Society has Unrealistic Image of Woman in Article, Fat Is a Feminist Issue”, by Susie OrBach

Body image encompasses how we perceive our bodies, how we feel about our physical experience as well as how we think and talk about our bodies, our sense of how other people view our bodies, our sense of our bodies in physical space, and our level of connectedness to our bodies. Over the past three decades, while America has gotten heavier, the "ideal woman" presented in the media has become thinner. Teenagers are the heaviest users of mass media, and American women are taught at a young age to take desperate measures in the form of extreme dieting to control their

An overweight lady walks up and down the magazine aisle in hope to find something interesting to read. She noticed that all of the fitness magazines have one thing in common: stick-figure skinny, tall, small breasted, and blonde models on every cover. In the Western society this “perfect image” is used as bait to trap women. According to Susie Orbach’s essay, “Fat Is a Feminist Issue”, promotes the idea that being overweight is a way for women to rebel against societal pressures to be thin (452). On the one hand, Orbach is right that women should rebel against society.

Once upon a time, women were celebrated for their curves. Weight was a symbol of wealth and fertility in a woman. During this time, women were subjugated to being a housewife and nothing more. As time and society progressed, a woman’s prison became her body and no longer her home. Women had the freedom to vote, work, play, but could no longer be fat. This new beauty standard of thinness affects women in many ways. In “Add Cake, Subtract Self Esteem” written by Caroline Knapp, she describes her own personal experience on how this impossible standard affects women’s eating which leads to eating disorders and an unhealthy relationship with food. In “The Beauty Myth” written by Naomi Wolf, she describes the mental effects on women from a

The subject of this article are young girls, mainly who are in their teenage years, but also the parents of teenage girls. However, anyone can be impacted and learn from this article. This article questions why society drills the idea of thinness into the minds of people, and every reader can take a different stance and have a different opinion on the issue. Some people may take a stance and say that individuals, themselves, are the only influence on their body image. However, others may take the stance and say that society, as a whole, has a huge influence on an individual and their body image. The author of this article, Erica Goode, includes many quotes from parents of teenage girls, who feel as if they need to go to extreme measures to fit in with society. In this case, the author is creating the stance that society plays a role when it comes to influencing an individual. Goode also provides many

In the book, “They Say, I Say”, Susie Orbach wrote an essay, Fat is a Feminist Issue, that diverges from the ideology that women obesity is a moral failure ; rather it is an expression of freedom from societal norms and culture. The essay explores the causes, effects, and views of obesity, holding that ‘fat is’ a societal not an individual problem. Orbach uses culture and biology to illustrate how obesity is a feminist choice as opposed to popular belief that it is a lifestyle problem. She links obesity to feminism, arguing that the societal proposition that women are inferior to men has led to this stereotyping of obesity. The society has also held that a woman must have a man to ensure her self-consciousness on her chosen lifestyle such as eating habits and exercises.

Images in the media are extremely powerful and affect the way women think about themselves and about their body. Hilary Rowland, author of “Media Images Are Unrealistic” states how the images shown everyday cause women to “feel insecure about their own bodies” even if they don't have anything to be ashamed of. It is evident that the media displays unrealistic images of beauty causing girls to feel insecure about their bodies and creates a false perception of how they should look. Due to this, women obsess so much over looking just like the “idealized” woman in the media that they create an obsession of losing weight because of lack of confidence. In the article, “The Media Drives Young Girls to Diet” by Jessica Hendrick, we see how women “diet obsessively” trying to “emulate the popular notion of beauty” that is being shown in the media.

Being large isn’t just a women’s issue furthermore, most ladies don’t ask to be heavy, yet it turns into an unconscious struggle that conflicts with society’s expectations of perfection in a woman’s body. In recent talks of fat being a feminist problem, a sketchy subject has been whether eating impulsively is a lady’s problem signifying it relates to her experience of being a female in society. From one perspective, some argue that a female’s body is the most important thing about her, that it’s an indication to the world about who she is. From this point of view, women are taught to occupy themselves apparently with a self-image that others will find satisfying and attractive rather than being classified as an overweight woman; shunned by what society considers a perfect body. On the other hand, however, others argue that it is thoroughly up to women to make themselves healthy and to avoid becoming overweight for which they ae shunned. In the words of Susie Orbach (2015), one of this view’s main advocates, “You are your body, you have to take care of it! You’re the individual, you’re responsible. It has nothing to do with what’s going on in the wider society.”

Society has focused on eating disorders from both ends of the spectrum, and for a majority of the time the light was on those who ate too little or not at all. Magazines and television commercials have been flooded with too thin women for years, and they were respected and idolized in the fashion community, and in everyday life. People became obsessed with thinness and began to construe a false sense of normality when confronted with an overly thin individual. Searching for the perfect weight has been an ongoing issue throughout society for men and women for decades, and has never seemed to lose its popularity. Society applauds those who can keep off the weight and seem to view unhealthy individuals through a rose colored lense. America’s Next Top Model consists of the thinnest, most beautiful women who are striving to be the next big thing. These women are underweight and work hard to maintain an overly slim physique, and are idolized by millions. Weight loss is a constant struggle for millions of people and are in a constant cycle of dieting too much or intaking more calories than someone should. “There is a slippery slope from dieting to disease, as the 7 million girls and women suffering from eating disorders in this country will attest.” (Martin 1) For generations society has deemed “too thin” to be normal, and has led

As this disorder is most commonly seen in women, millions of women every day are being bombarded with the media’s idea of the “perfect” body. These unrealistic images are being portrayed in women’s magazines all over the country. The message being sent to women is that they are not pretty or skinny enough. The average American woman is about 5,4 and weighs 140 pounds, while the average American model is 5,11 and weighs 117 pounds. As a common example, thirty years ago, Marilyn Monroe was a size 14 and had the “ideal” body size and shape, but today the standards are getting much smaller. As the beauty ideals continue to get smaller in our society, body image within American women will continue to plummet. As these Magazines portray and compare happiness with being thin, therefore some feel, as they are not thin enough. Which will lead to them being to being unhappy. As women of all ages are believed to hold unrealistic ideals of body shape and size, when these ideals can be both physically and emotionally unhealthy to

Society’s view of the “ideal” female body can decrease self-esteem by making younger females believe that a slim figure is necessary, furthermore make their lives “better.” In the passage, Body Image of Women, it states that “over fifty percent of 9 to 10 years old girls feel better about themselves if they were on a diet, even though the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that only 18 percent of adolescents are really overweight.” (Farrar 1) These girls are thinking that if they lost weight, they would be happier. This is proving that socio-culture is putting this mentality in young girls minds that being thin is the “best,” therefore causing girls to feel insecure about their bodies. Dieting can be unhealthy which can lead

Beauty standards are portrayed everywhere: on magazines, social media, ads, commercials, and even flaunted among peers. While the ideals are supposed to promote health awareness, fitness motivation, and self love, it unfortunately results in many unfavorable consequences. Women are constantly “penalized for not being beautiful and at the same time are stigmatized, even pathologized, for not feeling beautiful, for having low self-esteem, for engaging in behaviors like dieting and excessive exercising, or for having eating disorders” (Johnston and Taylor 954). Beauty standards are unrealistic and unhealthy to pursue, and misinforms the public on what true beauty is. While not all beauty image ideals promote negative feelings and dissatisfaction, many believe that the negative effects far outweighs any positive effects.

The female body image is highly influenced by the mass media and the media’s portrayal of women, ‘70% of college women say they feel worse about their own looks after reading women’s magazines’ (University of Massachusetts & Stanford University, 2006), the portrayal of women in the media has an unrealistic approach and brings out body dissatisfactions and this results in eating problems and disorders.

“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.

When my family moved away from the place I grew up I began to have a major problem with my weight; I turned to food to comfort me. I somehow felt secure while eating and because of that psychological reassurance I got from the food, I was soon over weight. I knew I had to do something but that urgency would die when I would be introduced to a new flavor of Brewster’s ice cream or a limited time only supreme large fries that I saw advertised on the television or in a magazine. My self esteem and body-image suffered a great amount during those years of constant struggle. As I looked at pictures of celebrities, athletes, average people, friends, my sister and then myself, I noticed something, all of them were thin except me. After this and

I interviewed my friend who struggles with low self-esteem through email (IJ, February 27, 2016). She does not want her name in this paper, so I will be using her initials. IJ was slightly chubby in elementary and middle school and that affected her self-esteem. She did not like her body because she was not as thin as the models and actresses and saw in magazines and on TV. She wanted to lose weight because she thought that “would give her confidence.” In high school she started to lose weight because she was “tired of being chubby and she wanted to feel better about herself.” She started eating healthier foods and she went to the gym more often. Once she lost the weight and people started commenting on how “good she looked” she became more confident. She lost weight the healthy way, but she told me about a girl who did the cotton ball diet. The cotton ball diet is when you dip cotton balls in orange juice and that is manly what you eat until you reach your desired weight. While the interview was short and simple, I feel that I learned some new things. I know my friend still struggles with self-esteem and that she cares about other people’s opinions a little too much sometimes, but this interview definitely highlighted that. She did not lose weight just for herself, she lost weight because of the media and because it felt nice having others complement her. Also, high self-esteem is not directly associated with being thin; females with anorexia are a good example of that. I