Eating Disorders Affecting Our Image of Beauty; Research Paper

     Plato once said, "We behold beauty in the eye of the mind...." What some people consider beauty others may not. From the actresses that are shown on television, movies, models that are in magazines, and the pop stars that create hip and modern music videos, one could be under the impression that to be beautiful you must thin. Actresses such as Jennifer Aniston, Sarah Michelle Gheller, Clarista Flockheart, Courtney Cox and Debra Messing all have staring roles in their own television shows and are all extremely thin. The audiences of these shows being mostly women and adolescent girls, what kind of message about body image are they sending out?

Cindy Crawford in a magazine interview states, “‘do you look at me and want to puke?’ Evidently, they’re not hearing or paying attention to a deafening ‘Yes’ from the seven million American girls and women who, according to Dr. Vivian Meehan, suffer from eating disorders” (Zimmerman). Even if you don’t have an eating disorder, you are still affected by the media and supermodels. Saying to yourself “If I had those shoes I’d look as stunning as her”, models are used to sell products but instead sell their bodies and the products are just vamping that up. Models leave millions of young impressionable people, striving for an unachievable perfection. Dr. Morris Fishbein says, “Of all of the fads which have afflicted mankind, none seems more difficult to explain than the desire of American women striving for the barber pole figure.” (Zimmerman). Why is being a bean pole so sought after? If the media

According to the National Association of Anorexia Nervosa and Associated Disorders, “the body type portrayed in advertising as the ideals is possessed naturally by only 5% of American females.” (“ANAD”) Body image has been a controversial theme because of the influence of the media. It is a widely known fact that eating disorder cases are on the rise. The concept of body image is a subjective matter. The common phrase, “Beauty is in the eyes of the beholder,” holds true meaning in this sense. One’s view and value of their body is self-imposed. Falling into the destructive eating disorders reveals much about a person’s psychological and emotional state. Examining the mental, physical, and emotional conditions behind recognized eating

Eating disorders are extremely serious and often even fatal. They are tremendously trying on both the person with the disorder, and those who are close to them. I remember the time that my roommate and I were watching TV with a group of girls when one of the girls started commenting on how fat a certain actress had become, and how gross she looked. I saw the look on my roommate’s face when she heard this girl criticize this actress who still looked practically perfect. More than anything, the weight this actress had put on made her look healthier than she had before. I became quite concerned though when I noticed that my roommate ate nothing for the next three days, and the one meal she did eat I am certain she threw up soon after. My roommate, like many other girls, was trying to achieve an unattainable goal. Some girls will just never be so thin, and struggling to be is very dangerous.

Although a great deal of early research on body image and eating disorders focused on upper/middle class Caucasians living in America or under the influence of Western ideals, many researchers are realizing that eating disorders are not isolated to this particular group. They are also realizing the differences in body image between occur in different races and genders (Pate, Pumariega, Hester 1992). Recently, several studies have shown that eating disorders transcend these specific guidelines, and increasingly, researchers are looking at male/female differences, cross-cultural variation and variation within cultures as well. It is impossible to broach the concept of body image without

There are many different types of eating disorders, and they all affect the mind and body in different ways.  For example, anorexia is when "a person refuses to sustain

People are often exposed to the media 's ideal body image, whether it 's through magazines, television, toys (e.g. Barbie dolls), or social media, it is almost impossible to avoid it. There are numerous of people who desire to look the way the world defines beauty. And although this may not seem like so much of a bad thing, this can lead to hardships for many people. This type of influence has caused countless individuals to endure an eating disorder in order to get the body they wish to have. Eating disorders are a worldwide problem that are very dangerous due to having many types of disorders and symptoms that occur, the effects that take place in a patient 's mental

When thinking about the causes of eating disorders, I used to think about the media and the emphasis put on being thin. Although that can play a role in the cause for some people, many times there is a deeper rooted cause. This video allowed me to hear the perspectives from the point of view of someone who experienced a severe eating disorder. In the case of a dancer, many times they are told at a very young age that they need to lose weight. They were expected to look a certain way and put a high priority on maintaining a weight that many times, is 15% below the normal weight for their height. Not only is this physically damaging, but it is psychologically damaging as well. Girls begin to think that they are not good enough or that skinny is better and starvation is the price of

The article , “Report on Body images, body size,perception, and eating behaviors among African American and white college women”. Written by Clifford E. Rucker lll and Thomas F. Cash. Tries to identify the cause of both body image disorders and eating disorders among African American and white college women to find out why these self-hatred disorders are caused by and if there is any correlation or maybe more than one side to this foggy concept.

Eating disorders: noun. A group of psychological ailments characterized by intense fear of becoming obese, distorted body image, and prolonged food refusal (anorexia nervosa) and/or binge eating followed by purging through induced vomiting, heavy exercise, or use of laxatives (bulimia nervosa).These ailments are not pretty. In this society, where only the fit and thin bodies are accepted and appreciated, eating disorders are more common than they should be. Children, starting at a young age, see skinny people on television and in magazines. They hear comments on how their bodies look, then hear the same people turn around and make nasty comments on someone else’s figure. This is not okay, because it is teaching young people that anything

Psychological illnesses in which a person has abnormal eating habits such as eating too much or eating too little are called eating disorders. There are three main types of eating disorders. The types or eating disorders are bulimia nervosa, anorexia nervosa and binge eating disorder. There are many causes of eating disorders. Eating disorders are most commonly caused by the way genetic vulnerability, psychological factors, and socio-cultural influences (Eating Disorders Risk Factors). Eating disorders can be very harmful or even deadly.

Today, people seem to be judged on outward appearance more than ever. The people who face this judgement the most are young women. With the constant bombardment of beauty standards that must be met, many young women turn towards the advice of magazines. However, most of us don’t recognize the perfect girl on the cover, she’s supposedly the product of listening to the magazine’s advice. However, to the dismay of many young women, she is pure fiction, edited beyond realistic expectation, and yet our young women are expected to emulate this image. The result of such pressures can prove to be too much to handle and young women often resort to pathogenic dieting and experience body image and eating disorders. The increase in mental health disorders associated with body image in teen girls attributed to the unrealistic standards set in magazines targeted toward young women, therefore magazines need to use images that reflect the realities of the target audience and should not be heavily edited.

Eating disorders have become and extreme issue among women. However, the ignorance to this subjects’ prevalence is common and it is essential that this is compressed immediately. The impact eating disorders currently holds on society is monumental and is defining the current image of beauty. Definitions of beauty have fluctuated extremely throughout time and the unhealthy processes women have put themselves through in order to conform to societies current definition of beauty has remained consistent. From the corset to extremely high heels to severe thinness, achieving the ideal image of beauty is regularly detrimental to woman’s health. Fashion models continue to struggle with eating disorders due to the fashion industry building a pedestal

In today's world, education is not the only necessary survival skill needed in the work force, beauty has also become part of the package. The media created a perfect body image that has caused a new worldwide epidemic. The United States has fourteen million Americans that struggle with an eating disorder. “Every woman knows that, regardless of all her other achievements, she is a failure if she is not beautiful.” (Germaine Greer)

We all want to have a skinny, toned, tanned, perfect body. A ‘perfect body’ being created by the media and fashion industry. Frederique van der Wa, a former Victoria's Secret model, even says that the runway models today have an “unnatural thinness” and that it is not a good message to sent to “young, impressionable women.” Each year a new image of a perfect body is released and the models keep getting skinnier. This makes young women develop eating disorders. Seeing the unnaturally skinny models gives them the idea that ‘this is what we are supposed to look like.’ The media and fashion industry does contribute to eating disorders in youth and the thought of a perfect body image.