My research will explore how the visual representation of women’s bodies in media and pop culture over the past 30 years have influenced modern society’s unrealistic body standards for women, as well as how these stereotypes have harmed our current generation.  

Research has shown that the body stereotypes of women shown in digital media have severely worsened body dysmorphia for generations of young girls. That dysmorphia lowers self-esteem, which often leads to symptoms of depression and anxiety. This has ultimately led to increased levels of self-harm, suicidal ideation, and other mental illnesses in adolescents. In addition to those findings, I will be looking at the correlation between women's bodies in video games and animated movies/TV shows, and how the combination of those digital medias has resulted in reaching a wider audience. Over the years, the online misrepresentation of women’s bodies has only continued to grow exponentially, through body-altering filters on social media apps such as tik tok and instagram, as well as celebrities who post pictures of themselves that are edited to make their bodies look closer to the ones the media keeps showing on screen.

My methodology involves looking for existing studies that show the impacts of gender biases in digital media. I will also be using the other research strategies outlined in the Information Literacy portion of my FFC canvas program, which includes using the Leatherby Library database to find peer-reviewed articles and published studies. 

I envision that my research will clearly demonstrate that the popularity/exposure of animated women has direct linkage between changing the body standards society holds for real women. Evidence is also expected to show the detrimentality of these unfair stereotypes upon young girls in particular, but also the general population.