Do Girls ' Really Need A Perfect?

In today's society, body image is more than just the mental picture people have about themselves, it is also how others make them feel through peer pressure. Young girls are faced with a loss of confidence when others are trying to make them live up to major expectations. Most of these expectations consist of being slim while also having right amount of curves. All of the expectations coming from social media pictures posted by models and celebrities. Almost all girls are expected to stand out in a world full of male dominance. With this type of pressure, girls can start to binge drink and form an eating disorder to try and get rid of the stress that is piled on top of them. Many teens are pressured to be perfect by wanting

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).

It seems like every young girl dreams of becoming a model these days. Every young girl has the desire to get thinner than other girls in order to look like models on T.V, magazines and so on. The New York Times publishes articles for the majority of the audience to read, which is mostly adults. Mim Udovitch’s article, “A Secret Society of the Starving” talks about two major eating disorders that are anorexia and bulimia within many girls. Udovitch reports stories about three girls that are going through these disorders or have gone through them. The three girls Udovitch includes are Claire, Chaos, and Futurebird. Ken Jackson’s interpretation of

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

Donna, who suffered from bulimia for 13 years, refuses to have social media in order to protect herself. She was in an online discussion forum in high school where people compared their weights, binged together and helped one another avoid eating which affected her so greatly that it drives her to stay away from social media because she doesn’t want to compare anymore. There is social media pages very much like that discussion forum that Donna was in that motivate those who suffer to get worse by saying things like “Pretty girls don’t eat” and “skip dinner, be thinner” on the pictures they post. There always has been “Pro-ana” (pro anorexia) and “Pro-mia” (pro bulimia) websites but social media has given those type of sites a global platform where they can share their ideas and photographs to support the self-destructive behaviors that they treat as a lifestyle choice, instead of as the serious mental illness it is. The constant stream of images of we are exposed to cause eating disorders to thrive. One study shows that the more time teenage girls spend on facebook heighten the likeliness of them developing an eating disorder. These websites and social media pages may cause triggers but they are never the sole cause of someone’s eating disorder. There is also very many testimonies of recovery on social media that could have a positive effect on someone’s eating disorder as well, but it's

Young teenage girls are tempted towards deadly lifestyles due to the Internet’s wide array of pro-anorexic websites; these sites provide images and advice for those desiring to get thin quickly, resulting in healthy young girls developing life-threatening eating disorders. Pro-ana websites wage war on the developing minds of young girls. These dangerous resources support young girls in their quest for weight loss, though it is not in a positive way. Photos and forums located on these websites suggest unhealthy

Imagine waking up every morning, struggling to get out of bed and hating to look at yourself in the mirror. Girl’s will look into the mirror for hours and criticize every last inch of their body with the words “fat, ugly, worthless” echo in their head. They think their body isn’t good enough and want to look skinner like the other woman in magazines or people they see on TV. The media has a big part in self-image toward young woman. The message being sent to these women on the media is that they are not pretty enough or thin enough. Which results in people having an eating disorder.

Along with the unrealistic body images on social media it drags along obsession with dieting, food, and appearance in young adolescents creating eating disorders. “Adolescents diagnosed with serious eating disorders such as anorexia nervosa and bulimia often report that their symptoms can be linked to the bullying they received from their age peers as well as the unrealistic media images presented as an ideal for them to follow.”(www.phycologytoday.com) The unrealistic body ideal that they feel they need to follow has a big impact on the way teens look at what they are eating, and their weight and shape which can lead to serious eating disorders. “Adolescent females who are unable to conform to the ideal being put forward by movie, television find themselves taking extreme measures to be more like their role models.” (www.phycologytoday.com) Teens feel that it is important to become like their role models that they see on social media and go to extreme measures to become the ideal weight and shape

A large contributor to eating disorders on college campuses is social media and technology. In today’s society thinness is portrayed in a positive and gratifying way, especially on social media, which plays a large role in almost every college student’s social life. For example, there are many Instagram, Twitter, and online blog accounts that are dedicated to inspiration for being thin, known as “thinspo”. Sites such as these glorify being overly thin and portray it as a positive form of self-control and will power rather than as a crippling mental illness. Further, with the presence of smart phones there are a plethora of apps that allow users to count calories and manage diets. While these apps might have positive intentions of weight loss

There was a study gone on girls ages 9-17 years old they asked the girls to interpret Magazine weight loss advertising, Tv advertising and infomercials that showed weight loss products. 30 of the participants said that they would use some of the infomercial products and some weight loss advertising. The other 10 participants said they would consider it but wouldn't be needing it. Why did the other 10 participants say they would consider it but wouldn't be needing it? This is because the way they picture their body image they are “Skinny” And “Fit” so they wouldn't need the weight loss help in their minds. But why do the other 30 participants think they need this?” It's just the way you grow up or the way you see yourself.” Says Dr.Crumpton “This can also be a part of what people say to you or around you that may jog your mind.” In the study they then asked the girls why they thought they needed these products Elle age 12 said “I just hear people talk about me and about my body shape that I dont think Im good enough for myself.” Mia age 9 said “I want to feel pretty inside and out.” It looks like most girls aren't happy with the way they think they look like. Sara age 17 has been asking girls around her school if they like the way they think they look Sara asked a total of 230 girls in her school 100 said they like the way they look and feel perfectly fine and 130 girls disagreed and did not like they way they look and feel. Some girls have cut back on the snacks and food they eat to hopefully feel better about the way they look. 10 girls have recently died from not being satisfied with their body image this could have been of suicide, Testing health related products, And medicines. Some other studies show that the more reality tv girls watch the more they will care about their body image. This is mostly because of the way reality tv actros look and some of the

One perspective on eating disorders such as Anorexia Nervosa places the blame on society’s obsession with dieting and the pressure for thinness among women. A Gallup Poll showed that 31% of women and 21% of men are trying to lose weight (Wilke, 2014). Between 40%-60% of girls in elementary school are concerned with their weight (Smolak, 2011). Society’s image of the ideal women is an extremely thin form, really without shape. Barbie dolls and other toy models display unrealistic body shapes. “The standards for thinness have grown increasingly strict and have become more unrealistic over time” (Helgeson, 2017). The media normalizes dieting and excessive thinness and also encourages individuals to evaluate their bodies and to use extreme measures

Not eating leads to many more problems than just depression. It leads to being malnourished, losing hair, fatigue, organs shutting down and possibly death. Social media should be more aware of the impressions they have on innocent bystanders. People put their lives at risks just to achieve what media is portraying as “normal”. Not only can media cause a person to believe they are not good enough, but it can prevent someone who already struggles with an eating disorder from getting better. A lot of people believe that media is the biggest influence for eating disorders. After a text done on the biggest influence in ones life, “their findings suggested that anorexic women use fashion magazine articles and images for specific functions related to their eating disorder”

Lopez-Guimera states, “Media are among the principal social agents in many societies around the world. Television, magazines, newspapers, radio, cinema, advertising, the Internet, and other so-called ‘‘new media’’ or ‘‘new technologies’’ occupy— if not invade—much of our leisure time, and indeed our working time” (Lopez-Guimera, 4). If you really think about it, on most occasions, when Americans have some down time, or a couple of minutes to rest, they quickly turn to the Internet or television. As for teenage girls, this is what aids in the issue of unhappiness with the body. If a girl spends up to ten minutes a day on a social media, or networking site, that can lead up to the viewing of an estimate twenty pictures. Yes, twenty pictures, in only ten minutes. No wonder why girls have so many things to compare themselves to. One of the worst social media sites for this issue would be Tumblr, a domain where any user can share and post hundreds of pictures on to their own page for everyone to view. When searching the words “skinny Tumblr” on Google, hundreds of Tumblr pages come up with disturbing names such as, thin-to-fit-in, some-day-I-will-be-skinny, skinny-size-zero, soso-skinny, along with many more. The idea of girls

Eating disorders are defined as any range of psychological disorders, characterized by abnormal or disturbed eating habits. And in today’s society these disorders are fairly common. Anorexia is a disorder characterized by a desire to lose weight by refusing to eat. And bulimia is a disorder involving distortion of body image, and an obsessive desire to lose weight, in which bouts of extreme overeating are followed by depression and self-induced vomiting, purging, or fasting. Statistically the disorders found highly in today’s youth are anorexia, bulimia, and binge eating. Sadly 1 in 200 women suffer from anorexia and 3 in 100 suffer from bulimia. Even more disappointing than that, 86% of teenagers feel less confident about their bodies after looking at social media. Social media may not be the cause of all eating disorders, but it is definitely adding fuel to the fire, making more and more teenagers insecure about themselves. Although people, especially teens, have always been obsessed with the physical aspects of other people, comparing themselves to unrealistic beauty standards has become a lot easier, With the help of the media, young adults have many resources for “thinspiration” or “thinspo”. “Thinspiration” being the use of body images to inspire, usually unhealthy, weight loss. Popular places to find “thinspo” excluding the common google search are: Tumblr, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter,

Think of your sister or your cousin or any other girl you love. What would you say if I told you that girls as young as five want to diet and worry that they are not good enough for society. Right now everywhere young girls on social media are being told what they need to look and act like and told what a girl is and is not. Social media is harmful to young girls because it tells them they are imperfect which leads to low self-esteem and eating disorders. The media tells girls what they must do to become “fit for society” and make them believe they must fit themselves into society's mold or face failure. social media only shows a stereotypical woman while shaming flaws and advocating against differences social media lower self-esteem