample essays written by our professional writers.

Any opinions, findings, conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of UKEssays.com.

Factors that Affect Clothing Choice

Paper Type: Free Essay Subject: Media
Wordcount: 1080 words Published: 27th Jun 2017

Reference this

Fashion today is a continuously changing trend, favored for frivolous rather than practical, logical, or intellectual reasons. Nevertheless, it is necessary to say that at this very moment fashion has a deeper influence on the life of people and possess more than frivolous reasons for its existence. This essay investigated and looks at how identity influences our choice of clothing and how fashion has changed males and females perception of what we should look like and the media. To address this topic the essay will first look at identity and its link to our choice of clothing. Furthermore, the essay will then look at body image and its link to fashion and then discuss how it has changed how we perceive we should look like and thirdly the link between media influence and its impact on fashion. Finally the essay will provide both a negative and positive view of fashion on today teen.

Get Help With Your Essay

If you need assistance with writing your essay, our professional essay writing service is here to help!

Essay Writing Service

The clothes we wear say a lot about who we are as a person and as a result it becomes a reflection of his or her perception of them. In today’s society identity and how we perceive ourselves has a major influence on what we perceive to be beauty. Fashion has a major influence on teenage girls today and due to this interest teenage girls find a way to shape their identity. Today clothing has become an important part of self- realization of every person. Guy, Alison & Banim, Maura ( 2000) argue that’ women and teens today have a certain connection to their clothes and conducted research where they categorized them into three views of how women perceive themselves; “The woman I want to be”, “The woman I fear I could be” and ” The women I am most of the time” ‘. Many women and young teens express their identity through clothes they wear and social images. Social movements such as Hip-Hop and rap have influenced fashion trends and the priorities of people. Today young teens and woman’s identity based on what type of social movement group they identify with whether it be rock culture or Hip-Hop. We dress according to what group we classify ourselves in and that plays a huge part in the making of our identity and makes up our style in fashion. Wilson, E( 1987) states that women identify with what they wear as it creates a new look and new self and this allowed women to be more creative ( pg 317). Furthermore many women today have a certain level of relationship with their clothing which allows them to be more creative and adventurous. Fashion has evolved so much that its constantly pushing the boundaries and its putting yourself out there. This same theory is applied to woman and teens today that are constantly putting themselves out there and shaping identity according to what groups they identify with.

Body image plays a huge part today’s society. The medias direct influence on men and women that culture standards of body image are ideal. The use of phrases such as thin is in and prefect body are one of the many eye-catching headlines that are commonly seen in woman’s magazines. As a result this exposure the thin ideal has lead vast majority of young girls in triggering eating disorders, depression and lack of low self-esteem. Hence media has a significantly growing influence on how woman and girls perceive their bodies and personalities today. The use of provocative and inappropriate images of extremely underweight models in magazines, television and music videos the media give a distorted picture of an ideal woman’s appearance. Willett, Rebekah (2008) conducted a study on 12-13 year old girls as they explore decision they made about body image. She argues that girls today are unsatisfied with what they look like with what they want to look like that they compare themselves with the ‘ideal image’ (pg. 427). By promoting this ideal body the media has a large contribution to eating disorders among youth. As a result many teenagers lack self-esteem and confidence.

Furthermore, media has completely re-defined what we are meant to look like today, when curves were seen as the new ideal figure. Hence today when the new figure is ideal thin, you won’t ever see a fat, big person advertising a beauty product or a clothing range. Looking at magazines today all you see is an ideal image of a thin woman or model advertising a new collection of clothing. Why can’t the media use all sizes of people in advertisement? This is because the media and the fashion industry promote the so call ideal image as being the new self: what teens today perceive to be like. Fashion magazines today see thin models like the famous Kate Moss one of the world’s top super model that represents the ideal perfect body image which many teenagers are aspiring to be like. Consequently many of these teenagers fall into this trap and don’t understand that looking like their favourite model is unrealistic. This is not only unrealistic but also a issue in itself where many of these teens starve themselves which leads to eating disorders such as anorexia, bulimia which also leads to depression. This affects not only their mental state but also physically. Many teens don’t understand that the images they see in magazines of celebrities, models are retouched before they are printed out, the clothes they wear are duct taped to enhance fit, while many blemishes are covered or altered, that’s not all they remove two inches from their thighs and the average model weighs 23- 25 per cent less than any average woman. Therefore all this is done to create an ideal or perfect body image that every young teen aspires to look like. This impulse to be thin leads many girls to have a negative body image which leads to many health problems such as eating disorders in order to achieve their desire for thinness. As a result the media carries a responsibility for how women and girls perceive themselves as well as the person of an opposite sex and how an ideal woman should look like. But what many young teen and woman fail to see it that beneath all that thinness lies self doubt and low self esteem. Many teens fail to see that they way they are whether it be fat or curvaceous they are beautiful. But the influence of media has redefined beautiful as the skinny and ugly a being curvaceous. Therefore this negative use of media influence has caused many young teens to look up to the ideal image.

 

Cite This Work

To export a reference to this article please select a referencing stye below:

Reference Copied to Clipboard.
Reference Copied to Clipboard.
Reference Copied to Clipboard.
Reference Copied to Clipboard.
Reference Copied to Clipboard.
Reference Copied to Clipboard.
Reference Copied to Clipboard.

Related Services

View all

DMCA / Removal Request

If you are the original writer of this essay and no longer wish to have your work published on UKEssays.com then please: