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Eating disorders and the effects of media
Eating disorders and the effects of media
Essay on eating disorders and media
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The Media and Eating Disorders
It is funny how so many girls and women today are led to believe that the only way to feel attractive and be beautiful is to have their bodies consist of nothing but skin and bones. Women are dieting more today then they have ever been before. They are striving for an unattainable body figure that is portrayed by the media as being the ideal standard for today's women. It gets worse. Not only are women dieting unlike ever before, but they will ruthlessly harm their bodies in order to achieve these inaccessible standards. This ruthless harm that haunts so many women today just so happens to be what we call eating disorders. Anorexia and bulimia are the primary diseases that go in the category of eating disorders. Who is to blame for this daunting occurrence? In most cases, the media is either some or all to blame for the eating disorder and standards placed for women. Commercials, billboards, women's magazine ads, etc. are all forms of the media that portray negative images of women. When the women in today's society sees what is being advertised (which happens hundreds, if not thousands of times a day) it is not so shocking that many of them strive for these impossible body images. It is when the want and desire becomes so strong that these women drive themselves to starvation and other forms of eating disorders.
In order to realize the effect that advertising is having on girls and women in society today, it is important for people to know the facts and statistics that are current about eating disorders. Eight million girls and women are affected with eating disorders (Wilson and Blackhurst 111). Among college-aged women, bulimia affects nearly one in every five (Wilson and Blackhurst 1...
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...than the media. It is important, though, to recognize the kind of effect media and advertising has on women. It is important to realize that because of what is portrayed in Western society, many women will go to great lengths (sometimes deadly lengths) just to meet these portrayals. If society wants to change what women are doing to themselves every day, than it is up to the media to start showing women today that it is okay to be who you are, big or small.
Works Cited
Key, Sandra W.; Lindgren, Maryclaire. "Skinny Models in Ads Cause Immediate Anger, Depression in Women." Women's Health Weekly (5/11/99) 11.
Wilson, Nona L.; Blackhurst, Anne E. "Food Advertising and Eating Disorders: Marketing Body Dissatisfaction, the Drive for Thinness, and Dieting in Women's Magazines." Journal of Humanistic Counseling, Education & Development 38 (99) 111-122.
...red through taking your class how little I knew about my own religion. I learned how the Jews were force to scatter because they did not have a home. I also learned that though the Jews were persecuted over years Judaism survived today because of the shard beliefs, and spirit of God.
Charles Dickens was an English writer born in the 1800’s. Dickens named this book A Tale of Two Cities because it is a parallel between London and Paris. In A Tale of Two Cities, there are many wrongs done by peasants who want to do right. Dickens is very descriptive partly to get across the idea of mans inhumanity towards man. Charles Dickens creates scenes like the guillotine, the use of the blue flies analogy and Madame Defarge’s hate stricken heart to develop the theme of mans inhumanity to fellow man.
Any act of conscious communication always true, in varying degrees, two fundamental objectives. One is to inform, instruct and describe, and the other is to entertain or occupy. The products of the mass communication industry made that mandate the particularity that are targeted to a wide receiver, whose acceptance is intended to conquer. The intent of the act is expressed with the term broadcast (spread through mass media), which once meant to sow broadcast the farmland. The cinema, especially the US, is the great communication industry of the twentieth century. Although in recent decades seems to have given primacy to television, the information, education and entertainment on Western culture influence is undeniable.
intro- Ninety percent of teenage girls have been on a diet. Some take it too far and starve themselves to be thin. Over one million people in just the US are afflicted with anorexia. If what is on the inside matters, then why are does society and the media constantly promote being thin? The influence of society’s promotion of a thin body plays a significant role in the development of such eating disorders as anorexia.
One of the main external factors in the development of an eating disorder is the media. The media objectifies both men and women throug...
Advertisers use women that are abnormally thin, and even airbrush them to make them appear thinner. These advertisers promote a body image that is completely unrealistic and impossible to achieve (Dohnt & Tiggemann, 2006b). It has been instilled in these advertisers’ minds that a thinner model will sell more (Hargreaves & Tiggemann, 2003). Media has a direc...
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.
Eating disorders are described as an illness involving eating habits that are irregular and an extreme concern with body image or weight. Eating disorders tend to appear during teenage years, but can develop at any age. Although more common in women, eating disorders can affect any age, gender or race. In the United States, over 20 million women and 10 million men are personally affected by eating disorders. There are many different causes of eating disorders such as low self esteem, societal pressures, sexual abuse and the victims perception of food. Eating disorders are unique to the sufferer and often, their perception of themselves is so skewed, they may not be aware they have an eating disorder. Media, for quite some time now, has played a significant part in eating disorders. Magazines with headlines ‘Summer Body’, or ‘Drop LB’s Fast!’ attract the attention of girls who may be insecure with themselves. Television productions such as the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show or American’s Next Top Model, show airbrushed and photoshopped women who have body types that may be unachievable. Those who are suffering from eating disorders can suffer dangerous consequences, and it is important to seek help.
Next, media has an overwhelming power over women’s opinion of their own body. Everyday, the media does not have a problem displaying women that are extremely skinny, which may be a product of an eating disorder. Young women begin depriving themselves from food because they view these women on advertisements as acceptable and desirable to society.
The mass media over the years has had such a profound role in creating an image on how women should be viewed. From their appearance to what their duties are in everyday life, the media has made sure to depict unrealistic images of women. These images have caused not only the male public but women themselves to believe that they must attain a certain kind of body or occupation to fit into society. Women often feel obligated and pressured to comply to this praised image of perfection.
Overall a tale of Two Cities is an intriguing tale about revolution, love and friendship. By reading this tale we get a sense of the time period leading to the revolution and economic conditions at the time.
By allowing younger girls and teens to be portrayed as grown woman in advertisements, our teens are losing their young innocence. With society’s increasing tolerance, this epidemic will continue to exploit our young daughters, sisters and friends. Young teens feel an enormous amount of pressure to obtain the ‘ideal’ perfect body. Trying to emulate the advertisements seen in the media and magazines. As a result, more girls and woman are developing eating disorders.
The health of women is being abused and harmed because they are either not eating or throwing up what they eat to remain thin. The increasing number of women that are either bulimic or anorexic is growing out of control. Research that has been done shows that one percent of female adolescents have anorexia, and one and a tenth to four and two tenths of women will get bulimia in their lifetime (“Eating Disorders”). The increasing causes more women to believe they need to be skinny like everyone else. Society has changed how women look from being healthy and curvy t...
A Tale of Two Cities takes place in England and France, during the time of the French Revolution. A Tale of Two Cities is a classic novel, where Charles Dickens presents to the reader archetypal main characters. From the beginning of the novel, the reader can know whether the characters are evil or not. In the novel, the main character, Sydney Carton, also contributes a lot to the theme of the novel-every individual should have both moral and physical courage, and should be able to sacrifice everything in the name of love.
The pattern is similar for the portrayal of women on television, magazines, and other parts of the media. The way media represents women are for them to be thin-like models and other women on television to be the high standard of “attractiveness” to others. The advertising involved targets young teenage women and feature these models that are portraying desirable items, and the “norm” is for these women to be slender and beautiful (Vonderen & Kinnally, 2012). Research has been done to prove that media’s pressure on being thin causes women to be depressive and negative feelings about themselves . Women’s view are skewed and perceived incorrectly of what the typical female body should be (Haas, Pawlow, Pettibone & Segrist, 2012).