The Standards of Beauty
According to the exploratory analysis made by Turner, Hamilton, Jacobs, Angood, and Dwyer, the emergence of the slim body type as a beauty standard for women in fashion magazines have resulted into a phenomenon that could be detrimental to many American women's emotional and physical health. These findings are similar to Cindy Maynard's conclusion about body image in fashion magazines as she also claims that teenage girls today are taught to achieve an impossible goal of beauty and perfection. She affirms that the images that we see in fashion magazines today do not promote self-esteem and positive self-images.
These two different articles both declare the negative impacts of beauty magazines in the western society. However, the explanatory analysis contains more facts and primary research regarding body image today. Reports made by Garner and colleagues and of Silverstein and colleagues in the first article prove that years of research had been done to study body image in fashion magazines. From the turn of the century throughout the 1970s, they have examined the standard of physical attractiveness for women presented in the mass media, and concluded that women became much thinner and less curvaceous. On the other hand, Cindy Maynard mainly focuses on surveys to prove her point about the negative effects of fashion magazines on teenagers.
In her 1997 Body Image Survey, both girls and boys reported that “very thin or muscular models” made them feel insecure about themselves. She also discussed reality in fashion magazines, as she states that most of the models we see on the covers have been reproduced, airbrushed and computerized.
Why Society Impose Unrealistic Beauty Standards
Another article from Media Awareness Network also talked about the standards of beauty in fashion magazines. Similarly to the other two articles, fashion magazines are claimed to be presenting an impossible goal to achieve and maintain for women. Unlike the last articles, this network provides societal reasons why standards of beauty are constantly being imposed on women. They state that the beauty industry is presenting an impossible goal to generate sales and profits for cosmetic and diet product industries.
They also provide more statistical information, as they verified that 50-70% of normal weight girls believe that they are overweight. Finally, this article differs from the last two articles as it cited a positive impact of fashion magazines in our society. A Quebec magazine, Coup de Pouce, for example, had been consistently including full-sized women in their fashion pages for the past few years. This article posed the message that even though most magazines are filled with negative messages of beauty and thinness, some magazines are also working for the betterment of society's standards and self-worth.
Relating Body Image to Fashion Magazines
After examining these three articles, it is evident that body image and fashion magazines do go hand in hand. In many cases, fashion magazines affect individuals negatively, as they consistently impose such high beauty standards and sell the idea of “perfection” in our society.
Because of the consistent propaganda of such high standards of beauty, individuals start to believe the images that they see in front of them. It is therefore valid to conclude that fashion magazines do have an influence on all individuals.
译文:
阐述时尚杂志里的人体形象与审美标准
审美标准
据由汉密尔顿，雅各布斯，安古德，都尔所做的试行性分析显示，时尚杂志里作为一个审美标准出现的女性瘦身形类型的出现，已经导致了许多美国女性以损害自己情情感和身体上的健康来修身的情况产生。当她还声明如今的少女在被灌输去接受达成漂亮和完美这样一个不可能目标的时候，上述调查结果在时尚杂志中与辛迪梅纳德的关于人体形象的结论类似。她断言我们现在在时尚杂志内见到的图片并不能促进自尊和积极的自我形象。
这两种不同的调查都宣布了西方社会里美容杂志所带来的负面影响。然而，解释性分析包含更多的事实和主要机构对于今天人体形象的研究。加纳和他的同仁们所作的报告以及斯维斯泰因和他的同事在第一次证明了多年的研究，那个研究已经做了时尚杂志人体形象的调查。从世纪之交开始的整个1970年代，他们曾研究公众媒体对女性身体吸引力水平的影响，并得出结论认为女性变得更瘦，身体曲线就没那么漂亮了。就另一方面而言，辛迪梅纳德主要关注的调查是为了证明时尚杂志对青少年会产生负面影响的论点。
她在1997年机构形象调查中，少男少女们的报告说， "非常瘦或肌肉发达的模特儿" ，使他们对自己觉得没有安全感。她还讨论了时尚杂志里的真实，因为据她所说，大部分我们从杂志封面上看到的模特形象，都是经过了修片，喷雾刷和计算机处理过的。
为什么社会要强加给人不切实际的美丽标准
另外还有来自媒介素养网络的文章也谈论到了时尚杂志里的审美标准。 另外对于其他两篇文章，时尚杂志声称其是在向女性展现一种不可能实现和维系的目标。不同于上次的文章，这个网络上的文章提出的是为什么要向女性持续不断地灌输这样审美观念的社会原因。他们指出，美容行业正是在呈现一个不可能的目标，以期产生化妆品和饮食业的销售和利润。
他们也提供了更多的统计信息, 因为他们查证了 50-70% 正常体重的女孩相信她们自己是是超重的。最后，这篇文章不同于上两篇文章，因为它列举了时尚杂志对我们社会积极影响的一面。一本魁北克杂志, Coup de Pouce， 举例来说，一直始终如一地在他们的时尚页篇幅上刊登包括标准尺寸的女性。这篇文章显示出了一个讯息，就是即使大多数杂志都充满了关于美丽与瘦身材关系负面的讯息，但还有些杂志还正在为改善社会的标准和自我价值而努力。
关于人体形象之于时尚杂志
经过审查，这三篇文章，都是人体形象和时尚杂志携手并进的证据。在许多情况下，时尚杂对个人的影响是负面的，因为他们一贯如此高标准的将审美观念强加于我们和并在我们的社会里推行“完美”的概念。
因为一贯宣传这种高水准的美丽，浴室个人开始相信他们面前看到的照片上的人代表的就是美丽。因此可以得出结论时尚杂志确实对所有个人具有一种影响力。