Sociology Essay: “How Far Would Sociologists Agree That the Media Causes Eating Disorders in Women?

Drawing from several areas of research, this paper explores the ways Media influence Eating Disorders in many adolescences by portraying poor portrayal of body image. These un realistic body image becomes what the society calls norms and as of result, young adolescence tries to achieve this unrealistic body image. In the process, they start to develop eating disorders because they try to achieve a false depictions of body image. This paper the thesis revolves around whether Media shape, reinforce cultural norms, and if it promotes eating disorders.

The goal of this article was to provide more conclusive research regarding the correlation between disordered eating in college-aged women and media, particularly sports media. Two main theories were incorporated into this article - self-objectification and social comparison theory. Self-objectification refers to the tendency for people to view themselves as others view them, in this instance, the female body and how women view their physical selves. Social comparison theory is fairly self explanatory, in that it theorizes that people oftentimes will compare them selves to others of similar age, status, and appearance. For men and women alike, if they see their own image as a ‘lesser’ version

According to the internet, 10 million American women suffer from eating disorders? Eating disorders are serious illnesses which are caused by irregular eating habits and concerns about body weight. As a result, eating disorders are caused psychological and environmental behavior which can often result in a fatal illness. This is what Kathryn Arnett experiences in her life. She explains how she developed an eating disorder in her essay, “Media and Advertisement: The New Peer Pressure.” The factors that contributed to Arnett’s eating disorder was media idolizing and portraying fake body images, teens developing and having low self-esteem, and parents not being present in their children's’s life.

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.

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

Eating disorders have become a major problem throughout the world, specifically in the United States. The key factor that has an influence on eating disorders is the media. Including people of all ages and genders, up to twenty-four million people suffer from an eating disorder in the United States (ANAD np). This is a huge problem in the world today but what makes it so much worse is the fact that it can be prevented and it is in our control to change it. Young adults look to these celebrities, which are often their role models, and try to look just like them. What they fail to remember is the fact that celebrities have a lot of money, money that can afford nutritionists and personal trainers. They also fail to remember the extensive measures the celebrities may have to go through to look the way they do. An example of extensive measures can be considered plastic surgery. Ultimately, this creates a false goal that is almost unattainable for the “average” or “regular” person. Overall, the media has overtaken a huge impact on what the “ideal” body image has become today. Eating disorders are still on the rise and it is proven that an eating disorder such as anorexia affects up to 5 percent of women from ages 15-30 years old ("Media, Body Image, and Eating Disorders | National Eating Disorders Association np"). This may not seem that significant but it is also not considering other eating disorders such as bulimia. All in all, eating disorders

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

Media gives girls an ideal body type and this causes eating disorders. Media often shows girls the perfect body type which leads to them dieting, the first step for people who have anorexia (Graves,2000) making the anorexia rate go up.

Many people can relate to media being the blame for eating disorders because they’ve either dealt with this or know someone who has had an eating disorder due to what the media says you should look like.

Two Psychiatrists, Joel Kevin Thompson and Leslie J. Heinberg (1999), studied the “media’s influence on body image disturbance and eating disorders” (Thompson,.et Heinberg:Dec 17, 2002) , basing their research within the

Many individual’s today would argue that most health problems develop from media. For example, the Modeling Industry is mainly nothing but tall and very slender women. Most would agree that adolescent females see the size of most models and assume that is what is considered beauty. Media does not promote anorexia to distort women’s body images. Most women that starve themselves do not do it because of television, movies, or magazines, etc. They starve themselves to make them feel better and to uplift their self-esteem. Media does not play a role in anorexia because of three main reasons: environmental factors, exercising, and dieting.

The argument about whether the mass media effect on eating disorder has a positive effect or a negative effect is under debate. Some people believe that mass effect on eating disorder is the biggest problem and other believe that the real issue of body image rather than the media. However, there is no role of media on eating disorder, it is because eating disorder is a psychological issue. Body image gives positive attitude to teenage girls and boys, women and men to become healthy and happy. The eating disorder is heavenly influenced by genetics, neurobiology,

There is something obviously wrong with these statistics. Women who subject themselves to these circumstances are fighting against their own body make-ups in order to fulfill the standards put out by the media. In order to change these staggering statistics in the future, we must examine what the media does to make girls and women obtain eating disorders.

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).

“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