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Body image and the effect on women
Body image and the effect on women
Eating disorders and its effects
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Since I was younger I always felt out of place in my life, whether it be socially or mentally and it really didn’t occur to me until I was in high school for why I felt out of place and it had to do with my weight. My freshman year I was two-hundred and thirty pounds, I also played football, but this wasn’t an excuse for why I weighed so much at such a young age. As I progressed through high school my weight followed me, two-sixty, then two-eighty and finally two ninety-five and especially in today’s day and age people are more self-conscious about their bodies due to outside factors such as certain trends or the sexual personification of today’s society that may lead one to believe they are undesirable. Another aspect of my health that affects me is my family health history, my father, grandmother, four uncles and six aunts have diabetes. …show more content…
At this point right now as I type this paper I weigh two hundred and ninety five pounds and a body mass index of 29.5 and am, by definition overweight, so the specific target behavior I am choosing to change is my weight. Now I know this may sound broad, but since starting this Kinesiology class I have learned so much in dealing with physical as well as mental health and how it affects one’s body. Things like stress can cause one to be in mental despair and change their daily habits which adversely affect their health, and I feel at this moment in my life, with sports no longer being an option for my future, I see no reason to be at my current weight and I have decided to do something about it. I know this is an uphill battle but after 15 weeks I plan on being in the best shape in my life, to beat the odds of getting a disease that has plagued my family, and to help pave the way to a healthier future for myself and the ones who care about
“Fat Acceptance”: An Argument Lacking Validity Cynara Geisslers’ essay “Fat Acceptance: A Basic Primer,” was published in Geez Magazine in 2010. The focus of the essay is to refute the pressure of society to be thin and promote self-acceptance regardless of size. While this essay touches on many agreeable points, it tends to blow many ideas out of context in an attempt to create a stronger argument. The article takes on a one-sided argument without any appropriate acknowledgement of the opposition, overlooks the risks of ignoring personal health, and has a strong feminist ideology associated towards the essay which tends to make the validity of her argument questionable.
The author brings in the mental health aspect and talks about the ridicule that is a part of a heavy person’s life regularly. She notes that people will make rude comments, or comment about what they have in their grocery cart at the store. She states that people are not that into getting medical help by reason of a doctor almost always attributing health issues to the fact a person is fat. She talks about how she has tried so many times to lose weight, but she realized that she needed to just make peace with her body. Spake and Worley disagree on how people should handle their addiction.
After a long deliberation I decided to do my behavior modification project on my unhealthy eating habits. There are many meaningful reasons why I choose this as my behavior to modify. I want to kick start a healthy lifestyle change by eating healthier and being more active. Another upside to modifying this behavior is too hopefully *fingers crossed* lose a few unwanted pounds. The long term goal of this change is to live a happier, healthier life, and become more confident in myself. I have high hopes that I can achieve all of these goals by cutting out junk food and sweets and replacing those items with nutritious and balanced food.
Interest in the social aspects of obesity is nothing new. Jeffrey Sobal has written extensively about the social and psychological consequences of obesity , including the stigmatisation and discrimination of obese and even overweight individuals (Sobal 2004).
The short story Weight begins off with the main character making a statement that she is being held back and is feeling heaviness take over her energy and body. She recounts that some days she feels as though she will not make it through the day. These thoughts she has reoccur as she sits across the table from a man by the name of Charles. She describes him as being rich and remarks that if he hadn’t had money neither of them would be sitting across from one another at this restaurant (179). The main character is trying to raise money for a shelter named Molly’s Place. It is named after a lawyer who was murdered by her own husband. The main character knows nothing about this man, she only knows he is wealthy and that she wants him to donate to the good cause. The evening progresses and they
In order to take a sociological viewpoint into account when one examines obesity, first it is important to understand how obesity is recognized in current society. According to today’s news articles and magazines and advertisements and other mass media about health and healthy life, one can easily realize that a great number of people have an eagerness to be healthy. Also, one can assume through these mass media about health that everyone wants to be attractive, and they are even prone to transform their own behaviors to gain attractiveness. This is because most people live a life where social interaction is frequently required and must engage themselves into social interaction every day of their life. Therefore, based on these ideas and proofs throughout this mass media, obesity is regarded as one of the characteristics that is disgraceful and undesirable in society.
At the beginning of the journey, I used an unhealthy way -- Only eating apples for 14 days was my first “strategy” to quick lose weight. Despite I lost 12 pounds of the first two weeks, I could not concentrate and feel depressed. Yet after returning normal diet, my weight rebounded. I hated myself why ate so much before and why I have the gene that gains weight perhaps even if I only drink water. After a few days, I realized that only keeps a diet is not efficient, I have to work out in order to burn more calories. I found a front desk position in a gym, hence I could work out as free after my work. Realizing the process would be tough if I do it alone, I started a post of a BBS in order to attract a group of people. I shared how at first that I used unhealthy way frustrated me, and how much weight I had been lost since I try eating healthier and work out more; I want to continue this method and find some friends getting each other’s back. With the same determination, a group of 20 people was established.
Part of my five-year goal is to become disciplined in the management of my physical body. I realize that with out good physical health, today's leaders can not stand up to the challenges of corporate life. I have learned that weight does not matter, but the amount of body fat is what counts. I currently am not disciplined in this area. I am convinced that by lowering the amount of fat and increasing the lean muscle mass of my body will help make me a better leader in today's corporate world. I must eat strategically to boost my business stamina, creativity, and productivity.
Today obesity is talked about as a major physical health problem. It can cause diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease, immobilization, and many other problems. However many articles fail to mention what is one of the most important and most destructive problems. This is the effect of obesity on one’s mental health and wellbeing. Being excessively overweight usually instills in it’s victims a sense of self worthlessness and gives them a very negative self-image. This can lead to an array of problems that affect the person in a way that is much more direct and difficult to deal with than physical problems. While the problem is known to affect men, it strikes women much more often.
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.
Studies show that fat people suffer from embarrassment, pressure to diet, judgement, and insufficient health care, all leading to a feeling of remoteness in society (Kirschling). Due to the discrimination of overweight individuals in America, a pro-fat movement has broken out, completely contradicting the pro anorexia and pro bulimia movements. This movement focuses on the acceptance of living out an obese lifestyle. America is tolerant to larger sized individuals do to our easy access of unhealthy food and toleration of sedentary lifestyles. However, this mentality of “I acknowledge the fact that I am overweight and I will remain this way because it is acceptable now” is not necessarily healthy in the physical way. Yes, accepting yourself and your body is mentally nutritious, but countless illnesses can come with this if you are not consuming the proper diet and engaging in exercise. Body positivity has gained a whole new meaning. Being positive about something when you are knowingly impairing it is contradicting. A considerable part of the pro-fat movement is the theory of health at every size. Scientifically, this notion is false. For example, an individual with an eating disorder is obviously sickly in size. Medical experts claim they need restorative health possibly in a hospital. Therefore there is no such thing as health at every size. If society embarrassed an obese individual by pointing out
Just like Oranges and Lemons, and dust, the glass paperweight is a major symbol in 1984, representing a homage to the past, then turning into Mr. Charrington's room, Winston's hope, and Julia's and Winston's lives, but at the end it turns into Winston's smashed dreams. All this helps contribute to plot parts, characters, and the theme. Mr. Charrington, appreciating the paperweight, says, “That wasn't made less than a hundred years ago. More, by the look of it […] It is a beautiful thing” (84). Talking nicely about the glasspaperwight adds to Mr. Charrington's character. He is an old man who loves the past and appreciates it. Mr. Charrington's love of the paperweight adds to Winston's hope that Winston is not alone in loving the past. The paperweight
Physical beauty is constructed by the society that we live in. We are socialized from a very young age to aspire to become what our culture deems ideal. Living in the United States, as in many other Western cultures, we are expected to be well-educated, maintain middle-class or upper-class status, be employed as well as maintain a physical standard of beauty. Although beauty is relative to each culture, it is obvious that we as Americans, especially women, are expected to be maintain a youthful appearance, wear cosmetics and fashionable clothes, but most importantly: not to be overweight. Our society is socially constructed to expect certain physical features to be the norm, anything outside this is considered deviant. Obesity is defined as outside the norms of our culture's aesthetic norms (Gros). “People who do not match idealized or normative expectations of the body are subjected to stigmatization” (Heckert 32). Obesity is a physical deviance; it is one that is an overwhelming problem in our society as we are always judged daily, by our appearance. Those who do not conform to the standards of beauty, especially when it comes to weight, are stigmatized and suffer at the hands of a society that labels them as deviants.
For this paper I decided to take a second and evaluate my life and think about what were some of my current lifestyle habits and behaviors and which out of these habits would I like to change. After sitting down and evaluating all of my main habits I categorized them into groups of which ones were helping to lead me to a long healthy lifestyle and which ones were likely to lead me to an unhealthy life and lifestyle. After narrowing these unhealthy habits down to my top three I decided to focus this paper and my attention on my current nutrition and most of all on my negative eating habits. After evaluating my lifestyle and all of my unhealthy habits I felt that my current nutrition level and eating patterns were in need of the most improvement and change.
My parents arrived in the United States hoping for a better future not for themselves, but for the baby they carried in their arms. We would often move from relatives ' houses since my parents couldn’t afford renting an apartment themselves. We were fortunate enough to have caring relatives who didn 't mind us living with them since they knew the hardships we were going through. I grew up in a household where only Spanish was spoken given that both my parents didn’t speak any English at all. When I was in kindergarten, my teacher was afraid that I would be behind the rest of my classmates, given that I only spoke Spanish fluently. I was fortunate to receive free tutoring from my kindergarten teacher. We would often read books together until