Cultural and social experiences - Body image Essay

Cultural and social experiences - Body image - Essay Example The essay "Cultural and social experiences - Body image" discovers the concept of body image in the fashion. Examining the importance of body image and how it relates to society creates a specific association with society, culture and the associations which are made among individuals who are searching for different ideologies about how to approach their personal identity. The concept of fashion and body image in society links together through the use of mass media and the associations as a part of the cultural order. This begins with fashion and dress becoming a way in which one operates with their body and how one shows their level of health. The concept of fashion becomes associated with society specifically because of the fashion system that is surrounding fashion and dress. These are interrelated to the ideas of body image through the structure of fashion and the importance of the body in defining how the body should look. When associating with fashion, there is also a specific l ink to one being a part of the right social order while defining identity, personality and a sense of attractiveness within society. The belief of attractiveness comes from the definition of what beauty means, specifically which correlates with the ideas of fashion and how these link to society. The definition of beauty and links to social order come from fashion and further with the beliefs that are created from fashion and dress. The ideology of human beliefs and values comes from not only the ideologies. that an individual has within the family or experience. The environment of culture and social order also creates different standards about what one believes and the self – image which they carry. The association is one which is created from the psychological beliefs that are a part of society and the way in which this builds and develops with needs for a culture to hold specific standards. The individual then creates the same beliefs based on the influences from society, s pecifically which come from industries, media and other components within society. The result is an understanding of attitudes and values that are surrounded around a consumer society and which create an understanding that fashion builds a sense of identity, value and belief in one’s role within society (Porter, 2000:15). The Body in Society and Psychology The structure and beliefs within society and culture are furthered with the way in which the body image becomes linked to psychological beliefs about the body. The concept of fashion is one which has a specific link to body image and what it means to be beautiful. The image begins with adornments, fashion statements and dress that define the latest trends in society that one will look the best in. This is followed with models that are required to have a thinner figure or which have to be fit at a certain level. This creates a sense of what it means to have the right body image and figure while discounting other images that are within society. The result is the concept of idealizing the different factors that are stressed in society and from the fashion that is a part of the main image. As this occurs, there is a sense of internalization that occurs with women and men with what it means to look beautiful and in the best fashions (Thompson, 2001: 91). There are a variety of examples that lead to the internationalization of what it means to be thin and the pressures which come from the models in fashion that all have the same look. Figure 1 shows a series of models that depict the ideology of remaining thin while