Eating disorders are a major issue that many people face, mostly teens, but sometimes even adults. I think the reason it is escalated so much is because no matter where we look there are images of what perfection should look like. For example, models always look super thin, usually portray a sexy thin body, and are usually everywhere we look. They are on magazine covers, billboards, clothing stores, and much more. Seeing these types of women make girls even more vulnerable to look "perfect." They want to look just like the models, so they go to any extreme to get there. However, the models that are on magazine covers don't even look like that; most of have them have been airbrushed to look "perfect." Plus, even if they do look like that it is not healthy at all, and the girls that go on the eating disorders are just harming their bodies, when they are usually perfect the way they are. The media is a major cause of eating disorders because they put out various things that say this is the "perfect" body and this what girls should look like. Some girls then get self conscious about themselves because they don't look like that and then use dangerous methods to make themselves look "perfect."
"Perfect"
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I saw that young girls are subjected to about 10000 images daily that influence their self esteem and backing up you post i found research that said that more and more girls as young as third grade were concerned with becoming fat and were considering going on a diet! That is just crazy, girls in third grade should be concerned with being in school and having fun and being a kid. Not concerned with a diet and the dangerous effects that are likely to come from that.
I think it's important for younger girls to realize that all of the photos they see everyday are photoshopped and airbrushed. I think media outlets need to focus on the importance of a healthy lifestyle rather than just glorifying the "wonders" of being stick-skinny. It's sad for these young girls to think the only way to be pretty is to be skinny.
I think the still image is less affecting than the words movie scripts use to code what's expected of young women, and more importantly, by men. Why is ok for fat men to be depicted as involved with ultra thin attractive woman? When the scenario reversed is not tolerated as believable.
What's not airbrushed are men's over-entitlement to perfection. That has a real effect on social economics because there clearly are commodities of women who are willing do anything to fit this expectation.
Professor Simpson pointed out last week, men who are "not Brad Pitt", focus on being super faithful to one relationship and being able to provide materially. I get this.
Still there are American sit-coms that depict fat lazy middle class husbands with perky skinny clean up after their fat rude husband wives. I don't get this.
I think the perfect example for this is Marilyn Monroe; she would have been considered overweight by today's standards, yet she is still considered one of the most beautiful and desirable women in the world. The "perfect" models are used to sell products, sell an idea, and sell sex, but Monroe would do just as good of a job as the skinny airbrushed models, even without photoshop.
Yes, you're right. Even a model or some super stars who should look super thin and glamorous are not really look like that. Their body in photos are all manipulated with computer to look thin and long. Even though they really have that body, they just train for few monthes extremely for certain photo or movie. They don't always look like that. So, teenagers should realize this is just a fantasy which mass media makes. And it's enough to just do a healthy diet.
I think that one problem we still face as a society with these eating disorders is that many people still feel that people just "choose" to be anorexic or what not. These are true disorders just like any other mental disorder, and I would probably say that these widespread feelings toward eating disorders definitely hurt the people affected by these disorders even more.
I agree with what you are saying. It's sad that many young girls feel the pressure to be thin in order to fit in or be beautiful. It seems like ever since we you are young, there has always been a mold that you should fill in order to be beautiful. I think it's an extremely unhealthy way of viewing yourself. It is shocking how skinny some runway models are. Girls need to realize that these stick-thin body types are not the norm and unobtainable to the average individual. They should focus on what is healthy for themselves instead of comparing themselves to celebrities and models.
Eating disorders are a tough subject and unfortunately the media does very little to prevent this from happening. Their fake views of "perfect" airbrush and touched up women on magazines and billboards affects the "average" women. More young girls today are suffering from eating disorders than ever because they want to become what the image they see everywhere, and more girls/young women are dying because of it.
I totally agree with what you said in your blog. Eating disorders run in my family, and I myself have been diagnosed with one, though I usually can keep myself healthy by surrounding myself with people I trust and who are positive influences. But, like you said, the media is a huge contributor to eating disorders. This pressure from society to be perfect is too much for so many girls to take, and it sadly results in eating disorders. It breaks my heart that so many girls don't care that those perfect pictures of models have been airbrushed and made up unnaturally to look that way, that so many girls expect to look that perfect when they have so many other, more important things like school, family, and work to focus on. But that expectation is unreasonable, and knowing that hurts, and again so many girls turn that feeling of unsatisfaction, of feeling imperfect, into an eating disorder. I think society in general needs to re-evaluate what its standards of "perfect" and "beautiful" should be.