Brown Beauty: Body Image, Latinas, and the Media

This paper examines the understudied Latina population and the effects of media on their body image. To date, research has ignored this population or aggregated all Latin-American sub-cultures into one general category, missing the nuances of each culture. A review of current literature utilizing cultivation theory and social comparison theory is offered. Important findings suggest that social support and ethnic identity may offer a buffering effect between media exposure and body dissatisfaction, but more research needs to clarify this process. The effects of media and the internalization of the ‘thin ideal’ become stronger the longer Latina women live in the United States and acculturate to mainstream culture. Implications for body image research include psychological issues, such as lower self-esteem, depression, and anxiety, and can often lead to disordered eating. Future directions for studies are discussed.