Mass Media And Eating Disorders: Article Analysis

Media has become a significant component within society. While media provides many pros, it supplies various cons as well. One very prominent fault that the significance of media has is its visual depiction of women. There is an abundance of media portraying women to have ideal bodies, and this undoubtedly has a negative effect on adolescent girls. Two of the many effects of media on females are depression and self esteem issues, as well as eating disorders. Unfortunately, body dissatisfaction caused by media is becoming more and more common.

It is apparent that with the increasing popularity of social media today, there has been a shift in dietary changes within our society. Individuals are subconsciously changing how and what they eat. The question arises, why are so many young women dissatisfied with their bodies, despite their size? Although there are several forces believed to play a role in this dissatisfaction such as peer criticism and parental influences, the thin-ideal body is dominating the media (Grabe, Ward, & Hyde, 2008). Thinness is largely emphasized and praised for women in magazines, television shows, movies and commercials (Stice & Shaw, 1992). Anorexia Nervosa is an eating disorder that stems from this ubiquitous obsession to be thin and is often associated with a pathological fear of gaining weight, distorted self-body image and emaciation (The American Heritage® Science Dictionary).

In a recent survey done by the National institute on Media and the Family, fifth graders, ten year old boys and girls told researchers they were dissatisfied with their own bodies after watching a music video by Britney Spears or a clip from the TV show “Friends.”(4) If this isn’t shocking enough, the research group reported that at the age of thirteen, fifty-three percent of American girls are “unhappy with their bodies.” This grows to seventy-eight percent by the time the girls reach seventeen. Also, eating disorders are beginning to start at an alarming young age. Statistics show that girls are developing eating disorders at the age of six.(1) Young girls that are exposed to appearance focused television programs, and magazine shows feel that they need to look like the models that they see. Most of these girls are not even have fully developed bodies yet and are already trying to perfect themselves. One girl had even shared how one of her best friends discovered that her fifth grade cousin was bulimic. Girls at that age should not even be concerned with their bodies yet and eating disorders being developed is a harsh wake up call as to how young girls everywhere are being effected by the media each and everyday.

Teenagers are constantly bombarded with media on how to dress, how to act, and who to hang with to be considered “cool.” As stated by the Common Sense Census, the amount of time teenagers spend on some form of media is on average nine hours. More than half of the hours they are awake is spent consuming media, making them vulnerable to the ideas of the media. In recent years, the number of teenage girls that suffer from eating disorders has increased drastically due to this increase of media exposure, but it isn’t so much the amount of exposure as the kind of exposure. The question of how much influence media has on eating disorders

The average American woman is 5’4” and weighs 140 pounds, while the average American model is 5’11” and weighs 117 pounds (Chojnacki, 2017). Those models’ digitally enhanced pictures are published in magazines, posted online, and shown on television. Individuals scroll past filtered images of the “thin ideal”, flip through the pages and images of magazines as they stand in check out lines, and are drawn to advertisements of beautiful, happy, and skinny people. All of these encounters happen several times daily without even thinking twice about the message that is being sent. The enormous audience that the media can now reach due to advancing technology is both a blessing and a curse. Technology has allowed the public to connect with people thousands of miles away at the touch of a button and

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.

Eating disorders are mental illnesses that affect more than 7 million American women and usually develop in girls ages 12-25. The most common age for a girl to begin having an eating disorder is 17 years old (Discovery Health?). The National Eating Disorders Association states that eating disorders are conditions that arise from factors including physical, psychological, interpersonal, and social issues. Media images help define cultural definitions of beauty and attractiveness and are often acknowledged as one of the factors that contribute to the rise of eating disorders (NEDA). It is evident that the media influences teenage girls to develop eating disorders based on these reasons: the

In the United States alone, 40-60% of girls in elementary and middle school are worried about gaining too much weight and not being accepted by anyone ("Prevalence vs. Funding" 1). Adolescents and women are surrounded with the idea of culture’s “perfect body type” where girls are stick thin and gorgeous. Culture is obsessed with outer beauty and being as flawless as you can be, and often leave out how important inner beauty is. This idea of outer beauty often results in women trying to warp their body image to please the people around them ("Prevalence vs. Funding" 4). Adolescent girls use the media to help figure out how they should look and act, which consequently mirrors how their eating patterns change and evolve. Adolescent girls are targeted by culture, pressured by their peers surrounding them, and taunted by their own self-consciousness, often leading up to acquiring an eating disorder. When the eating disorder is acquired, it often had many damaging physical effects on the person’s body.

The media plays a very important part in our lives, we see ads that help us know what we want to buy and we get entertainment from television or movies. While the media has many benefits, it also has a very consequential downside. The media puts too much pressure on teenage girls to have perfect bodies by showing them unrealistic examples causing eating disorders.

Mass media have an enormous impact on society and how people act, especially in developed countries. How do mass media influence views of body image and the development of eating disorders? People living in countries influenced by Western culture show concern for their appearance or dietary habits daily. This paper will analyze the effect of mass media on the issues of body image and eating disorders in the United States.

Throughout history, there have been many factors that contribute to the increase in eating disorders amongst women. The media is the devil’s advocate of eating disorders. Doctor Kathrine Henderson researched the history of eating disorders and the media to understand the reason behind its origin. Early studies provide evidence that claims the media’s main focus is on the decreasing weight in celebrities plastered on magazines and many other models and women who are the ideals of beauty. There has been a variety of studies proving the increase in thinness amongst women in magazines and TV shows (Henderson 2010). The media creates body dissatisfaction in young women, which leads to this psychological disease. Henderson found a significant increase in advertisements for diet foods and diet products for the years 1970-2000s (Henderson 2010). In comparing pressures on women and men, Henderson showed that “women’s magazines contained 10.5 times as many diet promotions as men’s magazines” (Henderson 2010). Overall, research has shown that there has been an increase in the promotion of diets, and thin bodies for the female society. The women are pushed further into believing that they do not have model thin, or acceptable bodies in order to be a part of society. Magazines, websites, and famous women have exploited their bodies to show how the female society should look.

Social media plays an immense role in the way that stereotypes about attractiveness is conveyed in regards to body image. As Gerbner and Gross wrote in 1976, the cultivation theory states that high frequency viewers of television are more susceptible to media messages and the belief that they are real and valid. The subjection to social media can cause an idealistic view amongst young girls and women alike. Among the mechanisms of human agency none is more central or pervasive than beliefs of personal efficacy (Bandura, 1997). This belief that these body types are achievable can lead to females being dissatisfied within their own skin. The result of the discontent can potentially lead to eating disorders. Body dissatisfaction occurs when views of the body are negative and involves a perceived discrepancy between a person 's assessment of their actual and ideal body (Cash and Szymanski, 1995 and Grogan, 2008). It is estimated that approximately 50% of adolescent girls report being unhappy with their bodies (Bearman, Presnell, & Martinez, 2006). Surveys have revealed that the exposure to social media can cause body dissatisfaction, eating disorder symptoms’ and the concept that thin is “beautiful” amongst young girls and women (Botta 1999; Harrison and Hefner 2006; and Stice et al. 1994). With media influence, the question is the strength of the effect, studies indicate the effects are small in scale; they are likely to operate in accordance with particular differences in

Strasburger supports her argument that the media is to blame by using a study that was done in Fiji. A natural field experiment in Fiji revealed that the eating disorder rate increased dramatically after American television shows, which show excessively thin female lead characters, were introduced. There are also now over 100 pro-anorexia Web sites on the Internet that not only encourage disordered eating but also offer specific advice on purging, severely restricting caloric intake, and exercising excessively (Strasburger). Recent studies have shown that adolescent girls describe the “ideal girl” as being 5’7”, 100 pounds, size 5, with long blonde hair and blue eyes (Developmental…Eating Disorders, Section 2, Chapter 10, Pg. 235). Girls related this “ideal girl” look to being

“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

The media and society effect how females in general are “supposed” to look in many different ways. This deals with technology, social media, movies, and also advertisers. This paper will gear more towards how society makes girls turn to eating disorders to make them look accepted. It will also deal with what happens to the mind while these different types of media are being put out. My audience can be girls ranging from any age or anyone that might look at their bodies in the mirror and want to change something. This issue is also continuously growing and constantly being talked about.