Eating Disorders: Is Self-Equiem A Good Thing?

My current view on food is that it creates a sense of comfort and fulfillment, yet this was not always the case. During my teenage years I struggled with an ongoing eating disorder. During that time I viewed food as a threat, or an enemy. As part of my recovery process, I was given a task to make friends with food. I first approached this task with a closed mind, finding a wrong with every meal I ate. My view changed completely when my friends took me out to a vegan diner for a burger and sweet potato fries meal.

In the article “Never Just Pictures,” the author, Susan Bordo, addresses the cultural reasons behind the rise in eating disorders. She asserts that modern media and advertising campaigns have played an integral role in this increase. Though unfortunate, the media’s focus is not on the well-being of its viewers, but on the level of cash flow they provide. The advertising moguls use their agencies as double edged swords; they will make ads for McDonalds, then go in the next room and conduct a photo-shoot with a six-foot-two, eighty pound woman. The world of advertising needs to realize their work is being seen by millions of people and is affecting some of those people in extremely negative ways.

Today’s society is a consumers’ society in which trying to obtain perfection is one of the fastest selling businesses (DeLaMater Pg. 12). Mass media, advertising, and fashion industries are being accused of feeding off females dissatisfaction with their bodies by portraying unhealthy thin role models in order to sell their products. This unachievable physique and lifestyle has led today’s adolescence down a dark path of such extreme eating disorders as anorexia and bulimia. Although it may sound nice to be societies perception of thin, there are consequences to these eating disorders such as cardiac failure that lead to horrifying defects or even death.

In fact, media is contributing to many false advertisements and unrealistic images that cause eating disorders. Media gives us these false beauty standards by making teens think they have to be thin and tall. Meanwhile, many teens want to be like the models and they try to be thin but instead of doing it the healthy way. The way they do it is to skip meals and that develops eating disorders. For instance, Arnett says, “Marketing and advertisement agencies focus on models such as tall, thin women or a muscular man with a chiseled jawbone when casting for photo shoots and television commercial” (265.) Therefore, we experience and seen is that the media do give us a false beauty standard which makes teens want to do everything that is possible to become like models. This has contributed

Eating disorders have become a major problem throughout the world, specifically in the United States. The key factor that has an influence on eating disorders is the media. Including people of all ages and genders, up to twenty-four million people suffer from an eating disorder in the United States (ANAD np). This is a huge problem in the world today but what makes it so much worse is the fact that it can be prevented and it is in our control to change it. Young adults look to these celebrities, which are often their role models, and try to look just like them. What they fail to remember is the fact that celebrities have a lot of money, money that can afford nutritionists and personal trainers. They also fail to remember the extensive measures the celebrities may have to go through to look the way they do. An example of extensive measures can be considered plastic surgery. Ultimately, this creates a false goal that is almost unattainable for the “average” or “regular” person. Overall, the media has overtaken a huge impact on what the “ideal” body image has become today. Eating disorders are still on the rise and it is proven that an eating disorder such as anorexia affects up to 5 percent of women from ages 15-30 years old ("Media, Body Image, and Eating Disorders | National Eating Disorders Association np"). This may not seem that significant but it is also not considering other eating disorders such as bulimia. All in all, eating disorders

Magazine advertisements cause eating disorders. In the article “Skinny models 'send unhealthy message'”, it states ”In 1998, a survey by the Bread for Life campaign, cited by the Eating Disorders Association, showed that 89% of women between 18 and 24 wanted more "average sized" models used in magazines.” It also says, “"Advertising, in particular, may influence young people's perception of fashion and beauty and attitudes towards food. Young women may compare themselves to extremely thin models,

Walking into the library at most high schools brings to the eye an array of fashion magazines in the front shelves. Most schools acknowledges that fashion has a large audience, but the skinnier and skinnier models have created a large group of people with eating disorders and bad self-images. In her article “What’s Wrong with Skinny?” that discusses eating disorders linked to the fashion industry, Lisa Hilton states that women are “so pathologically stupid that they are unable to distinguish the fantasy of the runway from the realities of their own bodies”. Fashion is something that many girls let influence them into changing how they dress, feel, and eat; the skinnier the models are (or are “retouched” to look), the more it supports eating

The media is one of the leading causes of self esteem and body image issues in not only women but men as well. This is due to the fact that thousands of advertisements contain messages about physical attractiveness and beauty. Examples include: commercials for clothes, cosmetics, weight loss, hair removal, laser surgery and physical fitness. The effects of advertising on body image have been studied by researchers, psychologists, marketing professionals and more. Researchers, Mary Martin and James Gentry found that teen directed advertising negatively impacts self-esteem. The advertising industry is setting unrealistic expectations for teens about their physical appearances by using models with "perfect bodies." The modeling industry today has put many pressures on models, causing them disorders of both mental and physical illness. These disorders then creating the look of the “perfect body” have now lead to unrealistic expectations of body image for society.

The media group that retouches images skews the “normal” body image of people through many of its outlets, including models in advertising and magazines, and actors in TV and movie productions. “The average model portrayed in the media is approximately 5’11” and 120 pounds. By contrast, the average American woman is 5’4” and 140 pounds” (Holmstrom, 2004). This statistic shows how the media manipulates consumers into believing that because they are not what the average model looks like, they are not living up to a certain standard which implies that they need to look like that to be beautiful. Another research fact that shows a similar concept is that, “In the United States, 94% of female characters in television programs are thinner than the average American woman, with whom the media frequently associate happiness, desirability, and success in life” (Yamamiya et al., 2005). This association of female thinness and happiness, desirability and success makes consumers believe they must achieve this unrealistic thinness to achieve more ultimate goals and fulfillment in life. “The media also explicitly instruct how to attain thin bodies by dieting, exercising, and body-contouring surgery, encouraging female consumers to believe that they can and should be thin” (Yamamiya et al., 2005). This idealization of thinness in the media is seen so much, and is extremely harmful to women’s self confidence and is often associated with body image dissatisfaction, which can be a precursor to social anxiety, depression, eating disturbances, and poor self-esteem (Yamamiya et al.,

Many women all across the world feel unattractive when they see these ads as they flip the page of their magazine or even pass the store in the mall. Women already experience enough self-esteem issues and social media does not help. Every woman wants to be beautiful and most importantly feel beautiful. The ads with the title “The Perfect ‘Body,’” give the impression that that is what the perfect body looks like. According to Dwyer, the brand’s Facebook page has been receiving backlash. For example, Facebook user Stephanie Connolly wrote: “Just seen the ‘perfect body’ advert......and here’s me thinking that the perfect body was the one I felt comfortable in......oh well better get back to throwing up my dinner!” Evidently, being exposed to these ads creates a pressure for girls. To reach these unattainable goals, many women begin to starve themselves and develop eating disorders; women will try anything. Not only does the average women (feel the pressure), but the models in the ads do too. Last year, model Bria Murphy, daughter of Eddie Murphy, was interviewed live on Good Morning America about eating disorders in the fashion industry. She explained how some models go to extreme lengths—such as eat cotton balls soaked in orange juice—because of the pressure to stay thin. “They dip it in the orange juice, and they eat the cotton balls to make them feel full,” she said. While that’s awful enough, the average teenage girl or adult woman might be

“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.

Although a small percentage of the population are cited as having had an eating disorder, majority of the population has been perplexed with their body image. Our aspiration to be perfect is exploited to sell products and reap profits in the commercial industry. For example, infomercials on cosmetic surgery encourage men and women at a high price to engage in dangerous weight loss practices to receive immediate results. These include liposuction, tummy tucks, or extreme muscle enhancements advertisements. Here, marketers seek to exploit your insecurities and provide you with solutions (at a steep price). The cost is not only financial, but a deathly one. For instance, clients with Anorexia Nervosa starve themselves until they are skin and bones and those with Bulimia Nervosa purge and vomit to compensate.

Since the fashion industry plays a huge role in the spread of eating disorders as many teens look up to models’ body types, the industry should hire models with more realistic and diverse body types to set a more positive examples and curb the negative effects of body shaming. Teen magazines that target adolescent girls are the second most common source of images that sexually objectify images of girls and women (National). If there is a decrease in such images and an increase in body type diversity in these magazines, body negativity among adolescents will decrease even with the same average amount of exposure to media. Furthermore, “plus-sized models” should be represented more frequently and stop being labeled as such; it is demeaning and

Advertisements may show to girls that in order for them to be beautiful, they need to look like the pencil thin models working with the clothing lines. As a result, most young women and teens would want to lose weight in order to look like them and be “beautiful”. In order to do so, women cut down their feeding and nutrition and encounter eating disorders such as anorexia and bulimia.

A large contributing factor to this problem is that many people in the fashion world encourage the use of overly thin models in editorials and fashion shows. For example, as Kathryn Shattuck, What's On Today: [The Arts/Cultural Desk], mentions that Kelly Cutrone, world renowned fashion publicist, encourages, “Clothes look better on thin people. The fabric hangs better” (1). The fashion industry’s emphasis on being thin and its use of extremely underweight models in unacceptable. Many people would agree that the fashion industry plays the majority role in eating disorders, but Lisa Hilton, British Vogue writer, disagrees. Hilton argues, “Its objective is selling clothes, and the consensus remains that in order to achieve this, models need to be thin . . . Fashion is about fantasy, about impossibility, about, dare we say it, art. Most women can’t tell the difference” (1). Hilton condescendingly continues to refute the criticisms that models are too thin and the fashion industry encourages eating disorders.