Body Image in the media

Body image is shown in different ways in the media, and as we have chosen that our film would be around the theme of body image, it is important to do research into how this is portrayed in different types of media, mainly in film and social media.

Generally in different film genres like comedy and action, body image isn't portrayed in a positive way. People who are shown to be overweight in films are conventionally the comedic sidekicks to the film or the antagonists of the film. This is shown in the comedic film Norbit (2007). 

In the film Norbit, Norbit's wife is a woman, who is perceived as the antagonist of the film as she bosses Norbit around and is having an affair behind his back, she is also overweight. It seems that it is good to have different body types within films, however, when the film has one overweight character in it, and they are seen as the antagonist, this portrays that generally being overweight is negative. Throughout the film, she is also compared to Norbit's childhood sweetheart, who is a skinny and pretty young woman and also the princess of the film, which then could present the idea that being skinny is the good thing. 

In The Nutty Professor (1996), the whole film is about how the overweight professor creates a potion that turns him to his skinny confident self. This creates the idea that there is a correlation between being skinny and being confident, which could suggest to viewers that the only way to gain confidence is to loose weight. However, a positive of the film is that later on, the confident skinny character is seen as the antagonist and the professor seeks to go back to his own body. But, this positive, in my belief doesn't cancel out the major flaw of the film.  

Body image isn't always about being skinny or overweight, it can relate to anything about your body. The character of Jaws, seen in The Spy Who Loved Me (1977) and Moonraker (1979), both James Bond films, is shown as the antagonist or villain of the films. His height is at 7ft 1.5 inches, and is visibly taller then a lot of the other characters, which highlights his height. He is the antagonist of both of these films and audiences could decode this to be saying that different is bad.This is an idea that has been engrained into society, an idea that should be eradicated. 

 On a more modern note, social media is also full of different representations of the idea of body image. On a lot of social media places like Pinterest, Facebook and Tumblr (just to name a few) there are so many different images encouraging people to loose weight and to look prettier by wearing makeup. These are obviously fine if the audiences of these messages loose weight healthily and it is their choice, however some of these images could make the audience feel obligated to make changes to themselves, make them feel bad about the body image they have, and some even advertise dangerous diet pills that the audience may decide to take because of these adverts.

Across different medias, a lot more people are feeling ridiculed about different body images that they might relate to, and are told to change by total strangers. These messages are something that must be commented upon and the public must be shown how these different messages can be taken by particular audiences and how this may affect them. This is something that we want to create in our film, with a highlight to the social media side.