The Fat Lie of Being Skinny

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Recommended: Media influence on body image

Fat phobia is one of the major causes of anorexia, and 81% of ten year old girls fear becoming fat. A body image complex is very serious mental issue that becoming more and more eminent in society today. The media should not be able to show only one “perfect” view of the female body. Media’s influence effects eating disorders and the ideal body-image negatively, and causes models to harm themselves in the process. Eating disorders, such as anorexia and bulimia, are very unique and complex mental disorders. They cannot be simplified into a single cause, such as the media’s influence (Goldring). However, many statistics show the media affects girls, especially young ones, significantly. As the third most common disease among adolescents, people should not take anorexia lightly. According to the National Association of Anorexia Nervosa and Associated Disorders, 86% of students experience the start of an eating disorder by the age of twenty. Of those students, 43% report to have started developing the disease between sixteen and twenty (“Eating Disorders”). Having an eating disorder, especially while young, can seriously and irreversibly damage many vital organs: anorexia can cause infertility and heart problems. In fact, 20% of women suffering anorexia die early from the repercussions of their disorder, including heart or organ failure, malnutrition, or suicide (“Eating Disorders”). Women purposefully harm themselves, usually knowing what the consequences could be, in order to be accepted as “beautiful.” As eating disorders become more prominent in society, what the media shows to impressionable young women (and men) should be censored. Instead, pop culture constantly represents a body that is “possessed naturally by only 5% of ... ... middle of paper ... ...ne should make more effort to control what is acceptable to look like in society. Works Cited “Eating Disorder Statistics.” anad.org. National Association of Anorexia Nervosa and Associated Disorders, n.d. Web. 20 Jan. 2014. Goldring, Megan and Steven Lopez, Ph.D. “The Cultural Implications of Eating Disorders: A Comparative Study Between Argentina and the United States.” scf.usc.edu. University of Southern California, 26 May. 2013. Web. 20 Jan. 2014. Hardy, Leah. “A big fat (and very dangerous) lie: A former Cosmo editor lifts the lid on airbrushing skinny models to look healthy.” dailymail.co.uk. Mail Online, 20 May. 2012. Web. 20 Jan. 2014. McIvor, Sarey Martin. “PHOTOSHOPPING OUR SOULS AWAY.” darlingmagazine.org. Darling Magazine, 01 Nov. 2011. Web. 20 Jan. 2014. “Modeling and Talent.” newyork.bbb.org. BBB of Metropolitan New York, n.d. Web. 30 Jan. 2014.

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