The Perfect Body

Gloria Steinem once said, “If you ask men about their body image, they will tell you they look better than they do. And if you ask a woman, she’ll tell you she looks worse (Body Image Quotes).” In today’s society, women are more worried about how their bodies look than they ever have been. Women have to have a “perfect” body because the media tells them that they have to look a certain way in order to get a guy’s attention or fit in. Some will do anything it takes to achieve that “perfect” body, including developing an eating disorder. The portrayal of women in the media today is one of the leading causes for eating disorders.
The media has been around for a long time and during that time there has been a great deal of changes to the media, …show more content…
Women get this idea of a perfect body from what is portrayed in the media. The percent of girls who say that magazine models influence their idea of a perfect body is sixty-nine (Rader). Over half of the girls surveyed believe models are the definition of perfect bodies. This is why people are led to eating disorders. They believe that these models have everything a girl needs and they want to be just like that. Eighty percent of women say models and women on television make them feel insecure (Rader). Women should not have to feel insecure about their bodies if they are not a size zero and they should not think that they have to starve or make themselves throw up in order to reach that size. Roughly seven million women suffer from an eating disorder (Eating Disorder Statistics). Seven million women feel the need to alter their eating habits because of the pictures they saw of other women. Not only are older women affected by the portrayal of women in the media, but younger girls are also affected. Forty-seven percent of elementary girls say that the pictures in the magazines make them want to lose weight (Rador). These innocent, little girls are constantly being reminded of how “perfect” these women’s bodies are because the media is such a big part of society. Most young girls have celebrity role models and when they see their role model losing all this weight, they think it is okay for them to do …show more content…
They are encouraging it by continuously putting these extremely skinny girls out there for everyone to see and by trying to sell weight loss programs. In one year, Americans spent thirty million dollars on weight loss programs (Overweight). The ones that are on the advertisements for these weight loss programs are celebrities, which does not help the situation of trying to look like famous people. Not only are normal people being the ones persuaded by these programs, but celebrities are as well. The endorsers earn about 33,000 for every pound they lose (Staff, ABC News). Of course celebrities would lose as much weight as possible to earn that money. When other people see those celebrities losing weight, they believe the program works and will buy it to look just like the celebrities who advertised it. That is not the truth. Women should be able to feel beautiful in their own skin and not develop an eating disorder to try to look like women in the media. The depiction of women in the media is one of the leading causes for eating disorders. The media tries to manipulate women into believing that they have to be extremely skinny to be beautiful. Women should not have to suffer from eating disorders, based on other people’s opinions. The media should display women of all shapes and sizes so women can believe they are attractive in their own unique