Society is obsessed with being beautiful. One only has to look at the amount that different beauty industries earn early on for this fact to be evident. For example, the diet industry is a $33 billion industry, followed closely by the cosmetics industry at $20 billion per year (Wolf 16). However, this obsession with beauty is not without cause. As stated in Body Image: Understanding Body Dissatisfaction in Men, Women, and Children, “In affluent Western societies, thinness is generally associated with happiness, success, youth, and social acceptability. Being overweight is linked to laziness, lack of willpower and loss of control.” (Grogan 325) Despite common misconceptions, body image affects all groups of people. As a result, people's self-image and how they react to it differ greatly depending on a variety of factors including gender, age, culture and, most importantly, the media they are exposed to. been exposed (Fox 2). The cultural standard of beauty, as displayed through the media, affects all groups of people to varying degrees. The spark that lights the flame of our culture's obsession with beauty is the ideal image shown by the media. Because of advertising and the media, the cultural standard of beauty is widely publicized and accepted (Wykes 146), meaning that “beautiful people” are consistently seen much more than they were in the past (Fox 1). Although mass media has many positive benefits, it also has serious consequences (Phelps and Charles 1). This means that the mass media is having negative influences on the mentality of the general population regarding self-image and stereotypes. A message launched by the media is that only those who are underweight can be... middle of paper... the ReThink Beauty campaign and the web. April 3, 2014. “A Teen’s Guide to Body Image.” Children's health. Ed. Arcy Lyness. The Nemours Foundation, 01 January. 2012. Network. April 3, 2014. Lerner, Brenda W. and K.L. Lerner. "Food and body image". Food: In Context 1 (2011): 303-05. Network. April 3, 2014Grogan, Sarah. Body image: Understanding body dissatisfaction in men, women, and children. London: Routledge, 2008. Kindle.Smolak, Linda and JK Thompson. Body image, eating disorders and obesity in young people: assessment, prevention and treatment. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association, 2009. Kindle.Wolf, Naomi. The myth of beauty. London: Chatto & Windus, 1990. Kindle.Wykes, Maggie and Barrie Gunter. The media and body image: if appearance killed. London: SAGE, 2005. Kindle.