Anorexia In America

Improved Essays
As the concern for eating disorders in America grows, the media’s negative influence is becoming increasingly obvious. From models on the runway, to actresses in the television, young girls are surrounded with messages about the ideal body. The media equates beauty to thinness, which can lower adolescents girls’ self esteem. As girls compare themselves to their idols, they begin to believe that they are not good enough and feel as though they must lose weight. The lack of self of esteem and the drive for thinness may lead to the development of an eating disorder, such as Anorexia. Young girls must be made aware of both the effects and the possible prevention of anorexia, even though they are continuously exposed to the media, which can contribute …show more content…
Because young girls often idolize and compare themselves to the women in the media, they may become disappointed in their own bodies. While the average woman weighs 140 lbs. and is 5’4’’, the average model is 117 lbs. and 5’11’’ (Trujilo,127). According to a BMI (Body Mass Index), the measurements for the ‘average woman’ is healthy, while the typical model is severely underweight and most likely suffers from an eating disorder. Many magazines use photoshop to edit their models in addition to the models being underweight. Unfortunately, adolescents are not always able to distinguish the difference from a healthy and an unhealthy person. Because they do not look like the models, girls feel as though they are not beautiful. The lower self esteem caused by this belief causes young girls to develop eating disorders. In addition, women in the media are often made fun of because of their weight, although they are often over average weight. Seeing idols being shamed in the media causes lowered self esteem and body dissatisfaction. The media also promotes unhealthy eating habits by putting underweight models next to headlines that say ‘How to Lose Weight Fast’ (Lopez- Guimera,309). Messages such as these promote both unhealthy eating habits and body dissatisfaction; 69% of adolescence admit that magazines play a role in their perception of beauty (Lopez- Guimera, 390). …show more content…
Because they do not look like the models, and many young girls report feeling unsatisfied with their body when compared to a model (Duran,140). Additionally, studies have found that nearly 47% of girls want to lose weight after seeing images of skinny women (Duran,142). Anorexia developed during adolescence will have a lifelong effect. The drive for thinness and the eating habits developed the disorder will likely stay for a lifetime, even after treatment. Unfortunately, the medias effect on the eating disorders can be seen before adolescents. In a study, researchers found that the amount of television watched positively correlated with eating disorder symptoms in seven year old girls (Lopez-Guierma, 391). Children should not be worried about their weight at such a young age however, from the moment they are born they are taught to fit into beauty standards. From the anorexically thin Barbies they play with to the thin models they see on TV, girls are unable to escape the media 's messages that being thin is being beautiful Although some may consider the messages sent by the media harmless, they influence the development of

Related Documents

  • Superior Essays

    Today many girls struggle with the issue of their body image leading to eating disorders including anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, and binge eating disorder. Girls are facing this issue very early on in their lives, it is starting to take over their entire life. “At the age of 6, girls are starting to show concern for their weight and 40-60% of elementary school girls are expressing their concern of being too fat” (Get The Facts On Eating Disorders). There are numerous reasons girls develop eating disorders including; mothers having concern about their own weight and their daughters weight, pressure from friends, self-esteem issues, and most importantly pressure from the media. The media portrays an “ideal” body, but in reality those women…

    • 1444 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Unrealistic Body Image

    • 790 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Over eighty percent of women in the United States are dissatisfied with their appearance (Ross). In today’s society women are constantly being told that they have to fit the standards of the ideal woman in order to be considered beautiful. Some of these standards include having light eyes, blonde hair, perfect teeth, flawless, tan skin, long legs, and a well-proportioned figure and are often times impossible for most women in the U.S. to attain (Sherrow). Women who do not fit under these criteria are often prone to eating disorders, depression, or anxiety and may find it difficult to develop a positive body image. Many researchers have concluded that media is one of the main causes of these unrealistic standards that women are held to (Sherrow).…

    • 790 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    Body Image Issues

    • 1761 Words
    • 8 Pages

    Body image issues — issues involving the ways we perceive our physical appearance — have become a major area of concern in the twenty-first century, particularly for pre-adolescent and adolescent girls. In a society that focuses much of its attention on looks, many young girls feel dissatisfied with their bodies, often resorting to methods of dieting in order to appear slimmer. These methods can often be dangerous and, in some extreme cases, precipitate eating disorders such as bulimia nervosa and anorexia nervosa. It is largely believed that the media is the main contributor to young girls’ body dissatisfaction, due to its tendency to label thin figures as “ideal” and larger figures as “unflattering” or simply unhealthy, however, research…

    • 1761 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Media Influence On Women

    • 570 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Teenagers desire to have a slim body and to be beautiful such as women in media. The media is the most powerful influence on teenagers’ sexual behaviors and attitudes because the media emphasized the slim body of woman in advertisings. Also, the media tend to impose that women should be thin, which can harm adolescent girls who are unable to achieve the highly idealized shape of models. When teenagers think that their body seems different than the models in media, young people are not only losing their confidence but also being afraid of standing in front of people or encountering people. The author stated that the young girls are influenced on the images of skinny women even if they do not want to be because they are insecure about their appearance when they are not skinny (Bowdon).…

    • 570 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    You see women half naked in food advertisement and in children’s commercials you see images of very skinny and pretty dolls. According to the National Association of Anorexia Nervosa and Associated Disorders, 69% of girls in the 5th- 12th grades reported that magazine pictures influenced their idea of a perfect body shape. I used to let myself fall into the lie that a women should look just like one of these dolls. I wasn't the prettiest nor was I as skinny as these dolls shown on television and because I wasn't pretty nor as skinny as these dolls I grew up very insecure about everything about…

    • 1227 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Media Eating Disorders

    • 588 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Many young children are developing eating disorders because of media images when they are just in elementary school. Studies show that seeing paper thin, perfect models used for everything sparks insecurities that later lead to eating disorders. Developing these disorders are very serious, and if they go long enough they could cause permanent damage. When magazines only label perfectly fit, flawless models that are beautiful, and bash the celebrities that have a little weight on them, people believe the only way to be beautiful is to be perfectly fit. Eating disorders and media images are a problem because people develop health issues, and risk death in order to make their body look like someone else’s.…

    • 588 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Positive Body Images

    • 941 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Both articles establish that eating disorders are often caused by unrealistic media messages and images. I also believe that media influences play a role in the development of eating disorders. The media contribute to many eating disorders by creating a toxic environment of a “thin ideal,” promotion of unhealthy and unnatural food desires for high fat and high calorie foods, while increasing the pressure to be perfect in all aspect of our lives. The desire to appear…

    • 941 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Upward Comparison Theory

    • 1117 Words
    • 4 Pages

    A study has shown that Internet appearance exposure and magazine reading exposure were correlated with higher internalization of thin ideals, appearance comparison, weight dissatisfaction, and drive for thinness in adolescent girls of mean age of 14.9 years. (Tiggemann & Miller, 2010). As mentioned in lecture, an average American watches 5.13 hours TV per day. (K.Dalrymple, personal communication, October 26,2015). This data shows that television is a dominant media that plays a great deal in our lives.…

    • 1117 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Media is damaging to adolescent females' body images and self-esteem. All sources of media include some form of target on appearance. Young women experience unhappiness with their bodies, negative behaviors towards their health, and an increased focus on appearance in advertisements compared to males. The media's focus on adolescent girls has drastically lowered body satisfaction. Advertisements have created what is know as "the new normal" by hiring models with unreal body types and using the infamous program, photoshop.…

    • 804 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    Media has the power to frame messages and images to cater to their needs and not the needs of the consumer. Framing refers to how media outlets are able to shape the opinion, beliefs and attitudes of its consumers by emphasizing particular attributes of their message (Conlin &Bissell, 2014). So writing an article in a health magazine that tells you ‘that you are not alone, other people hate looking at themselves also,’ is a way of framing a message to evoke an emotion of self-discontent. Women’s magazines have the power to shape how women think about weight loss and body image (2014). Women and young girls are constantly exposed to unrealistic body ideals or thin-ideals in…

    • 1206 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Great Essays

    "In other words, if a woman has a predisposition for an eating disorder and spends a lot of time looking at fashion magazines, this can be one of the factors that triggers feeling bad about her body, which she then turns into eating disorder behavior, like excessive dieting" (Pearson 2). Young girls start feeling self-conscious about themselves and compare themselves to other females during adolescence. Some of the women they will compare themselves to are fashion models. These exceedingly thin figures are unattainable goals for young girls to strive for. This is a large part of the increase in eating disorders amongst young American girls.…

    • 1547 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Eating disorders have a higher mortality rate than any other psychiatric disease (Rojas). People look at some sort of media every day. 47% of girls in 5th- 12th grade have wanted to lose weight because of a picture they have seen in a magazine (Eating). The body types that people see in the media and that are considered “ideal” are only possessed naturally by 5% of American females (Eating). 69% of girls say that their idea of a perfect body has come from a magazine picture (Eating).…

    • 1919 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    For some grown, mature, and developed women, flipping through a magazine full of perfectly polished men and women means nothing more than some extreme advertising. However, for many growing girls it means much more than that. Henry Farid, a Dartmouth professor of computer science who specializes in digital forensics and photo manipulation, agrees. “The more and more we use this editing, the higher and higher the bar goes. They’re creating things that are physically impossible,” he told ABC News in August 2009.…

    • 1094 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Anorexia Nervosa

    • 650 Words
    • 3 Pages

    In Kristen Harrison and Joanne Cantor’s research study “The Relationship Between Media Consumption and Eating Disorder” they looked at media use by college age males and females and for females focused on relationship between media use and body dissatisfaction and drive for thinness. Body dissatisfaction and desire to be thinner represent two possible motives of a person who is at the beginning stages of Anorexia Nervosa in that one’s dissatisfaction with his or her body image may push them to begin to diet and exercise more. However, the media’s constant depiction of the need to lose more weight and to be thinner causes them to develop a distorted view of reality resulting in their dieting and exercise habits to spiral to extremely unhealthy…

    • 650 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    This research was done twelve years ago since then we are now able to get millions of picture through social media. Public figures are posting picture of themselves with photoshop and filter. Young girl are unable to distinguishing the difference reality and alter photoshop, they strive to look like their role model which often time lead to heart break and health problems. According to authors Gemma Lopez-Guimera, who wrote an article about Mass Media and Eating Disorders “it has been indicated that the more use of media such as magazines and music videos, is correlated with higher levels of body dissatisfaction and with higher score of eating disorders components in females.” Women starve themselves to get the perfect body, that is promote as need to be attractive.…

    • 1033 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays