Eating Disorders: The Effect Of Unrealistic Media On Young Women

The American dream: To be bones and brittle Everyday a young woman looks in the mirror and tells herself that she’s too fat, that she isn’t pretty, and that no man will ever love her. She cries when she eats ice cream and she’ll run up and down the stairs to the point of exhaustion. Just trying to shed a few pounds, trying to make herself beautiful. The kind of beauty that the magazines portray to you. The 102 pound, five foot ten models who wear double zero jeans; that kind of beautiful. Women starve themselves trying to reach this unrealistic ideal and for what? To look godly sick, brittle to the touch? Eating disorders are a growing epidemic, caused by the unrealistic media images being portrayed to young women. Every day you see commercials,

The ones that haven’t been reshaped and slimmed down by computer analysts. Most models these days have eating disorders because the high demand for extra small and double zero body sizes in the industry is unbelievable. “The majority of runway models meet the Body Mass Index (BMI) criteria to be considered anorexic” And not only that, but the models they consider “bigger” still qualify as underweight- “Vogue magazine stated that they chose Gisele Bunchen as their “model of the year” due, in part, to the fact that she deviates from the typical “rail thin” image. In fact, Gisele weighs only 115 lbs. and is 5’11 – 25% below her ideal weight” (Radar Programs). The ideal of beauty has changed so much over the centuries. We go from flaunting our every curve and busty bods with Marilyn Monroe to hip bones and rib cages with Kendall Jenner. When will it ever

“The media propagates unobtainable body ideals and the acceptability of dieting, leading to lowered mood, body dissatisfaction and eating disorder symptoms” (Consumer Health Complete). If only the media would recognize the increase in eating disorders. “There has been a rise in incidence of anorexia in young women 15-19 in each decade since 1930’ and also, ‘The incidence of bulimia in 10-39 year old women TRIPLED between 1988 and 1993” (NEDA). Everyday some little girl calls herself fat, stops eating for a few weeks and accumulates an eating disorder. Anorexia and Bulimia are the two most popular ones out of them all. Anorexia nervosa, stated by the Mayo Clinic, is an eating disorder that causes people to obsess about their weight and the food they eat. People with anorexia nervosa attempt to maintain a weight that 's far below normal for their age and height. To prevent weight gain or to continue losing weight, people with anorexia nervosa may starve themselves or exercise excessively. While Bulimia by definition is: a serious, potentially life-threatening eating disorder. People with bulimia may secretly binge — eating large amounts of food — and then purge, trying to get rid of the extra calories in an unhealthy way. For example, someone with bulimia may force vomiting or do excessive exercise. Sometimes people purge after eating only a small