Context Of Practice: OUGD401 - Study Task 3, Image Analysis first draft

The medias influence on the extreme ideals of how males think their bodies should look

The quote which I analysed in my first essay was a statement by Jansson-Boyd which explained that ‘Many studies have found that both women and men do not believe that their current body form is attractive... Research has repeatedly found that physically attractive individuals are perceived by most to be socially more desirable than those that are perceived as being unattractive, something that is likely to have been reinforced by consumer societies...’. I have considered a mixture of imagery which will help to further support the quote and the research which I explored in my first essay.

The first image (Figure 1) is one of the pictures used in an advertising campaign for the range of gym supplements that are branded by the company Mutant Mass, this particular picture is advertising the substance Creatine. I think that this image is a perfect example of the impact that the media can have on the consumer society that we live in today that is referenced to in the quote by Jansson-Boyd. This image shows an extremely muscular male lifting heavy weights giving the impression that any male who chose to take this supplement would eventually look like the person in the picture.

A study conducted by Mayo Clinic researchers on school athletes concluded that ‘over 8% of 328 high school athletes admitted to having used the substance creatine’. This is a large number of young people who feel that they need to use these supplements in order to get their bodies into the ‘perfect’ shape and I think that the media holds a lot of the responsibility as to why so many young males feel this way. Linking this back to Jansson-Boyds statement about these ideals also being ‘reinforced by consumer societies’, it is becoming evidently more normal to also take illegal drugs to gain the desired body. The most abused illegal drugs are steroids. A study conducted by Petersson et al in 2006 suggested that users of steroids are more likely to die of suicide or homicide than those that abuse drugs such as heroine. An individual who demonstrates the danger that young men nowadays are putting themselves into to achieve these ridiculous ideals is a man called Oli Cooney who was discussed in the ‘Dying for a Six Pack’ documentary. Oli got so obsessed with body building and therefore misused steroids in order to succeed. However this resulted in him having ‘a heart attack and three strokes and he was killed by a second heart attack at the age of 20 in September 2013.’ I feel that individuals such as Oli help to demonstrate the absolute danger that the influence of the media can have on young males and the danger of a consumerist society as referenced in the quote.

The second image (Figure 2) I chose to analyse is the before and after pictures of a man who has artificially had a six pack put in place. This links back to the point I discussed in my first essay demonstrating the extreme lengths to which males are now going to with the intention of gaining the ‘perfect body’. Once again, linking to the idea of a consumer society, males such as the person in this picture are now having a procedure done that sucks all the fat from around their abs allowing them to have a visible six pack. The particular individual in this picture is a ‘Father of two, from Leeds and spent £3,500 on an operation for a permanent surgical six pack in Turkey.’ The reason that he gave for being so obsessed with achieving his desire to have the perfect body is due to ‘all the wrestlers in the public eye’ having six packs so he explained that he therefore pictured ‘the ideal man as having a six pack.’ This case study and others such as the one about Rodrigo Alves referenced in my first essay support the link to a consumerist society and the impact of the media as it demonstrates the extortionate amounts of money that males are willing to spend to gain one of the most important social desires which the media projects and therefore the general public in the present day.

The final image (Figure 3) is the proof of the photo manipulation which takes place before famous sportsmen are printed onto the front cover of magazines such as Men’s Fitness. This particular picture is of Andy Roddick who is an American former professional tennis player. Images such as the one printed on the magazine quite clearly have a huge impact on the lives of young males all around the world, but the comparison to the real imagery taken from a screenshot of the same sports star on the tennis court, shows that the body ideals that these males are striving for are fake ideals that are projected by the media to help sell products such as Mutant Mass.

This image supports the discussed topic of ‘consumer societies’ and can also explain why individuals such as Kyle Johnson, referenced in my first essay, will never be truly happy with the body which they possess driving them to continue to push themselves and their bodies to dangerous places. More young men which Yates interviewed in the documentary, referenced throughout my essays, explained that ‘they were driven to achieve a perfect body thanks to the images of ripped six packs they have seen in men's health magazines, on footballers like Cristiano Ronaldo and on reality TV stars.’

In conclusion, after conducting all my research, I agree with the statement by Jansson-Boyd. This is because it has become increasingly clear to me that many males nowadays do in fact perceive their body form as unattractive. I feel that this is due to the huge amount of advertising within the media that projects an unrealistic ideal of how the human body should look, and it is supported by the supplement campaigns and the growing industry of gaining this desired body through artificial means. I think the research I have collated supports the conclusions which I have come to showing how the desire in males for the ‘perfect body’ is concerning and dangerous.