Gym. Tan. Laundry. STD?

Approximately 5.5 million people have watched at least one episode of Jersey Shore. This means approximately 5.5 million people have watched a reality television show that is based on drinking, partying and sex. The cast is made up of four guys and four girls who all live in a shore house together. The MTV reality series instills the wrong values, morals and images to teenagers. I have created a list of the top three reasons why Jersey Shore should be taken off the airwaves.

GTL Baby. This three letter combination which stands for gym, tanning and laundry has become a popular phrase among teenagers, especially college students. There is nothing wrong with going to the gym or doing your laundry but what about tanning? Is the Jersey Shore cast teaching teenagers that it is okay to fry your skin in tanning beds to get that Guido glow? According to Web MD, the number of women using tanning beds under the age of 30 has increased significantly. Melanoma is one of the fastest-growing cancers among whites, increasing by about 2% a year between 1997 and 2006. In 2009, nearly 70,000 Americans were diagnosed with melanoma. 

“Damn, the kid’s sleeping right now. That’s what you get for talking sh*t.” In Episode 8 of Jersey Shore, Ronnie decided to get in a fist fight on the boardwalk due to a comment made about his girlfriend and co-star, Sammi. Is this teaching teenagers that it is okay to fight? Even though Ronnie had to spend a night in jail, he was out partying the next day at Club Karma. But some fights do not have the same care free ending. On April 1, 2011, a 17-year old boy died due to a fist fight with another peer over a disagreement. Teen violence ending in homicide is the second leading cause of death among adolescents and teenagers.

“I'm hooking up with my girl, Pauly's hooking up with his girl and ahh, we're gonna have sex, so, ya know, that's the situation.” Jersey Shore is based solely on partying, drinking and having sex. The show is filled with obscene nicknames for girls and sexual innuendos. Is this teaching teenagers its okay to go to a club, get drunk and then have a one night stand with a stranger? It is estimated that one in four college students will contract an STD during their time at school. In the larger population, this works out to 50% of people getting an STD at some time in their life. According to Women's Forum, over 45% of college freshmen who have been binge drinking and under the influence of alcohol failed to consider the usage of contraceptive aids when engaging in sexual intercourse. 15% of these students contracted and/or spread STD's amongst other college students with 7% of these infected students unaware of their condition.
  
These three reasons alone are enough for the infamous MTV reality serious to be canceled. Jersey Shore instills the wrong values, morals and images to teenagers. In short, tanning leads to skin cancer, pointless fights lead to deaths and random hook-ups lead to sexually transmitted diseases.

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Weighing in on Body Image

 

 

I wish I had Cameron Diaz's legs, Kim Kardashian's skin, Jessica Biel's arms and Carrie Underwood's hair. Have teenage girls become obsessed with their body image? Is this obsession leading to plastic surgery, eating disorders and low self-esteem among teenage girls? According to Dr. Peter Rowan, “Society has changed enormously in the past 20 years and there is not only immense pressure on young girls to look body beautiful but to be academically successful too.” Body image plays a huge role in society and an even larger role in the media. Teen Health and the Media documents a study done on fifth graders. Yes, fifth graders who are only ten years old. Researchers were told that after watching a music video by Britney Spears or an episode of the television show Friends that they became dissatisfied with their body image. Is the media largely responsible for this obsession? Would it be different if television and magazines minimized the use of celebrities or models?

Women watch TV more than men do. Advertisers have it all figured out. A study has been done calculating who, what, when and where females watch television. A Kaiser Foundation study found the following statistics: In movies, particularly, but also in television shows and the accompanying commercials, women's and girls' appearance is frequently commented on: 58 percent of female characters in movies had comments made about their looks, as did 28 percent in television shows and 26 percent of the female models in the accompanying commercials. Mens' and boys' appearance is talked about significantly less often in all three media: a quarter (24%) of male characters in the movies, and 10 percent and 7 percent, respectively, in television shows and commercials. Why is there such an emphasis on female gender's looks rather than of males? According to You and Me, Babe: Sex and Advertising, “In advertising it is easy to get a man's attention by using women's bodies and associate getting the woman if he buys the product.” Is this teaching a teenage girl that in order to get a man's attention you have to look one particular way?

Television is not the only medium to blame for the emphasis on body image. One in every three (37%) articles in leading teen girl magazines also included a focus on appearance, and most of the advertisements (50%) used an appeal to beauty to sell their products. Teenage girls buy these products to imitate the look of the celebrities they like. But do celebrities even look like the images being printed? Or, is Photoshop the secret to flawless beauty? Is Media causing girls to buy into a fictitious image that even celebrities can not achieve?

According to Eating Disorders Treatment, “teenage girls who use dieting tactics such as appetite suppressant pills, laxatives, vomiting after eating or severely restricting their calories are more likely to be heavy readers of women's health and fitness magazines, a team of researchers reports.” The media is using unrealistic images of women that are triggering eating disorders and lowering their self-esteem. Teenagers want to mirror what they are looking at, even if it takes extreme measures to achieve. Could those measures be plastic surgery? People are going under the knife to look like their favorite celebrities or models. For example, a young female, Chanelle, is considering getting breast implants to look like Victoria Beckham. Chanelle already cuts her hair like Beckham and dresses like her, so why not? Obsession is a powerful word but becomes even more powerful when acted upon in such an extreme way.

Have teenage girls become obsessed with their body image? Is this obsession leading to plastic surgery, eating disorders and low self-esteem among teenage girls? Yes, yes and yes. From 2002 to 2003, according to the American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery, the number of girls 18 and younger who got breast implants nearly tripled, from 3,872 to 11,326. Seventy-eight percent of 18-year old girls say they are unhappy with their bodies. It is estimated that 5 to 10 million females are battling some sort of eating disorder in America. How can the media begin to fix this problem?  Maybe, the media could use a little less fake and a little more real.