It has been debated whether or not the media is to blame for the increase in eating disorders among adolescent girls. From Photoshopping magazine advertisements to casting only skinny women for movies or television shows, the media gives a new perspective on being skinny. Although adolescent girls can develop eating disorders for multiple other reasons, researchers agree that the media is the most influential factor.???one of the most influential? In Jeannine Gailey’s article “Starving is the Most Fun a Girl Can Have,” she explores the topic of the internet and its relationship to eating disorders among adolescent girls. The internet is one of the most frequently used resources when it comes to learning how to become skinnier due to its …show more content…
Most girls who suffer from eating disorders are often afraid of telling their parents or friends due to the fear of getting judged or ridiculed. As a result, they tend to turn to discussion boards on the internet. Discussion boards serve as outlets for sufferers to talk about their stories with people who relate (Gailey 99). In addition to being outlets for sufferers, discussion boards can also serve as places where girls can share personal tips and routines for starvation. Gailey mentions one post where a girl explains how she survives the day by drinking only one diet coke, two gallons of water, and an doing unhealthy amount of exercise. The girl also explains how she successfully avoids eating around her family (Gailey …show more content…
At pubescent ages, girls are most concerned with their appearance and fitting in with others (Clay, Vignoles, & Dittmar 452). The media teaches girls that, in order to fit in, they have to be skinny and attractive. Young girls will do anything to achieve this, and this often consists of taking an unhealthy route. Helen Champion and Adrian Furnham, the authors of the article “The Effect of the Media on Body Satisfaction in Adolescent Girls,” mention a similar magazine cover study that has a similar result. It has been proven several times that unnatural magazine covers cause a drop of self-esteem in young girls. In this study, researchers showed 203 adolescent girls natural and unnatural magazine covers. Over half of these girls reported that they wish to be thinner after viewing the pictures, and the majority of this percentage wanted to lose weight as a result (Champion & Furnham
Female beauty ideals are an overwhelming force in teen media. Approximately 37% of articles in leading magazines for teen girls emphasize a focus on physical appearance. This is none to surprising considering two of the top contenders in this media genre are Seventeen and Teen Vogue. CosmoGIRL and Elle Girl were among the ranks of popular teen magazines, but in recent years have become exclusively online publications. Add in a dash of publications Tiger Beat and Bop, and it becomes glaringly obvious that girls are charged with the prime directive of looking good to get the guy. The story becomes more disturbing when the actual audience, which includes girls at least as young as eleven years old, is considered. In a stage when girls are trying for the first time to establish their identities, top selling publications are telling them that their exteriors should be their primary concern of focus. Of course, this trend doesn’t stop with magazines. A study conducted in 1996 found a direct correlation between the “amount of time an adolescent watches soaps, movies and music videos” a...
The media has a crucial influence on adolescents. Golan, Hagay and Tamir (2013) stated that “Since puberty, by its very nature, is associated with weight gain, adolescents frequently experience frequently experience dissatisfaction with their changing bodies” (p. 1). Young boys grow up with the expectation of having to become a strong, muscular, masculine man. Young girls see skinny models and movie stars and grow up thinking that it is only socially acceptable and attractive if they are also skinny, or very thin. “In a culture that glorifies thinness some adolescents, mostly girls, become excessively preoccupied with their physical appearance and begin to diet obsessively in an effort to achieve or maintain a thin body (Golan, Hagay & Tamir, 2013, 1). Little girls play with dolls that have narrow waists, full busts, lots of makeup and their hair done a certain way. Advertisers and manufacturers are portraying a particular body image with the dolls, and this makes little girls form an opinion on how they should look. “Young girls may engage in conversations...
Udovitch is very persuasive with her choices of words and personal interviews. According to Galynker, Udovitch has a “dispassionate description of the girls and the “pro-ana” Web sites.” (Galynker 564) While Udovitch takes a reporter’s view upon the subject, Galynker takes the view of a trained medical psychologist. Although Galynker and Udovitch discuss the same subject, their views and opinions are entirely opposed throughout the entire essay. Within the selection A Secret Society of the Starving, Udovitch describes the lives of girls with eating disorders and how websites and society affect them.
The media uses means such as social media, magazines, and television to influence people, specifically teenagers. Adolescence can be a confusing time for everyone, but teenage girls are more vulnerable to their influence due to their emotional maturity. Although girls currently believe that this impossible body image is expected of them, they develop eating disorders because of it. For example, the Victoria's secret fashion show and underwear commercials help set up the impossible beauty standard all girls and women are trying to achieve. Those models live by a strict diet and exercise routine plus their photos are manipulated in order to look the way they do. If models don't look thin enough, they will “frequently have collarbones, ribs, and even hips erased to make them look thinner (Body Image-Photo Manipulation).” Magazines are also a huge part of media's influence. It is common to find teenage girls reading fashion magazines. One issue of the popular magazine, Vogue, “was found to contain 144 manipulated images, including the cover (Body Image-Photo Manipulation).” It is normal to be conce...
Our society today is heavily influenced by the media and the imagery it shows. Though it may be indirect, the media provides unhealthy messages about ideal body sizes, gender attractiveness, and weight control that make women view themselves in a negative way. Magazines, television, and movies influence teenage girls on what they believe their body image should be. The images they show set the standard of what is considered physically attractive in our society. With the use of photoshop, media depicts falsified images of models and actresses to create a perfected look that is unattainable by the average woman. This creates a desire among teenage girls to look like these stars that are often shown. When teenage girls look at these images, they compare themselves to those images, and then judge themselves based on these comparisons. These judgements can potentially lead to eating disorders. In order to prevent the risk of eating disorders among teenage girls, the media should depict a typical image of people, rather than idolizing a specific standard of beauty.
One of the main external factors in the development of an eating disorder is the media. The media objectifies both men and women throug...
Harrison, K., & Hefner, V. (2006). Media exposure, current and future body ideals, and disordered eating among predolescent girls: A longitudinal panel study. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 35(2), 146-156. McCabe, M.A., & Ridge, A.R. a.
“The attention-grabbing pictures of various high-flying supermodels and actors on different magazine covers and advertisements go a long way in influencing our choices” (Bagley). The media is highly affective to everyone, although they promote an improper image of living. Research proved says those with low self-esteem are most influenced by media. Media is not the only culprit behind eating disorders. However, that does not mean that they have no part in eating disorders. Media is omnipresent and challenging it can halt the constant pressure on people to be perfect (Bagley). Socio-cultural influences, like the false images of thin women have been researched to distort eating and cause un-satisfaction of an individual’s body. However, it is clear that, although virtually all women are exposed to these socio-cultural influences, only a very small proportion develop clinical eating disorders (Mazzeo and Bulik). Every article believes that socio-culture have an impact on eating disorders. Although, researchers believe that is not the only reason, and the easiest statement to make. Eating disorders are far more complicated than it just being blamed on the media. Bagley, Mazzeo and Bulik all state that media play a role in the development but are not the main reason to developing an eating disorder. In all of the research done thus far media is a part of eating disorders, but not the only culprit.
In recent years, sociologists, psychologists, and medical experts have gone to great lengths about the growing problem of body image. This literature review examines the sociological impact of media-induced body image on women, specifically women under the age of 18. Although most individuals make light of the ideal body image most will agree that today’s pop-culture is inherently hurting the youth by representing false images and unhealthy habits. The paper compares the media-induced ideal body image with significant role models of today’s youth and the surrounding historical icons of pop-culture while exploring various sociological perspectives surrounding this issue.
The complications that accompany body image have long been an issue in society. Body image is the sense of how an individual views his or her own body as compared to others in society, or what is considered to be the ideal body image. There are many different factors that effect ones body image, but a major influence is the media. The media has long been associated with eating disorders such as anorexia nervosa and bulimia. Anorexia nervosa is an eating disorder where an individual participates in self-starvation, and bulimia is an eating disorder where an individual will eat as much as he or she wishes and then purges the previously eaten food. These are two destructive eating disorders that are associated with a negative body image. This comes to question, does media have an influence on creating a negative body image, which may inherently lead to eating disorders like anorexia nervosa and bulimia? Anorexia nervosa and bulimia affect various age groups but is extremely common in adolescence and emerging adulthood. During this stage in an individual’s lifespan there is a lot going on with ones psychological development as well as body. How an adolescent views his or her body image be highly impacted by how the media portrays what the ideal body image is. According to Berger (2015), “as might be expected from a developmental perspective, healthy eating begins with childhood habits and family routines” (p.415). If proper eating habits are not implemented negative body image and eating disorders that are associated with media becomes further predominant in adolescence and emerging adulthood.
Among women in the U.S., is a constant reminder with the underlying message being “be skinny or die trying”. There is a plethora of diet plans, pills, and meals, and women seem to get the idea that they need to change some sort of physical attribute about their body. Most grown women are aware of anorexia and the effects it can have on the body. Nonetheless, the problem lies within the four walls of the women’s homes. Contained by those walls are the daughters of the women, and they, unlike their mothers’ don’t understand the actual effects of not eating enough. All the young teens understand is that they are not as skinny as the other girls they are surrounded by on a daily basis. –Research shows that by the age of 7, many children have already decided that it isn’t okay to be fat. – The datum that it has already crossed the minds of seven year old girls to want to be thinner, should be an automatic red flat to the media, and society, to tone down the signals they are sending young girls in America. -69% of girls in 5th-12th grade reported that magazine pictures influenced their idea of a perfect body shape.- Social media and other forms of media cause more problems with anorexia than people assume. In a particular instance, the clothing store, Urban Outf...
Levine, Michael P., and Sarah K. Murnen. "Everybody Knows That Mass Media Are/Are Not [Pick One] A Cause Of Eating Disorders": A Critical Review Of Evidence For A Causal Link Between Media, Negative Body Image, And Disordered Eating In Females." Journal Of Social & Clinical Psychology 28.1 (2009): 9-42. Academic Search Premier. Web. 28 Mar. 2014.
In the fourteenth century, thirty-three year old, “St. Katherine” starved herself to death. This illness is certainly is not solely a physical illness; eating disorders are mental illnesses as well. The documentary also introduces a young, fourteen year old girl named “Erin.” “Erin” is shown at the beginning of the documentary looking into a mirror and writing words like “fat, ugly, disappointment” on it because she felt those words described her. “Erin” was disgusted by herself, she hated herself, and it is clear to see that during this scene. Davis sat in silence while watching this part, in his and my later interview he expressed his sadness saying, “I hate to see someone hate him or herself to that extent. I feel like no one should have to live being disgusted by themselves the way she seems to be.” “Erin” had been starving herself for three months, leaving her at 20% below normal weight for her gender, age, and height. “Erin” was dying of malnutrition because of her irrational fear of fat. The irrational fear of fat that “Erin” obtained was not a result of her desire to be what she saw on the billboards, what she saw in the magazines, but because she was aiming to become so thin that she would look unattractive. “Erin” was controlled by her fears, by her anxieties because she was sexually abused, she admitted. After being sexually abused, “Erin” felt like she had control of nothing,
Rader, Jonathon. "Does the media cause eating disorders?." healthcarecommunication.com. N.p., 28 Aug. 2012. Web. 5 Dec. 2013.
The problem with the influence of media is introducing unhealthy diets that involve fasting, which can lead to an overall eating disorder of either anorexia or bulimia (Haas, et al., 2012).... ... middle of paper ... ... The mass media plays a large role in shaping a teenage and adolescent girl’s body image.