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Media's role in eating disorders paper
Media's role in eating disorders paper
How media affects anorexia nervosa essay
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Have you ever wondered how thin can you be before it’s unhealthy? In our society, four out of ten girls are struggling with eating disorders (Ekern). One of the most common types of eating disorders is Anorexia. Anorexia is an eating disorder causing the victim to be consumed by losing weight and how much they eat. The person struggling with this disease is uncomfortable by his or her body weight and wants to lose weight (Segal). Models have extreme physical expectations that they have to live up to. These unrealistic goals can have major effects on not only the healths of themselves, but others too. There should be changes in the physical requirements for modeling because the guidelines give men and women unrealistic values for themselves; …show more content…
The CEO of Abercrombie and Fitch, Mike Jeffries, has stated that he only wants ‘thin and beautiful’ customers to wear his clothing. Jeffries has also said that he doesn’t want ugly and larger people to wear his clothing which is why the company does not sell a large amount of bigger sizes. All of Abercrombie and Fitch’s models are skinny and have muscular bodies. If a teenage boy or girl is exposed to this, it can cause Anorexia. If an observer doesn’t look like the models at this particular store, then they will feel ugly and fat. This can then lead to Anorexia. If more plus size models were being shown in stores like Abercrombie and Fitch, then the amount of people struggling with anorexia will go down …show more content…
Over time with the help of technological advances, more models are being shown every day than they were 50 years ago. This is why anorexia is increasing. If the standards for modeling were changed then people would have a chance to focus more on achievements in politics, academics, athletics, and the arts. Individuals are so consumed with their physical appearance that it affects all other areas of their life. Not only do Anorexic models cause Anorexia in others, but it encourages other Anorexic viewers to think the disease is normal. Anorexic models can cause other Anorexic viewers to feel okay about this health condition. One out of three Anorexic people receive treatment for their condition (Ekern). Anorexic models that are shown in magazines and television ads appear every day. This is accepted as normal to people that already are dealing with Anorexia. If Anorexic viewers see these images, it influences them to either not get help or to continue living with this disease. If the standards for modeling were changed, then viewers would see more healthy, normal looking models in their everyday lives. Instead of influencing viewers negatively, the healthier models would influence people in a positive way. This would also help the percentage of Anorexia in models go
The media can impact people’s lives in many ways, whether it’s fashion, movies, literature, or hobbies. One of the impacts is how women view their bodies. Movie stars and models feel pressured to catch attention and to look good in order to have a good career in their respective field. People tend to judge how someone looks based on their body composition. The result of this “judgment” is that Hollywood is getting skinny. Since models and actresses serve as role models for people, people tend to want to look like them. The result of this seemingly harmless model of behavior is in an increase in eating disorders.
Are models really the perfect beauty queens society thinks they are? Whether it is “perfect” bodies or “perfect” faces; Are they really that perfect that teens and the fashion industry idolize them? Medical professionals say that 20% to 40% of models have eating disorders currently. From Anorexia to bulimia, models will do anything to get that size 0. Not only is this way of life giving a false perception on true beauty, but it is also influencing teens and children that they also must go to these extreme measures to get the “perfect body”. A whopping 5% of teens die of an eating disorder every year. These teens see a model with her bones protruding from her skinny waistline and think “why don’t I look like that?” The models sporting the very unfashionable bone accessory not only harm themselves, but everyone around them. So should there be a weight limit put upon these models? Should there be a standard BMI that every brand and part of the fashion industry should instill? Although many argue that the model and designer have the freedom to do and imagine any design or figure they want for their “artwork” to be displayed upon, is fashion really an excuse to let people die from? In reality, the only way to stop the drastic measures of models and teens alike is to strictly set a BMI upon the fashion industry.
All body types must be represented in the media. There has to be a balance between bodies, not biased towards one. There has to be equality within how people look. There has to be thin and fat models alike to represent everyone. Although a lot of female models are thin and most male models are muscular, not all of them are unhealthily so. In some cases, being thin is genetic rather than a disorder. Only a handful of models are Anorexic, but since the internet and other forms of media highlight these cases, it appears there are more than there
...odels in magazines usually achieve their body shape in unnatural ways. They either undergo plastic surgery or have an eating disorder like anorexia and bulimia. Most models have the BMI of a person with anorexia. Their weight is 15-20% below what is considered normal for their age ad height. The photos seen in magazines of these models are also airbrushed and photo shopped before being printed. The body shapes of the models are unrealistic, unhealthy, and unobtainable for the average person. In addition to the models, magazines are also filled with advertisements. Most ads in magazines are directed towards beauty in some form. Again, these ads all show photographs of women with the unreachable “perfect body” that can cause multiple victims to feel insecure and unhappy about their body shape and weight. In some cases it will result in developing an eating disorder.
"Anorexia nervosa... strike(s) a million Americans every year and... one hundred fifty thousand die annually" (Brumberg 20). This outrageous number of deaths has unfortunately been increasing since the 1970's. This deadly disease focuses its attention on young teenage girls. The media gives out messages to promote their products and, knowingly or unknowingly, sends the message to young girls that they should and can look like the models on T.V. Immense pressure put on young girls to look good and to be thin. The unfortunate consequence is that society's pressures to be thin cause girls to become anorexic.
“My lips and fingers were blue because I was so thin that my heart was struggling to pump blood around my body”, said teen model fashion Georgina (Carroll 1). The new skinny has become excessively scrawny. Is it definitely not normal for today’s society models to walk around with blue fingers starving themselves until their organs start failing! As for the model agencies, they couldn’t care less of the pressure and dangerous practices they put the models through in order for them to stay thin for the runway. Even fashion Designers continue to produce the smallest couture sample sizes and scout for the slimiest bodies to wear the designs not aware of the consequences of the pressure they not only put on models, but on the society girls to look like these starving models. And when the models continue to get offers from the most important fashion industries like Prada, it motivates them to keep doing what they are doing to stay in the shape they are in (Carroll 1). But little did the outside world know what this pressure had on the models and what they were doing to their bodies to peruse their modeling careers.
Fashion models don’t need to be thin, they need to be diverse and healthy at whatever weight that is. Not everyone is supposed to be thin, some women are big boned and curvy, others are naturally slim and small boned, some are tall, others are short, some are light skinned and others are darker. So many diverse looks exist in the world today and the fashion industry need to change their perception of perfect. Body image in our society is out of control. We have young men and women comparing themselves to unrealistic models and images in the media and feeling bad about the way their own bodies look because they somehow don’t measure up. (Dunham, 2011) The struggle for models to be thin has led to models becoming anorexic or bulimic, untimely deaths, and inferiority complexes. Even worse is the fact that they influence a whole generation of young women who look up to these models and think “thin” is how they are supposed to be. They influence what we buy, how we eat and what we wear. Why has this specific group captured our attention so much? Why do we seem to be so fascinated in their lives, to the point where we try to look and act just like them? The media is largely to be blamed for this, many people believe the media has forced the notion that everything supermodels do is ideal. Others believe that the society is to be blamed because we have created a fascination with their lives. There are many opinions, and I agree with both of these specific opinions. We allow ourselves to be captivated by these people's lives, and the media portrayal of their lives seem to also enthrall us. (Customessaymeister, 2013) Despite the severe risks of forcing models to become too thin, designers, fashion editors, fashion brands and agencies still ...
Kirstie Clements states, “The longer I worked with models, the more the food deprivation became obvious. Cigarettes and Diet Coke were dietary staples. Sometimes you would see the tell-tale signs of anorexia, where a girl develops a light fuzz on her face and arms as her body struggles to stay warm.” (The Truth About Size Zero.) Banning size zero models might help the other models starving themselves to be a size zero because then they wouldn’t be different than the other models. There is one agency that pressures models to be a size zero, but if they aren’t skinny enough they won’t give the model a job. Zuzanna Buchwald told us how her agents said she needed to stop eating and exercise to lose weight. This developed into anorexia and bulimia that Buchwald battled for four years. Buchwald says, “I was very weak, very down all the time. I had problems with teeth, my complexion was grey, my skin was dry. It was a terrible experience. And even though I beat both disorders, even now I have a very emotional relationship with food.”(The Illness Changed My Relationship with Food Forever) Eating disorders aren’t just a problem in teens, they are a problem in the models
Step out into the everyday world as an average American and you will witness an entanglement of varied body size, and shape. Now, enter the world of the media, a world in which you are formally introduced to high fashion, where flashing lights, money, glamour and riches crash around you, satiating every crevice of your being. Here, you will find two unified body types, divided into two categories of shape in women; thin, and thick. Naturally, any woman who wishes to someday strut down the catwalk in Zac Posen, or pose in Marie Claire wearing Dolce and Cabana must have a body that fits one of these required molds, right? It is a well-known reality that many women who cannot reach by healthy means, or do not already have, the desired body type for fashion industries, will develop an eating disorder to starve their way into the position. However, most fail to address the issue of obesity that curdles on the other end of the physical spectrum; the plus size modeling industry. This statement not only boils the blood of millions of American Women, but begs the question: If extremely thin models promote eating disorders, should we prohibit advertisers, especially those in fashion, from using plus size models, as they may promote obesity? To put it simply, no. Plus size models do not promote obesity because they only provide thicker, much larger women, confidence and appreciation for their body without pressuring them to take unhealthy means to shed pounds; they do not encourage overeating and lack of exercise.
A tall, glamorous runway model is every girl’s dream. Long beautiful legs, lean body, and beautiful shiny hair is what an average young woman views as an ideal image for a female. If you don’t resemble the images of those stunning Victoria Secret models and Fashion Week models, you suddenly become ashamed of your own body. It is a great life to have with the high pay, fame, drinking champagne on a yacht with famous celebrities and even being on the Vogue cover page. Fashion Modeling Industry has been the most influential source in our young women’s lives. Young girls and young women are seen eating as little as they can, even starving themselves at times to resemble those models. What they don’t realize is that they are contributing to the 2.7 percentage of 13- 18 year olds suffering from anorexia and bulimia. Susan Albers, a psychologist at the Cleveland Clinic said exposure to thin models is a great trigger in maintaining an eating disorder. When watching America’s Next Top Model or flipping through a Fashion magazine, these young women don’t apprehend that those models are either naturally slim or they are suffering from an eating disorder themselves, in other words, hostages in the dark hell hid behind those runway curtains. The growing number of young anorexia and bulimia patients, and the number of websites such as thinspiration, where girls put up pictures of their thin bodies clearly suggest that the fashion modeling industry do not at all bear any responsibility in providing healthy, realistic physical role models for young women.
Fashion Industries all over the world are the cause of so many deaths and eating disorders of models with their force of having to be skinny. Many anorexic models are often found on the catwalks are pressurized to be below average size and weight with around 40% of models are found with some type of eating disorder. Many even have been told by their managers that they are too ‘fat’ and need to lose weight if they are to keep their jobs. The models customarily start vigorously dieting, intensive exercise or sometimes involving the use of laxatives, which gradually evolves into victualing disorders like anorexia, bulimia and binge victualing which can eventually lead to death. Models with untreated anorexia nervosa can suffer major health issues as well, such as heart failure, liver disease, calcium deficiency and kidney stones.
Anorexia is the third most common chronic illness among teenagers. With 80% of teen females and 15% of teen males being or attempting to be anorexic, it is surprising that it is not higher up on the list. Anorexia is the most common negative view shown on media. On the social media site Tumblr, pro-anorexic blogs have become a popular trend to follow and many show images of models with captions reading "I want to be able to sit down and have my thighs not touch," (My Pro). The truth is, however, that the average model is 23% under their ideal weight. The average US model weighs 117 pounds and is 5'11" while the average US woman weighs 140 pounds and is only 5'4". This causes perspective to see those far too skinny as beautiful and the normal weight to seem more than it is. In a recent study when asked if they were overweight, 75% of the women answered yes and only 25% of them were. (Perfect) Social media has swayed beliefs of the past by making the thin want to be thinner and those who believe themselves to be overweight feel as if reaching their correct BMI is impossible.
Society is now so used to seeing these models who have their beauty and superiority idolized that they feel all women must look this way. However, looking like a model is becoming increasingly unattainable. According to Bennett the difference between the catwalk and reality is so stark that the slightest change in a girls form makes them self-conscious because they are constantly sizing themselves up to models (Bennett). Today models are dramatically thinner and taller than they were a few years a...
In addition, the startling deaths of the “three very underweight models” (Rosemary 2007) has become the last straw that makes us impossible to accept the eating disorders anymore. These have added to the controversy over the use of extremely thin models in fashion industry because not only does it reduce the self-esteem of those who do not have ideal bodies but it also naturally forces them to become anorexic to look exactly like catwalk models which has been proved to cause “drastic weight loss and premature ageing” (Cooke 2000, pp. 3) severely. No matter how serious the impacts of eating disorders are, the fashion industry still continues giving out the products called “doll clothes” (The Sunday Telegraph, 2009) for young women. People in our society do not want to see teenagers with “jutting bones and no breasts of hips” (The Sunday Telegraph, 2009), we really want to see girls with their healthy body image.
The social impact and effects of using plus-size models in fashion modeling and advertising Introduction Fashion and commercial modeling have for long been designed as fields left to women. However, on audiences and visual consumption, the field is open to everyone. Therefore, it is an issue of requiring women to satisfy the needs of the advertising and fashion world so that everyone in the society can give them a stamp of approval or disapproval. In that sense, the entire world has conditioned itself alongside a number of expectations heaped or directed towards all women indulged in modeling and commercial advertising. For decades, the dominating social perception has subtly approved slim women as the most preferred body imagery format to create a sufficient appeal that can