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GI Joe's massive biceps are about to explode, and Barbie is falling over from her unrealistic body proportions.
But in the real world students often go through many body changes and few possess the ultra-toned or ultra-skinny Barbie and GI Joe body types. Instead, students come in all shapes and sizes.
Students entering college may still have the gangly bodies they've had since adolescence, some experience the "freshman 15" and others try fad diets. Body image is something students are familiar with, regardless of how positive or negative the concept is for each person.
"Body image is a complex series of discourses that affect how we live and feel in ourselves," said Lucy Yanow, director for the Women's Center. "Some might think of body image as superficial, but it affects how we live every day."
If a friend loses weight it's easy to want to lose weight, too, Yanow said. It's hard not to think about or put value on body image.
But women aren't the only ones who worry about their looks. In some ways, body image issues are more destructive for men - they aren't allowed to talk about them, Yanow said. And that can lead to masculine behavior.
Some people ditch the diets and go the plastic and cosmetic surgery route to look better. And though some students would not have plastic surgery, they don't judge others for having it done.
"It's kind of a personal choice," said senior LeAnn Chizek. "It's a lot of money, but if you're unsatisfied, it can make you happier."
Yanow agrees.
"Body modification in any form - whatever we have to do to feel good about ourselves - it can make someone whole," Yanow said. "Who am I to judge?"
But some think that getting plastic surgery is not the answer to body image issues.
Plastic surgery has gone beyond breast implants to labiaplasty and injecting collagen into nipples to "make them stick out," said Dan Pence, a sociology professor. "There is literally no end - it says to me that our bodies are a fear," Pence said. "They are not to be honored or enjoyed."
In American society, the media have a powerful influence over people and body image.
"Right now, at this time in our culture, body image is negative because it's done as a club to control people," Pence said. "The media controls women into a body type that only 5 percent of women actually are."
As college students graduate and go out into the real world, other things can affect a person's image besides just the body.
"How a guy's billfold looks rather than how big his biceps are or how rippling his abs are (will increase in importance)," Pence said. "But for women, the body is the only form of social capital."
An important way to combat body image in American society is to recognize how much pressure there is, he said.
"It's so different because we live in it," Pence said. "There is no consistency of what you look at in the media compared to real people."
Sara Nielsen can be reached at snielsen@theorion.com
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