Be Skinny or Die Trying

“Dying to be Thin,” produced by PBS, is a documentary that examines the troubles that persons who are affected by eating disorders go through and the constant, daily struggles they face with health and body image. The film tells the story of a number of young women who battled mainly anorexia and bulimia and mixes a variety of ages to give a “during” and an “after” perspective. Many of the women in the video were ballet or some similar type of dancer. Dancers, by their own account, are encouraged to be thin. The issue really came to the forefront after a young ballet dancer from Boston died of heart failure at the young age of 22, with an eating disorder deemed to be the cause. The narrator goes on to introduce more young women and detail the potential illnesses that their eating disorders can cause. Chronic low blood pressure, kidney and liver damage, severe early osteoporosis, and heart failure are all common things seem in patients who suffer from eating disorders. Most patients have dangerously low body weights, body fat percentages, and, often, young women will experience amenorrhea, which is the loss of menstruation. All of the people in the video wanted to be better and were seeking a road to recovery. The video showed though, how difficult that can be since the eating disorders can be so wide ranging and have a number of different root causes. Often patients develop eating disorders as something that they have control over, in a world that they feel is out of their

Anorexia nervosa is an eating disorder and a mental health condition that could potentially be life-threatening. People with anorexia try to keep their weight as low as possible by restricting the amount of food they eat. They often have a distorted image of themselves, thinking that they're fat when they're not.  Some people with the condition also exercise excessively, and some eat a lot of food in a short space of time (binge eating) and then make themselves sick. People affected by anorexia often go to great attempts to hide their behaviour from their family and friends by lying about eating and what they have eaten. Anorexia is linked to

Body image has a huge impact on people in America today. People are constantly worrying whether they are too fat for society’s expectations, and think that being skinny is the only way to be. Advertisements and movies tend to play a huge role on attitudes towards appearance. Because they are surrounded by images of skinny people, Americans today, especially women, believe that having cellulite-free legs and a size zero waist is the best body appearance. This is what society today looks for in life, and tends to influence the reaction of others when they meet someone new.

Anorexia Nervosa (AN) is defined an eating disorder that is consists of abnormally low body weight. A person suffering from this disease typically has a body mass index (BMI) that is less than 85% of what is considered normal. Anorexics have a fear of being overweight and often

Anorexia nervosa is an eating disorder that is categorized by severe food restriction, excessive exercise and body dysmorphia, which leads those that suffer from it to believe that they are overweight. Anorexia nervosa is commonly misunderstood by the general public. Research has disproved many of the previous thoughts about anorexia nervosa. According to the scientific research anorexia nervosa has a genetic factor, is not just a disorder of teenage girls, and that recovery is not simply gaining weight.

Anorexia Nervosa is a serious psychological disease where people develop a constant desire to lose weight and limit their daily energy intake. Anorexia results in declining body fat, unrealistic perceptions and exaggerations of your body image and usually involves an incline in exercise. People with Anorexia can either be restrictive with their food, count kilojoules and skip meals or binge eat and purge. Anorexia Nervosa is the most dangerous and harmful mental illness in Australia. 1 in 10 young adults

Fashion magazines and the media are filled with beautiful women that appear to be extremely thin. Every time someone turns on the television or looks at magazines they see some kind of advertisement for fitness programs or some method of dieting. There is a strong emphasis on dieting and maintaining some ideal weight. Looking at these ads full of “skinny” women gives other women a sense of insecurity about themselves, making them think that thin is the way to be. Society in general tends to think that all women are supposed to appear to look like these surreal images that we see on television and in magazines. You hardly ever see plus size models on TV or in magazines advertising a product. It seems to me that if you are not a Cindy Crawford, Tyra Banks, or Naomi Campbell then you don’t have a chance of succeeding in this fat phobic world.

While Anorexia is not a “new” disease, there are many things in today’s society that not only does nothing to try to stop it and actually seem to encourage it. At any given time if you’re standing at the checkout line of any store, there will be a rack of magazines and chances are at least one will have a headline glamourizing a movie star or stars that are thin. The only times they are negative is when that star

As humans on this planet we often think about what others think about our appearance. We often, in this society, look at a person through their characteristics such as: looks, height, clarity of skin, and by how fat or thin one appears to be. In the article, The Diet Zone: A Dangerous Place, by Natascha Pocek, she states the fact that, in this society, we put a lot of emphasis on diets and appearing thin. From when we are children we tend to change our views according to the ways of man, and find ways to stay fit or to lose weight. With this constant loss of weight we tend to get into a hole of wanting to be thinner, and in my opinion that want leads to the attempts of so many girls developing some

Anorexia Nervosa, a mental illness in which a person has an intense fear of gaining weight and a distorted perception of their weight and body shape. People with this illness believe themselves to be fat even when their weight is so low

Being skinny has been America’s greatest beauty ideal for decades, a societal standard pressured upon women. In our current society, the media expects women to look a certain way. However, the media’s interpretation of an ideal body is so warped and distorted that many women are attempting to attain an unrealistic physical appearance that will never be possible. Most models within the fashion industry are thinner than 98% of American women (Lippey). When models are photoshopped and put in magazines, completely unachievable body goals are displayed everywhere. Even models suffer from substantial expectations-- 64.1% of models have been asked to lose weight by their agencies (“Model Scouts”). Models can be perceived as perfect, epitomes of beauty, and yet they too are unable to reach their own agency’s demanding requirements. These unhealthy and toxic standards have been placed upon a tall pedestal that no one can achieve. According to the NEDA (National Eating Disorders Association), there has been “a rise in incidence of anorexia in young women ages 15 to 19 in each decade since 1930” (“Get The Facts”). Damaging and negative concepts are established during childhood, forcing adolescent girls to believe that if they can’t fit into

“To be happy and successful, you must be thin,” is a message women are given at a very young age (Society and Eating Disorders). In fact, eating disorders are still continuously growing because of the value society places on being thin. There are many influences in society that pressures females to strive for the “ideal” figure. According to Sheldon’s research on, “Pressure to be Perfect: Influences on College Students’ Body Esteem,” the ideal figure of an average female portrayed in the media is 5’11” and 120 pounds. In reality, the average American woman weighs 140 pounds at 5’4”. The societal pressures come from television shows, diet commercials, social media, peers, magazines and models. However, most females do not take into account of the beauty photo-shop and airbrushing. This ongoing issue is to always be a concern because of the increase in eating disorders.

Anorexia nervosa is an eating disorder where people, who are underweight, see themselves as overweight. People with anorexia are obsessed with weighing themselves and eat small portions of a certain type of food. Some people can also have binge-eating disorder by self-vomiting, excessive exercising and extreme dieting. Anorexia is the fear of becoming fat and in order to stay thin, the person stops eating causing malnutrition and instead of becoming thin and they get skinny. Symptoms of anorexia include: extreme thinness, the intense fear of gaining weight, extreme restricted eating, and a self-esteem that is heavily influenced by body image. Other symptoms that

Anorexia nervosa is an eating disorder that makes people lose more weight than is considered healthy for their age and height. (1Anorexia Nervosa MedlinePlus) They may be afraid of gaining weight, even though they are are underweight. They will have extreme control over their food and calorie intake, and exercise intensely. Individuals with this condition usually have low to extremely low weight, and body fat. Most patients are malnourished. Patients with this disorder have a disturbed body concept.

“Anorexia Nervosa is characterized by self-starvation to avoid obesity. People with this disorder believe they are overweight, even when their bodies become grotesquely distorted by malnourishment.” (Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia)