Influence of Media on Women's Construction of Psycho-social Identity-body Image: Reinforcing Stereotypical Attractiveness

“People have an inherent desire to appraise themselves, typically in contrast to others”, according to Leon Festinger's social comparison theory (1954). “People categorise (including themselves) in order to comprehend their social surroundings and social identity” (Tajfel, 1979). People do evaluation of themselves in relation to others by comparing and classifying. This process plays a crucial role in identity formation. Identity development is precisely a personal process which occurs in a specific social and cultural context. Media since its inception has been playing an important role in setting the context and portraying the image of women by showing the ideal body image. Media plays a crucial role in perpetuating the societal concept of "stereotypical attractiveness". There is reduction in social interaction and increased usage of social media due to the pandemic COVID-19. At a personal level, people absorb more messages from social media (Lee, 2009). How these messages of the media affect the perception of young women about their body image in relation to the images which the media perpetuates for being attractive for women in society in setting beauty trends of society. The current study is an attempt to understand how young women perceive their body image and how they view themselves in relation to others, and how they develop their own social identities, in light of the media's influence in the contemporary context of COVID-19 pandemic. An online questionnaire was constructed to collect data from 152 respondents. The data was analysed qualitatively into percentages and themes. The findings show that the respondents' attitudes about their body image and actions are contradictory, as they compare themselves to women on social media. They use filters and do care about the opinion of other people about their own appearance. Majority of respondents in this study had never been subjected to online body shaming. They were concerned with negative trolling, pressures, judgments, and being deemed "unfit" for what is deemed "attractive." in the society by messages of the media. Respondents were convinced about the malpractices of the media and were quite critical of the same. The study suggests that media should portray women in more realistic body images which could actually help women retain a healthy body image. Young women should recognise that one is capable of going beyond the "idealised attractive bodies" which are promoted by society through “social stereotypical attractiveness” and, particularly, when social media promotes unattainable body images for young women from different social -cultural contexts. The implications of the study reiterates that young women should develop positive body image and be in congruence with their real self than ideal self which is based on unrealistic expectations created by social stereotypical attractiveness norms set by society and influenced by media's portrayals of women.