Hard to Swallow

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

Another way that the media is contributing to the increase in eating disorders is through the huge wave of fad diets, weight loss books, weight loss exercise machines, weight loss pills, and weight loss program centers. You cannot turn on a television channel without seeing a commercial for various methods of losing weight. The large majority of these programs, pills, and plans are ineffective in healthy weight reduction and only cause more problems for those who do need to lose weight. Also, those women who do not need to lose weight are made to feel as if they should. With so much emphasis put on weight loss, many women who are of healthy weights already begin to feel as if they too need to lose weight.

Though this is true, research shows that media does contribute to the increase in body dissatisfaction and disordered eating. “Anorexia means ‘lack of appetite’, but in the case of the eating disorder anorexia nervosa, it is a desire to be the, rather than a lack of appetite, that causes individuals to decrease their food intake,” (Smolin and Mary Grosvenor, 76). “The name bulimia is taken from the Greek words bous (“ox”) and limos (“hunger”), denoting hunger of such intensity that a person could eat an entire ox,” (Smolin and Mary Grosvenor, 94).

Media has greatly evolved since starting, but has bad evolved with it? Print media, digital media, and now social media surround everybody today. Media surround us when we go to the store and see magazines, when we sit and home and watch TV, and especially when we go online. Over time, media has created its own idea of beauty. Medias influence on body image can’t be overlooked. Media and eating disorders have a cause and effect relationship. In Helens article, “Eating Disorders: A growing problem on college campuses”, she expresses that, “In today’s media-saturated world, young women are bombarded with one message: be thin” (Helen, 2014, Paragraph 9). Today media shows that to beautiful you have to be an unhealthy weight. If media doesn’t change its view of beautiful, then the rate of eating disorders triggered by media will go up. We need to figure out a way to help now.

The inaccurate obsession with food seems to be the cause of bulimia; however, the inaccurate obsession with weight seems to be the cause of anorexia. A majority of research suggest that the media is responsible for this, due to the fact they idolize the thin, slender figure. For bulimics, the delight of binging comes at the cost of extreme guilt which can only be resolved by purging; a never ending cycle. For anorexics, these thin messages on the media can make them feel shameful and hate to look at their own body, which makes food the sworn enemy. In one research article it was proposed that individuals with an external locus of control (believing that their lives are determined by outside forces such as fate and other people) were found to exhibit more of the bulimic and anorexic traits than those individuals who had an internal locus of control (believing that one controls his/her own fate) (Fouts and Vaughn, 2002).

To conclude, I believe that the media does play a role in the cause of eating disorders in women however other factors such as peers and the family have an impact on the issue too and can help cause it. Yet the media, a form of secondary socialization, didn’t portray women as being skinny females may not feel threatened by it and wouldn’t want to become the females portrayed by the

The Mayo Clinic-- a world-renowned medical facility in Minnesota-- put it well: “Anorexia isn’t about food. It’s an unhealthy way to cope with emotional problems.” According to Brousseau, there are over 6,000 girls a year dying from this emotionally induced disorder. One would think that there would be a more concentrated effort to at the very least discourage it. Examples such as her own, however, prove that there clearly is still a misconception; moreover, Anorexia is still looked at by many as a silly phase among teenaged girls rather than the reality of it being a life-threatening

The opposing side to this topic says that media does not play a role in anorexia because of environmental factors, exercising, and dieting. People that support this side like Adam Cresswell and Sarrah Le Marquand state that anorexia is not caused by society or the media world. Cresswell states “Eating disorders are a product of epigenetics is good news for parents and carers, who often “wring their hands, asking: ‘what did I do wrong’””(Cresswell 1). Cresswell is wrong by this fact in the actual fact that if a young teen is suffering from anorexia, then the parents should be worried about their child and get that child help. No child or adult should have to suffer from such disease. Cresswell also states “These can be early-life pressures, stress, and ultimately dieting,” he says. “For some people, dieting can be really dangerous behavior. The reduction in certain nutrients can alter gene expression “” (Cresswell 1-2). Cresswell is right about how dangerous dieting can be, because it is, but television advertises all of these new diet methods and how to exceed these plans, internet sites give lists of different dieting options, and these are examples of how media pushes some people that live in this

Through Catherine's point of view it seems that she doesn't matter at times. Catherine's father even has

Poet Allen Ginsberg once said that “whoever controls the media-the images-controls the culture”, and nothing could be truer than this. Media plays a larger role in society within this generation more than many of us are aware of. It can easily impact people’s lives through aspects such as sports, fashion, movies or hobbies, but unfortunately, one of these impacts is how we view our body. Media constantly posts images and messages promoting a nearly unachievable and unrealistic image of what beauty looks like and it almost always has negative fallout when we struggle to meet this. This is known as an eating disorder. An eating disorder is a psychological sickness that results in dangerous eating habits and both short and long term affects on the body. People with eating disorders generally have a negative perception of their self will try to control their weight through unnecessary dieting, exercising or purging. But how does this illness begin? Social media sites, advertising, celebrities and other forms of media through society are all social pressures that are influencing people to be “perfect” and causing this expanding matter.

The culture and society people live in today tells people that in order to fit in then they have to be perfect. In order to become perfect people starve themselves, which can lead to anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa. Media also plays a huge part in causing eating disorders. TV, movies, magazines and the internet give unrealistic images on what a persons bodies should look like. Media uses airbrushed models as an image of the average woman but in reality the model weighs twenty- three percent less than the average woman (Self Image Media Influences). Women see these images and take unhealthy measures to try and fit the standards set by media. Researchers at Duke University took a survey and discovered that forty percent of nine and ten year old girls have admitted to being on a diet. In a study based on self-image three out of four girls said that they are overweight but only one out of them was, the Rader Programs did this study (self Image Media

An article found on psychcentral.com believes that the media doesn’t lead to teenagers having eating disorders. The article states that, “In many ways, the media is to blame for the state of our body image. For our desire to diet. For a view that thinness leads to happiness for young girls - teenagers. For the idea that we must wait until we lose weight to do anything… But the media isn’t to blame for eating disorders” (Tartakovsky). The article then goes on the explain that most women and girls do not have eating disorders and that the media isn’t to blame for those children that do have an eating disorder. I think that it is a valid point that is made when the article states, “Although I think our cultural ideas and beauty obsessions and

We can blame or criticize the media for the idealism we deep down pursue. Regardless of how we look we are responsible for our feelings and mot the media. (Banaysh, 2015) Aysh in her blog discuss that "Girls are stupid for looking up to photoshopped models knowing their body is mostly fake and their look isn't natural" I agree that the media doesn’t literally control us, but still we can't ignore the fact that the media is able to send messages which impacts the way we see ourselves constantly. Dave's campaign for Real Beauty and self-esteem fund are a prime example ofhow the media is positively working to encourage health behavior in society.

Another problem mentally and physically is eating disorders. An eating disorder is a psychological disorder characterized by serious eating problems (Google) ; there are three types of eating disorders Anorexia nervosa, Bulimia nervosa, and binge eating disorders. An article written by Mayo Clinic talks about causes of an eating disorder and one of these causes is society, as you read on the Mayo talks about how the “modern Western cultural environment often cultivates and reinforces a desire for thinness. Success and worth are often equated with being thin in popular culture. Peer pressure and what people see in the media may fuel this desire to be thin, particularly among young girls.” (Mayo Clinic Staff ,Eating Disorders,MayoClinic.com) With that information shared to us by the Mayo Clinic shows that the Media plays a huge role in eating disorders. According to the American Psychological Association when you have an eating disorder you suffer from low self-esteem, feeling of helplessness, and intense dissatisfaction with the way they look. The article also talks about how eating disorders mostly affect teenage girls and woman.

“The attention-grabbing pictures of various high-flying supermodels and actors on different magazine covers and advertisements go a long way in influencing our choices” (Bagley). The media is highly affective to everyone, although they promote an improper image of living. Research proved says those with low self-esteem are most influenced by media. Media is not the only culprit behind eating disorders. However, that does not mean that they have no part in eating disorders. Media is omnipresent and challenging it can halt the constant pressure on people to be perfect (Bagley). Socio-cultural influences, like the false images of thin women have been researched to distort eating and cause un-satisfaction of an individual’s body. However, it