Essay On Body Image Standards Of Americans

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Americans have grown to take body image very seriously over the years. Body image is a subjective picture or mental image of one’s own body. Overtime the American dream has evolved to include body image as a big part of success. American body image is different than body image anywhere else because Americans do whatever it takes to have the “ideal” look. Americans have body image expectations that are unrealistic, harmful, and inconsistent. American’s body image expectations are unrealistic. People in America grow up seeing magazines like Sports Illustrated, People, and Cosmopolitan. Seeing these magazines of famous people with perfect bodies, skin, hair, etc. makes people believe they have to look like that. These magazines are very edited, so not even that “perfect star” looks like that. Media comes into American heads and tells them unrealistic images of how they should look, when nobody can actually looks like that. The people who fit “perfectly” into American’s body image standards are people who have had plastic surgery to look the way they do. “The American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery reported an increase of 446% in cosmetic procedures since 1997 and an overall increase of 8% in 2007, with a 17% increase in men undertaking cosmetic surgery.” says …show more content…

Researchers say that children start to feel disapproval with their bodies at age five. At that point children will eat less, or try to work out. The problem with this is that five year olds need to gain weight to grow, and with body image in mind they can not grow right. When children start believing the way they look isn’t good enough, they can turn to things like starvation, Bulimia, and Anorexia. Anorexia Nervosa is an emotional disorder caused by an obsessive desire to lose weight and look better. The effects of Anorexia Nervosa can be critical and can even cause infertility, brain damage, and death. America’s body image expectations are

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