Julianna Porter
D’Angelo
English 12
16 October 2015
Pushing to Be Thin
Among the many predicaments women face, dissatisfaction with one 's body is one most women would agree upon. An estimating 91% of women have been, or are currently unhappy with their bodies. In the early 1900’s, the ideal body image of a woman shifted from thick with muscle to a thin frame with almost no curves. Women began to exercise and diet to enhance the human body. The new ideal body image that was promoted in society began leading to excessive thinness and eating disorders affecting individuals today. One type of eating disorder that’s significantly influenced by society 's ideal body image for females is Anorexia Nervosa.
( Dissatisfaction with bodies).
Anorexia Nervosa is a dangerous eating disorder that consists of self starvation and excessive weight loss. Although approximately 95% of the people who suffer from anorexia are females between the ages 15- 20, this life threatening illness does affect males as well (Anorexia Nervosa). While the average U.S. child watches roughly about 15-20 hours of television a week, the individuals are bombarded with around 30,000 television commercials a year. With that being said, about 23% of the images observed are women who would be classified as under-
weight. The viewing of these commercials and programs are unconsciously and consciously impacting young adult 's. According to Bridget Engels and others,
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 America today, there are unrealistic beauty standards women must face daily. When women can not meet this idea of perfection pushed by society, some women will risk their health just to fit a cultural stigma. Women are held to an insanely high criterion when it comes to beauty which tends to lead to negative body image. Ten percent of women in The United States of America report symptoms consistent with eating disorders such as anorexia, bulimia, and binge eating. Which concludes that a total of 75 percent of all American women endorse some unhealthy thoughts, feelings, or behaviors related to food or their body image-UNC Medical Department Although eating disorders are not subjective to women only, after reading “Beating Anorexia and Gaining Feminism” Marni Grossman and “Feminism and Anorexia: A Complex Alliance” Su Holmes, I will discuss how eating disorders coexist in the lives of women who struggle with body image, and what feminism can do to give these women a second chance.
Jill Zimmerman Rutledge’s credibility is reliable as she has taught at the University of Chicago, Loyola University, and Northwestern University; typically lecturing on eating disorders. She has written a book about body image (Picture Perfect: What You Need to Feel Better About Your Body) and is a psychotherapist with over 30 years of experience in working with youth and adults. She nationally lectures on topics of eating disorders and women’s body image. “Jill has had a long association with ANAD (Anorexia
According to the National Association of Anorexia Nervosa and Associated Disorders, “the body type portrayed in advertising as the ideals is possessed naturally by only 5% of American females.” (“ANAD”) Body image has been a controversial theme because of the influence of the media. It is a widely known fact that eating disorder cases are on the rise. The concept of body image is a subjective matter. The common phrase, “Beauty is in the eyes of the beholder,” holds true meaning in this sense. One’s view and value of their body is self-imposed. Falling into the destructive eating disorders reveals much about a person’s psychological and emotional state. Examining the mental, physical, and emotional conditions behind recognized eating
It was once said by the common woman, “Zero percent of women haven’t struggled with body image issues.”
You have just bought a new pair of jeans. You think that you look absolutely great in them until you turn on the television or compare yourself to the person on side of you. Today, women all over the world are focused on the way society views them, which has an influence on the way they view themselves. The field known as sociology of the body investigates the ways in which our bodies are affected by our social experiences, as well as by the norms and values of the groups to which we belong (Giddens, Duneier, et al, 2007). Body image is an ideal image of what one’s body looks like or what she wants it to look like. It can also be defined as the value one may put on physical appearance. This
Eleven million women in the United States suffer from eating disorders- either self-induced semi-starvation (anorexia nervosa) or a cycle of bingeing and purging with laxatives, self-induced vomiting, or excessive exercise (bulimia nervosa) (Dunn, 1992). Many eating disorder specialists agree that chronic dieting is a direct consequence of the social pressure on American females to achieve a nearly impossible thinness. The media has been denounced for upholding and perhaps even creating the emaciated standard of beauty by which females are taught from childhood to judge the worth of their own bodies (Stephens & Hill, 1994). To explore the broader context of this controversial issue, this paper draws upon several aspects on how the media
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,
In the world today, the media makes it hard for a girl to be ok with her body. Society, in general, persuades young women to feel that any size above a two is too big or that a women needs make up to be beautiful In 1950, when televisions were first finding their way into homes, the media’s portrayal of “the ideal” female was drastically different than what people portray today. At that time, mannequins and models reflected the average woman’s size. Mannequins and models have grown thinner by the year, increasingly desperate with the average women’s physical form. This problem causes many young women to starve themselves to get to the perfect image we have created for them today. One in two hundred American women suffer from anorexia; two
Chronic dieting, low self-esteem, depression and, high levels of body dissatisfaction were among the major issues women face when addressing their body image (Gingras, Fitzpatrick, & McCargar, 2004). The severity of body image dissatisfaction have increased to such a dangerous state that it was added to the DSM-IV as a disorder now called body dysmorphic disorder (Suissa, 2008). One of the main reasons for the prevalence of these conditions in women was due to contemporary Western media, which serve as one of the major agent in enforcing an ultra-thin figure as the ideal for female beauty (Saraceni & Russell-Mayhew, 2007). These images and models presented by the media have become the epitome of beauty, pushing women who internalized these images to dangerous extent to attain these norms. According to evidence from previous studies, contemporary Western cultures have influenced women to an acquired normative state of discontent with their bodies, which have become the source of maladaptive eating practices, negative psychological outcomes, and, chronic health conditions associated with eating disorders (Snapp, Hensley-Choate, & Ryu, 2012). The seriousness of these body image conditions among youths and women have also led to congressional actions.
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
In a video that models made to reveal their body image insecurities on camera to Megan Friedman, creator of the D.EFECT add, is impacting to the media. The women describe the things that they hate about their body, including what they have been called or told by other people due to their flaws. The models start by describing how they dislike their shoulder, smile, height, nose, teeth gap, eyes, birthmarks, and body formation and at the end of the video it tells us to take note that we are all beautiful. This problem is not only found in one model, but in a large portion of the population. Models are not born perfect, some have eating disorders, get plastic surgeries, and get picked on because of what society has made people think women and
Eating disorders have become a major social problem in America, especially for woman. Our society pushes a fantasy of the idealized body through advertising, magazines, television, and social networks. It has become the cultural norm for women to be materialized out of the delusional thought process centered on the perfect body. From a very young age, women are given the message that in order to be happy and pretty, they must look like a Barbie doll. Women need to become aware that society’s ideal body image is not feasible. Your body is merely a vessel that contains the beautiful mind and soul that makes who you are. Our society has created unattainable standards of perfection in body image, and it is causing the rate of eating disorders to keep increasing. Over time, I have learned the most important aspect in life: perfection does not exist.
Research has shown that half the population of young women are unhappy with their body image which will lead to low esteem levels, depression and eating disorders for example Anorexia Nervosa. (1)
In 2007, a shocking ad was displayed starring model, Isabelle Caro. Caro's anorexic frame was splayed out, nude, for the world to see what she looked like. Despite her wish to recover from her ongoing battle with anorexia - Caro lost her battle at the age of 28. Shortly before her death, Caro published a book entitled The Little Girl Who Didn't Want to Get Fat. Caro is not the only sufferer of eating disorders as a result of body dissatisfaction - millions worldwide suffer as well.