How My Life Was Affected By An Eating Disorder

Some people occasionally feel that their own appearance is unacceptable to society because of what others are expecting based on published media. Those include, social media, published articles, and even movies and TV shows. The media’s portrayal of beauty has had a generational effect on american society with young people falling victim to unrealistic standards. Failing to participate in these ideals can lead to non acceptance, ostracization, and even bullying due to the unfounded judgements of those who do participate in the beauty standards perpetuated by the media. As a matter of fact, research on the impact of those ideals have been done. Many of the studies have been made based on the outlook of people

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.

The culture of media has now taken a large affect on young girls and their body images. Young girls are feeling dissatisfied with their bodies because of the way society views women. The media tells us what to look like, what clothes to wear, make-up, what cars to drive, and sometimes what to eat. Media is changing people constantly through advertising and by showing us the looks and fashions of celebrities. Advertising has negative effects on the formation of oneself as seen through the nature of the promotion of its’ products. This effect is particularly prevalent among young adolescent girls. Young girls feel the need to join dietary plans or result to eating disorders Advertising in society results in negative effects on girls through self-image that leads to harmful consequences. The media is the biggest factor contributing to girls’ dissatisfaction with their bodies, causing eating disorders.

Promotion by the media of the extraordinarily thin body types has been linked to the steady rise of eating disorders, especially among adolescents (Ballaro & Wagner, 2017). Experts believe that there are more than ten million females suffering from some sort of eating disorder and that the problems are happening in patients of younger and younger ages. The gap between the average woman’s body and the ideal body is much larger than before (Spitzer, Henderson, & Zivian, 1999). Ninety four percent of characters in the United States media, are thinner than the average woman (Gonzalez-Lavin & Smolak, 1995). The average American woman is only 5’4” tall and weighs approximately 165 pounds (Martin 2010). The media depicts happiness, wealth and success associated to unrealistic body types (Tiggemann, 2002). Not only does the media display this image, it also exhaustively provides information to encourage achievement of it as well. Whether through dieting, exercise or mild to extreme cosmetic surgery for body sculpting, women are feeling the pressure that they need to be thin and often take even the most dangerous methods to obtain this. Considering that these delusional ideals are nearly impossible for most average women, without choosing unhealthy and harmful behaviors, eating disorder theorists have proclaimed that media is supporting these habits (Levine & Smolak, 1998). It is estimated that 10-15% of girls and women between the ages of 9 and 19 are affected by eating disorders. Though the death rates vary from different studies, one thing is for sure; eating disorders can have many health risks, including death. With the unrealistic ability to achieve the super thin body image many women are still turning to these harmful methods in order to try; thus resulting in death of someone every 62 minutes as a result (Eating Disorders Coalition,

Modern society is so based on image. Models today are airbrushed and Photoshop and that leads people, both male and female, to believe that they should look like something unnatural. Meaghan Ramsey tells the audience about her 1-year-old niece who looks at her self in the mirror and adores her reflection. However at some point people stop adoring them-selves because young minds become poisoned with a false image of what “beautiful” really is. The title of Meaghan’s Lecture is “Why thinking you’re ugly is bad for you.” She goes on to tell how teenagers and adults are finding themselves unattractive and how that is negatively affecting their lifestyles as well as the world. The sociological aspect of the epidemic is that from a young age, parents, media and religion, dictate to the youth what an acceptable appearance is. Low self-esteem is not natural but rather implemented on children by society. This affects people in a psychological way. Meaghan Ramsey goes on to say how many students, specifically young girls, are refraining from participating in class and even going to class, because they don’t want tot draw attention to their appearance. There is no biological aspect to this epidemic, because regardless of what these women look like, they still will

In our daily life we are constantly confronted with beauty and only to few other things we dedicate so much attention as to our appearance.

Everyone wanted to see me get fat, I was sure of it. For once in my life I had some semblance of control over my body in a way no else did. Managing my body took discipline and I was not going to have anyone interfere. I sat crouched in the small space between my parents’ bathtub and toilet, the cool white ceramic tiles reflecting the blonde of my hair, the tears that somehow managed to eke out of the eye ducts were streaming down my hot, mucus slathered face. In the corner behind the toilet, the dog hair swirled in little eddies, and the rim of the toilet had faint speckles of urine, unnoticeable to anyone not at eye level. The shower was on and the fan running as a distraction. Every

Now a day appearances are everything. People are always striving to look good wherever they go. Many people take a look at them in the mirror and want to change the way they look. This is all caused by the judgement of our society today. This does not only occur in the 21st century it has been happening since the beginning of humankind. This affects men and women equally, because often time’s men judge women and women judge men, but people can get judged by their own gender as well. Every year millions of people do plastic surgery to make themselves more beautiful and appealing. This is done by men and

As many as 20 percent of those who suffer from anorexia will die early from complications related to their eating disorder, including suicide and heart problems. While there are many possible causes and triggers for these disorders, the media’s influence on body image cannot be overlooked. "My problem is the top of my legs and my bottom, which sticks out. I would like a smaller bottom because I find it difficult to fit into some jeans." Harriet’s obsession with her body scares her mother, sadly Harriet is not the only one who faces this problem daily. 40% of girls aged between 6 and 12 want to change their appearance. Don’t you think this is wrong? Kids who should be worried more about spelling words and math problems are being wrapped into the Medias image of a perfect body. Teens are more afraid of gaining weight than they are of cancer, nuclear war, or losing a parent.

Therefore, the commendation of such look and shape commercializes unhealthy body image and procreates eating disorders. Unfortunately, at present the commercialism of a perfect body is encountered by almost everyone on everyday basis. The public is bombarded daily with images of glamorously thin women in commercials, on billboards, in movies in magazines and etc?According to Melanie Katzman, a consultant psychologist from New York, the media has actively defined the thin ideal as success and treats the body as a commodity. (Rhona MacDonald, 2001) It is evident that the persistent advocating of the media and the society produced a constant pursuit of thinness, which became a new religion. A study conducted by Harvard researchers has revealed the effect of media and magazines on adolescent girls in high schools. The children were exposed to fashion magazines and television commercials, and a while after were given self-rating surveys. The study found that sixty-nine percent of the girls said that magazine pictures

Eating Disorders are conditions in which involves irregular eating habits, either insufficient or excessive food, that affects inimical the body’s image and mental health (Wikipedia). It affects men and women of all ages, but it has a greater impact among adolescences and young adults. In the United States, 24 million Americans are battling eating disorders, in which 1 million are males and 23 million are females. An individual who portraits this condition may have an irrational self-image thought that impinged on an individual’s life and affects their health by disrupting body functions and daily activities (National Eating Disorders Association).

Some young girls are already experiencing body dissatisfaction. By the age of 5-8, numerous young girls were familiar with the idea of dieting and weight loss. Due to media exposure, such as reading magazines, watching television, or listening to peers often cause girls of age 6 to desire a thin woman’s figure opposed to a thicker one. Girls at this young of age should not be worried about their physical appearance, they should play outside and enjoy being young while it lasts. Not only does media affect women, it affects very young women as well.

Growing up my childhood was perfect. I had loving parents, a happy home, and the best sister anyone could ask for. Never in my life did I believe something like this would happen to me, but when I entered the 7th grade my life turned upside down. Insecurities about my body led to a self destructive hole that i’m still attempting to crawl my way out of. My eating disorder has been the biggest wrecking ball to ever enter my life. In my darkest hour of starving and freezing I became who I am today.

This unrealistic standard of beauty that people are bombarded with everyday gives them a goal that is impossible to reach, and the effects can be devastating. These impossible standards need to be stopped, and

In this day and age, the epidemic of these so called ‘beauty’ standards is only getting worse and worse. Because of photo modification, low self esteem in regular everyday people is starting to become something that is nearly considered normal. Today, 42% of girls from age 5-8 want to be skinnier, 52% of girls aged 9 to 13 feel better when they are dieting and by the age of 17, 78% of girls are unhappy with their own bodies. Think about