Do I Look Fat?

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Do I Look Fat?

How many calories does it have? I can’t eat that it’s too fattening. Do I look fat? I wish I had her body. How many times can we listen to woman say the same thing over and over again? How many times can we (as women) think these things about ourselves? It is words and phrases like these that seem to plague the minds of over 7 million women across the United States (Eating Disorders in the USA). Why is it that so many woman have such a preoccupation with the way their body’s look? Why is it that the shape of a woman’s body determines how her high self- esteem is? These are questions that have been with out answers for many years. This in not the way it should be, but this is how it is. So many woman are concerned with they way they look. So concerned, that it often begins to interfere with their physical and mental health, causing them to develop sever eating disorders. Why is it like this, and who or what is to blame? This is where the controversies start. There is overwhelming evidence and many reasons to believe that “today’s society” is the one to blame in this case.
Sadly enough, women are given the message that in order to obtain happiness and success, they must have the perfect body. Growing older in today's society is much different for women than it is for men. If a man's body changes or his hair starts to turn gray, he is considered to be "distinguished". If a woman's body changes and her hair starts to turn gray, she is considered to be "letting herself go". Eating disorders often become a woman's way of escaping the daily pressures of life. In turn, woman begin to feel guilty for eating, because of the pressures that society has bestowed upon them (Psychiatric Times, 1999)
Many people are under the impression that eating disorders only affect teenage girls. Unfortunately, more and more women are developing eating disorders well into their twenties, thirties, forties, and beyond. The onset of such eating disorders like anorexia, bulimia, and compulsive eating can occur at any time in a person's life (National Association). There are no biological causes for these disorders, however there are many aspects of society that seem to have strong influences on women who develop eating disorders. The media is high on the list as being one of the negative influences on women, and may be one of the main reasons why wom...

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...reat deal of pressure to be thin which is why so many develop some kind of eating disorder. Women need to take a stand and stop trying to live up to the standards that society has set. For starters, women need to stop buying fashion magazines and diet products. Most importantly, women need to remember that weight is nothing but a number, and has absolutely nothing to do with intellectual ability. So, to all the woman out there who have ever had any doubt about there inner beauty (or outer beauty) I say this- “There nothing wrong with wanting to be healthy and wanting to feel good, but we are going to be running this country some day, and we can’t let not let the shape of our body get in the way of the wonderful things we can do.” Women need to live their lives, happy, healthy, and confident. Hopefully, society will soon realize how truly amazing women really are.

Works Cited

Eating Disorders in the USA, http://www.edap.org/edinfo/stats.html

Miller, M.D., Merry N., and Pumariega, M.D. Andrés. “Culture and Eating Disorders.”
Psychiatric Times February 1999, Vol. XVI, Issue 2

National Association of Anorexia Nervosa and Associated Disorders,
http://www.anad.org/facts.htm.

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