Eating Disorders can be a sore subject for some, but most tend to avoid the sensitivity and ask the question, “How are these diseases provoked?” A prolific amount of people return with a widespread idea declaring it is society that causes young women to starve themselves and acquire eating disorders. These disorders have been around for quite a while, whether many are aware, or not. Throughout the ages, many women have been under pressure to look a certain way. With the aid of internet and cellphones, however, the consummate image of a woman has been broadcasting around the globe since the late 90s. Eating disorders, such as anorexia, are caused by social media and the societal pressures that create low self-images of young women. This disquisition shall prove that those ideas about social media and eating disorders are true, along with how and why. I will delve into how important the internet is and how influential magazines and society can be to young girls. Pushing themselves to look thin, many go too far and end up acquiring eating disorders. Lastly, these diseases are not only in the United States. Societal pressures stretch all around the world and accordingly, eating disorders do as well.
The internet is playing a key role in the lives of young people. Many people are surprised by the numbers of how many teenagers and young adults use the internet. Amanda Lenhart and associates state in the article “Social Media and Young Adults” display that 93% of teens ages 14 through 17 and young adults ages 18 to 29 use the internet (10). The graph shown on page 11 displays the change in how much the numbers of teens using the internet increased from the year 2000 to 2009. A number of teens also have cell phones. The graph displays...
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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.
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.
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...
intro- Ninety percent of teenage girls have been on a diet. Some take it too far and starve themselves to be thin. Over one million people in just the US are afflicted with anorexia. If what is on the inside matters, then why are does society and the media constantly promote being thin? The influence of society’s promotion of a thin body plays a significant role in the development of such eating disorders as anorexia.
One major issue that continues to arise from the influence of media on children in our society is issues with eating disorders. According to National Eating Disorders, 80% of Americans watch television for over three hours daily (Media, Body Image, and Eating Disorders). Being exposed to this much media daily exposes young kids and adolescents to skewed ideas of beauty and skewed standards of body image. Children and Adolescents are also constantly exposed to these images through advertising online, on billboards, in magazines, on transportation, etc. The images we see in the media are not even physically possible without the help of photo-shopping. Because of this, many kids and adolescents try to achieve the same appearance and end up developing eating disorders. An ongoing study funded by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood institute shows that 40% of girls 9 and 10 years old have tried to lose weight (Teen Health and Media). Girls ages 9 and 10 years old should not even be remotely worried about their weight, yet being exposed to constant media in today’s society has led to severe body image issues. According to the National Association of Anorexia Nervosa and Associated disorders, 8 million people in the US have an eating disorder, 90% of those are women, and they usually begin in teens but may begin as early as 8 years old. (Teen Health and Media). These
Nowadays everyone seems to be infatuated not only with medicine and health, but also with perfect body images. Susan Bordo presses the issue on how the media has contributed to the increase of eating disorders. When television was first being introduced to homes in the 1950s, the media’s portrayal of “the ideal” body was drastically different than it is today. (Rader) Eating disorders are complex conditions that I do feel media contributes to but they can arise from a variety of potential causes as well. How do we find a common ground? If media outlets aren’t the root or cause of eating disorders, what is and what can we do to prevent them?
Eating disorders are described as an illness involving eating habits that are irregular and an extreme concern with body image or weight. Eating disorders tend to appear during teenage years, but can develop at any age. Although more common in women, eating disorders can affect any age, gender or race. In the United States, over 20 million women and 10 million men are personally affected by eating disorders. There are many different causes of eating disorders such as low self esteem, societal pressures, sexual abuse and the victims perception of food. Eating disorders are unique to the sufferer and often, their perception of themselves is so skewed, they may not be aware they have an eating disorder. Media, for quite some time now, has played a significant part in eating disorders. Magazines with headlines ‘Summer Body’, or ‘Drop LB’s Fast!’ attract the attention of girls who may be insecure with themselves. Television productions such as the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show or American’s Next Top Model, show airbrushed and photoshopped women who have body types that may be unachievable. Those who are suffering from eating disorders can suffer dangerous consequences, and it is important to seek help.
Eating disorders have the highest mortality rate of any mental illness; 24 million people of all ages and genders suffer from eating disorders and only 1 in 10 of those 24 million are treated (ANAD). Eating disorders do not discriminate; all ages, genders, ethnicities and races can be victim to this mental illness. It’s important to be aware of the impact eating disorders have on societies across the globe and how the media plays a role if we want to fight the source and promote prevention and/or rehabilitation. I’ve known many people in my life who have some sort of eating disorder, whether it’s anorexia(not eating enough), binge eating(eating large amounts of food rapidly), bulimia (throwing up their food) or just struggling with an unsatisfying self-image. Becoming aware of eating disorders and how they are developed is important to me because in a perfect world, I would like to see this illness become less common or diminished completely among those that I love and anyone else in today’s society. Eating disorders hit home for many people, including myself. Raising awareness may decrease the rate of eating disorders by informing the population of the harm this illness causes and hopefully promote prevention and/or rehabilitation. With the 3 theoretical approaches used by sociologists, Eating disorders can be understood which will better inform society on how to raise awareness, prevent this illness and help those who suffer from eating disorders.
“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.
York, Christopher. “Eating Disorders: How Social Media Helps Spread Anorexia And Bulimia In Young People.” The Huffington Post. AOL Limited, 23 April 2013. Web. 19 March 2014 .
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...
Women in our culture today have developed an obsession with body image and weight that has contributed to the development of eating disorders. The media portrays super-thin models and women take that as the ideal of what they “should” look like. This can have a tremendous impact on their self esteem, and on both the low and high end of the BMI scale, a measure of body fat calculated using your height and weight; whether it be a woman with anorexia, or a woman with obesity. Men also experience this pressure to be muscular and tall, yet it is small compared to what women face. Statistics of college men show that 25% binge eat, 24% diet and 3% purge (Cain, Epler, Steinley, and Sher, 2012). Studies show that people with higher BMI’s experience more body dissatisfaction and and negative body image than people with lower BMI’s (Duncan, al-Nakeeb, and Nevill, 2013). When people feel bad about their body they can experience low self esteem: when a person feels inadequate and lacks respect for the self (Mäkinen, Puukko-Viertomies, Lindberg, Siimes, & Aalberg, 2012). Someone with low self esteem is more at risk for experiencing body dissatisfaction, which can lead to abnormal eating habits (Mäkinen, Puukko-Viertomies, Lindberg, Siimes, & Aalberg, 2012). This can take two forms, dietary restraint and binge eating. High and low BMI has a negative impact on self esteem and body image of women due to the pressure to be perfect in today’s society. The presentation of the following studies of children and adults will seek to understand the differences in men and women and their relationship with BMI, self esteem, and body image through its effect on eating disorders, body dissatisfaction, and the thin-ideal portrayed by the media.
Ninety percent of the eating disorder cases occur in women ages twelve to twenty-five and many researchers believe the media is to blame. Though there is no single cause of an eating disorder, multiple studies cause an eating disorders to the media. With being vulnerable to the “thin ideal” in mass media, there is an increased risk of body dissatisfaction and disordered eating. (“Media, Body Image, and Eating Disorders”)
Around the world people have a ongoing debates over if social media and pop culture have the effect of causing eating disorders. First off, what age group is eating disorders most common in? In the article “Body Image” from opposing viewpoint in context they say “According to a 2015 report by common sense media, a non-profit advocacy group that monitors children’s media more then one-half of girls and one-third of boys as young as six think that they had to be thinner.” This quote is explaining how kids as young as six think that they need to be thinner. Now, how do eating disorders start? According to the Eating Disorder Association “Eating disorders develop as outward signs of inner emotional or psychological distress or problems.
Pew Reasarch Center, ed. Teens and Technology 2013. Washington D.C.: Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project, 2013. Print.