How Much Does Weight Affect a Television Show? Essay

The author of this article begins her analysis of the rise in eating disorders by acknowledging America’s obsession with being the ideal weight. From an extremely young age, American children are being taught that women in movies and on the covers of magazines possess the ideal figure. The author states “Children are being taught…being fat is the worst thing one can be” (Bordo 1). This is disturbing to say the least. There many attributes worse than being overweight: dishonest, cruel, and murderous to name a few. Bordo also uses an example in the first paragraph of her essay that is appalling. Alicia Silverstone, the lead role in Clueless, was completely bombarded with insults about her weight, though she had only gained a few pounds since her starring role. The advertisers did

According to Ann Marie Paulin in “Cruelty, Civility and Other Weighty Matters”, the mass media are discriminating against overweight people, which creates a society where being fat is looked down upon. Paulin argues that, “the media are notorious for getting things less than accurate” (243), therefore we shouldn’t believe how they depict fat people on tv, magazines and other media sources. The author believes that not all overweight people are like, how the media portrays them, but rather their lifestyle is influenced by the culture we live in. She claimed that, “Sugary or fatty foods are often available in grab and go packages that are so much easier to take to work or eat in the car than making a healthy snack” (245). She believe there are evidence to show that humans are naturally attracted to unhealthy foods, but society continue to manufacture them to make people eat more (243-249). I agree with Paulin about how the media need to stop fat shaming because it’s not only making people feel bad, but it is promoting obesity.

Is obesity really a serious health concern or is the “epidemic” merely a result of highly fabricated, misleading ideas of politicians and the media? The article, Obesity: An Overblown Epidemic? By W. Wayt Gibbs featured in the May 23, 2005 edition of Scientific America, raises this question. Most health experts and average people believe that obesity is one of the most prevalent health concerns today, resulting in increased risk for other major health issues; such as; heart disease, type 2 diabetes and cancer, and the chance for early loss of life. However, other researchers are suggesting that the consequences of being overweight are being blown out of proportion. Naturally, they do

And, yet...since comedy is an exaggeration of everyday life, does that mean there are people who actually go around doing things like that? Meet Shawne Merriman. Yes, the very same Shawne Merriman

Celebrity bodies is an essay written by Cultural critic, Daniel Harris. The essay starts off by talking about the fatal heart attacks of two Uruguayan fashion models after eating nothing but lettuce leaves in the months before her death. He tries to inform the audience the negative effects of society on Hollywood and also who is to blame for what has happened to Hollywood, in his essay and he explains how everyone is so caught up into doing anything possible to look like the famous celebrities with "fit" bodies such as Beyonce and Jlo. He explains how many women do not take in consideration the healthy eating and the rigorous exercise plans that these famous people have to go through in order to keep their bodies looking "thin" or "fit". In

The article Must See TV or ESPN: Entertainment and Sports Media Exposure and Body-Image Distortion in College Women by Kimberly L. Bissell and Peiqin Zhou examines how media promotes an idealization of thinness in college-age women. The study by Bissell and Zhou takes place at a southern college university in the United States, and compares and contrasts the entertainment industry and sports media on disordered eating and body dissatisfaction in college-age women. The article explains that there have been inconclusive and contradictory studies in the past examining the impact the entertainment industry has on the thin-ideal for women, as well as the correlation between sports media and women’s body image.

In Susan Bordo’s article “Never Just Pictures: Bodies and Fantasies” this is an article that is informative as well as interesting. Bordo mentions celebrity names like Alicia Silverstone and famous dieting products like Citra Lean to introduce the “thin” trend in today’s popular culture. The author explains how today’s society explores different media cites to acknowledge how individuals should appear in today’s world. Advertisements have also become a big part on the reflection of society’s beliefs. Bordo talks about body figures that were once considered normal, have become known as an abnormal appearance. Bordo wants to convince the audience that being thin has become an issue that must be addressed by the general public,

The article Never Just Pictures, written by Susan Bordo, is about how the media’s usage of images of beautiful people with no body fat or imperfections cause the youth to develop eating disorders, and feel insecure about their own image. Susan begins by telling us about how the media targeted the nineteen year old star of Clueless, Alicia Silverstone, when she attended an award show a little bit heavier then the public was used to. She says that we are led to believe that “fat is the devil” and that having any excess fat is bad. She claims commercials and ads staring people with ideal bodies embed the idea that being fat is bad in our minds. One way she proves this is she uses a study that asked ten and eleven

Jerry Mosher first’s starts off using actor Robert De Niro and George Wendt and their achievement of losing weight to make a film. He uses them to inform his reader the who television situates the body and how there is a physical demand to film for a performance. Television has created an illusion for its audience to believe that the people appearing are “real people.” Which is true, but again, there is a high physical manipulation and demand. This reconstructing of one’s body has created an aura, or what Mosher likes to call it, the “norm.” With such manipulation, the character the audience sees on the television minimizes their sexuality and political dimensions. To be “fat” on television, is to resister or the rebel societies exception of what is a “normal” type of body to appear on the television. Mosher uses the fat men as a great example. He states that the fat men will usually appear on comedy sitcoms, as their body is already seen as a “joke,” and being in a comedy sitcoms some how accommodates their fat body. However, the American culture has made the fat male body to be seen as an established television symbol of losing one’s masculinity, and the one who is not “soft and impotent” (169). This has now become what is known as the “crisis of masculinity,” because a fat men will feel like they are not the breadwinner of the house, or that their penis is way too small. Patriarchal power is now in danger for these men

Obese Portrayed in Media Entertainment. The portrayal of obese individuals in entertainment media varies. CBS once had a popular hit sitcom called, Mike & Molly. The show shares a story of two blue collar individuals, who are two real people, who have every day issues, who are just simply trying to improve their lives, essentially a story that many others can relate to. Mike is an overweight police officer and Molly is an elementary school teacher who lives with her mother and raunchy younger

It is funny how so many girls and women today are led to believe that the only way to feel attractive and be beautiful is to have their bodies consist of nothing but skin and bones. Women are dieting more today then they have ever been before. They are striving for an unattainable body figure that is portrayed by the media as being the ideal standard for today's women. It gets worse. Not only are women dieting unlike ever before, but they will ruthlessly harm their bodies in order to achieve these inaccessible standards. This ruthless harm that haunts so many women today just so happens to be what we call eating disorders. Anorexia and bulimia are the primary diseases that go in the category of eating

According to the National Eating Disorder Association the media has a major influence on what a woman’s body should look like. Every print and television advertisement suggests that the ideal body is extremely thin. However, most women cannot achieve having a super-thin body that the media favors. The resulting failure leads to negative feelings about one’s self and can begin a downward spiral toward an eating disorder (National Eating Disorders Association).

(1980) found that the percent of average weight of the models declined significantly. For example, in 1960; the average weight of Playboy models was 91% of the population mean. By 1978, mean weight of the models has dropped to 84% of the population mean. A similar trend was apparent among the Miss America Pageant contestants: Prior to 1970, mean weight of the contestants was approximately 88% of the population norm. Following 1970, mean weight of the contestants had decreased to 85% of the population norm.

Most of the weight problems Americans have are being overweight or obese. There are no signs that the percentages of Americans who are overweight or obese are decreasing. Not just teenagers but kids and adults worry about their weight. People have weight problems for different reasons. I think Americans need to put an effort to manage their weight.

In today’s world television has become one of the most popular and frequently used pastimes. With the increase of technology available today people can now watch television on their phones, laptops, and tablets wherever they go. Something else that has increased in the past years are the number of obese people in the United States. In the last couple decades it was estimated that the number of obese children age 2-5 has more than doubled (5.0% to 12.4%) and for ages 6-11 it has also more than doubled (6.5% to 17.0%). In adolescents aged 12-19 the number has more than tripled (5.0% to 17.0%) and as for adults it is estimated that 70% of Americans are overweight and out of that percentage 50% are obese (Boulos, Vikre, Oppenheimer, Chang, & Kanarek, 2012). It is no coincidence that as the number of prolonged television use has risen so has the number of obese people in America. Television has a negative impact on children that in the long run can lead to obesity.