Delayed Images In Magazines

Marya Hornbacher’s memoir, Wasted, describes her lifelong battle with eating disturbances with focuses on anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa. In modern day society, thinness is associated with “wealth, upward mobility, and success” (Hornbacher, 1998, p. 46). Thinness is “an ideal symbolizing self-discipline, control, sexual liberation, assertiveness, competitiveness, and affiliation with a higher socio-economic class.” (p. 46) Not eating also suggests that one have such a full life that food is not a priority. The media influences children to believe that one must be thin in order to be beautiful. To Marya, a self-proclaimed perfectionist, she must be perfect in order to be successful. She believed she could only be perfect if she had a perfect body, a perfect career, perfect relationships, and perfect control over her life and herself (p. 231-232).

It is apparent that with the increasing popularity of social media today, there has been a shift in dietary changes within our society. Individuals are subconsciously changing how and what they eat. The question arises, why are so many young women dissatisfied with their bodies, despite their size? Although there are several forces believed to play a role in this dissatisfaction such as peer criticism and parental influences, the thin-ideal body is dominating the media (Grabe, Ward, & Hyde, 2008). Thinness is largely emphasized and praised for women in magazines, television shows, movies and commercials (Stice & Shaw, 1992). Anorexia Nervosa is an eating disorder that stems from this ubiquitous obsession to be thin and is often associated with a pathological fear of gaining weight, distorted self-body image and emaciation (The American Heritage® Science Dictionary).

Beauty standards in the media are one of many reasons feeding and eating disorders are a rising problem. The unrealistic body types of being extremely thin, in pop culture, are influential factors for many teens, especially teen girls. According to the Diagnostic Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, fifth edition (DSM-5), anorexia nervosa is a “restriction of energy intake, intense fear of gaining weight, and a disturbance in the perception of one’s body size” (American Psychiatric Association, 2013). Individuals diagnosed with anorexia tend to place a high value on their shape and weight, which can interfere with their daily lives. Individuals diagnosed tend to view of their body shape in a distorted representation. The motivation to become

Her research reviewed 21 studies of the media’s affect on more than 6,000 girls, 10 years or older. The results showed that the more the girls were exposed to the fashion magazines, the more they struggled to have a positive body image. (L2)

"86% of young readers of YM magazine are dissatisfied with their body." Even at 8 years old, children know what fat is, and 1/3 girls from ages 9-12 think they're overweight! At this age children should be enjoying their childhood, not feeling insecure and place themselves in deep pit of vanity. In this chapter, the author is looking deeper into the stereotypes of anorexia, and how it isn't just based on rich, privileged, white girls, and that a multitude of races, genders, and a variety of ages can have it as well.

Body image is an important and influential topic in our society that impacts the self-esteem, good eating habits and body satisfaction of female adolescents. Magazines and TV programs use beauty and ideal thinness to connect with young ladies and persuade them to look as good as the models in magazines by purchasing their dieting products. As asserted by Dohnt and Tiggemann, in order to advocate for female adolescents, we need to introduce programs in schools and TV with a purpose of strengthening their self-esteem (935). Although I disagree with Dohnt and Tiggemann point about introducing preventive programs in the TV, I fully endorse with introducing preventive programs in schools because it helps young adolescents to build on their understanding of an actual body shape. The media is the most influential factor in the body image of a young woman because as insisted by Gallivan, “over 80% of Americans watch TV daily, 3 hours on average.” Overall, this demonstrates that TV programs, social media, and magazines play the major role in the perception and mindset of a young women because in our generation we dedicate most of our time to watch shows and commercials that influence the way we think about

According to the National Eating Disorders Association (NEDA), as many as 60 percent of children between ages 6 and 12 worry about weight gain, and half American teens think they’re overweight. (Turner, 2014) Girls want to lose huge amounts of weight because they think they will feel prettier when all there doing is damaging the inside of their body. Among adolescent girls, 1% to 3% have bulimia and 1% have anorexia. Only 5% to 15% of all people with anorexia or bulimia are male. (Harris, 2004) Most young females and males go through some type of eating disorder. A study in the Archives of General Psychiatry found that more than half a million teens have an eating disorder. (Turner, 2014)

Images of female bodies are everywhere. Women, and their bodies, sell everything from food to cars. Women's magazines are full of articles urging women to fit a certain mold. While standing in a grocery store line you can see all different magazines promoting fashion, weight loss, and the latest diet. Although the magazines differ, they all seemingly convey the same idea: if you have the perfect body image you can have it all…the perfect marriage, loving children, great sex, and a rewarding career. The media, whether TV, print, or Internet advertising, seems to play a huge role in influencing women of all ages; from adolescence and teens, to women in their twenties and thirties, as well as

As many as 10 million woman and girls suffer from anorexia or bulimia in the United States (Steele). Anorexia and bulimia are very serious eating disorders. Many women and young girls feel that these disorders are the only way for them to be accepted by others. However the strive for acceptance only ends up causing pain, emotional harm, or death to those affected. Being a sufferer of anorexia, I know the emotional and physical damage this disease can cause. The root cause of having an eating disorder is still undetermined, yet some doctors and physiologist believe the new focus on a perfect body, shown by the media is to blame. Society’s portrayal and promotion of a thin body image as the ideal female body contributes to eating

Women’s Body Image (www.wellesley.edu/Health/BodyImage) helped demonstrates the young influence of magazines. Those days when girls strive to be something they weren’t, were probably the most crucial days in body imaging. They succumbed into the pressure of looking how everyone else wants them to look. Such teeny bopper magazines sell to many young girls the idea of beauty. Teen Magazine is the princess of that royal court. In every young woman, or man’s mind, there is this longing to be desired. To be desired, you must be attractive. To be attractive, you have to look like that girl on page seventy-one in the latest Teen Magazine (Women’s Body Image).

Research indicates that exposure to thin ideal images in women's magazines is associated with heightened concerns for body shape and size in a number of young women, although the media's role in the psychopathology of body image disturbance is generally believed to be mediated by personality and socio-cultural factors. The purpose of this research study is to know and gather solid facts and reasons about fashion magazines affecting the teenagers’ body image in a form of research to self evaluation through careful accumulation of acceptable data and relevant resources for such data to be precise and spontaneous in its respected details to support results.

According to Kate P. Kerruish and etc., “Anorexia nervosa is estimated to be the third most common chronic medical illness in girls aged 15-19 y, affecting around 0.5 % of adolescent girls in Western countries.” (P.34) Teenage girls are concerned about their weight and believe that slimness is more attractive among peers. They learn from each other to consume low-caloric, low-fat foods and diet pills. This behavioral pattern results in lack of nutrition and medical complications.

This is indicated by the decreasing weight over time of models, actresses and beauty pageant contestants who are held up as ideals of beauty. A number of studies have documented the trend of increasing thinness in playboy centerfolds, Miss America contestants and fashion models between the 1950’s and 1990’s. (Garner, Garfinkel, Schwartz and Thompson 1980). Incidentally during the same period there has been a significant increase in weight in American women thus creating an ever increasing discrepancy between the media ideal and the actual body size of the American woman. (Garner et. al 1980, Wiseman et al 1992).Magazine articles, television shows, and advertisements have also created a social context that may contribute to body dissatisfaction and disordered eating in girls and women. Women magazines(Vogue,Glamour) and magazines that target teenage girls(Seventeen,teen vogue) are readily available in many homes,libraries,offices and bookstores. In the fall of 1989, Seventeen magazine conducted a nationwide survey of 1034 girls aged 12 through 19.They found that 83% of girls in that age range spent an average of 4.3 hours reading magazines per week. Wiseman and colleagues (1992) found a significant increase in advertisements for diet foods and diet products for the years 1973- 1991.In comparing pressures on women and men Anderson and DiDomenico (1992) showed that women’s magazines contained

America is a society obsessed with focusing on weight, as we should be since we have the highest obesity rates in the world. However, damaging things can occur from this obsession with maintaining the ideal weight and demanding to be thin. This is a crisis for adolescents especially since they are in a state of imaginary audience which causes them to be extremely self conscious (Beck, Myer). With the constant fear of being judged many will develop eating disorders such as anorexia nervosa. Psychology Today reports that “Eating disorders were reported to be the third most common illness classified as ‘chronic’ for adolescents in 2000”. All of these disorders can be life threatening to adolescents especially since South Carolina Department of Mental Health found that, “95% of those who have eating disorders are between the ages of 12 and 25”, with anorexia nervosa being extremely popular among those ages.

Accompanying unrealistic images of women, the media spends billions of dollars yearly to advertise the various techniques that eliminate body discontents such as dieting pills and exercising machines, and exploits female magazine reader’s insecurities. Whether magazine advertisements aid in the gradual depletion of body image or fail to impact it at all will be the purpose of this investigation, supplemented by a literature review and organized by a theoretical framework, to support a firm analysis.