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The Media 's Impact On Self Image

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Watching “Dying to be Thin” further solidified a slowly growing understanding of the media’s impact on self-image and its ability to steal a person’s life in a 30-second advertisement. As explained in the video, eating disorders have the highest death rate of any psychiatric illness. The onset of this illness seems to stem from a desire to achieve the unattainable and the subsequent desperation that ensues. “Dying to be Thin” properly explained the role of the media in saturating society with waiflike images that we are to perceive as perfect and worthy of love and adoration. This gives evidence to the idea that members of society have unfortunately become conditioned to feel that if they were not precisely the visual image of what is consistently thought of as desirable, they were then not good enough. On top of the role of ‘seed planter’ the media is also able to take credit for the creation of the mindset that, these body images, although 20% below normal body weight, can be completely attainable by the average person- if they just tried hard enough. Setting unrealistic physical goals tended to motivate individuals to seek unconventional means for physical success. So, with that mindset, extremes such as the binging and purging or starvation of the ballerinas in the video only seemed logical. Physical success for those young women did not just mean visual benefits; it would mean job opportunities. Along with the extreme negative factors being chased, a feeling

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