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Susan Bordo Never Just Pictures Summary

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Summary of “Never Just Pictures” 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 …show more content…

Body image disturbance syndrome is a disorder where one is “unable to see themselves as anything but fat, no matter how thin they become”(Bordo). This leads to one starving themselves or forcing themselves to vomit, known as bulimia. She says that the idea of a beautiful body has come from models and fashion designers, who claim that clothing doesn’t “hang right” on bustier people. Susan does not just have a problem with the pressure of society to be thin; she also doesn’t like people exercising too much. She claims that the gymnasts in the Olympics are unhealthy due to their lack of body fat and criticizes the commentators for being in awe of the athletes muscular bodies. Susan says, “the hormones unreleased because of insufficient body fat, the organ development delayed, perhaps halted” (Bordo). Susan doesn’t think children should strive to look like these athletes. . Susan goes on to write about how eating disorders and pressures to be skinny is not just a young, middle class, white girl problem anymore. She claims that all races and ethnicities are being affected by this problem. Men are also being pressured to maintain their bodies due to underwear, and such,

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