The Negative Effects Of Anorexia And Its Effects On The Media

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).

As of the year 2013, an estimated 805 million people worldwide suffer from Hunger. This number represents a group of people who suffer from food insecurity. This means they have inadequate access to food and don’t know when their next meal will be. This being said, an estimated 70 million people worldwide suffer from some sort of eating disorders as of 2015 with 30 million being made up of Americans. Eating Disorders can be defined as any eating habit that negatively affects ones overall health. Media has had a large impact on how both males and females see their bodies.

Everyone has dealt with body image at some point in their life. Personally, I was always the tall, skinny kid. I could not gain weight no matter how hard I tried. I never had a negative mindset about my body image, but I did want to alter it in order to look like the models on the Abercrombie & Fitch bags or the guys in the gym commercials. Other than personal reasons, this topic interests me because of the attention that females have received about changing body image stereotypes. This effects men as well, but it is not as prominent an issue.

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

The world we live in has change drastically. Since the 1980’s and even in the early 2000’s, the world and icons that we have known have changed. Think about your favorite childhood super hero. Think about the male icons that everyone wanted to be. Remember back when everyone wanted to have a G.I. Joe action figure. G.I. Joe was the icon for military. This action figure had a normal figure. Take a look at the G.I. Joe from years ago and compare it to the G.I. Joe that we know today. There is a big difference. The plastic action figure has etched abs, a detailed muscular figure, and an all around different appearance than what was portrayed years ago. The world and society of today has shaped the icons that we see everyday into what they think the ideal male and even female should look like. What has this caused in our society? The answer is muscle dysmorphia.

In the Western culture, it has long been the tradition to strive for perfection in everything possible. In many ways, this has moved our culture and technology forward. This can also be quite detrimental to people, because perfection is often not attainable. In the medical field, perfection is often the goal for patients. When dealing with the human body, perfection really isn’t universal nor a realistic goal. This strive for perfection has caused some health problems for people including anorexia, erectile dysfunction, and ADHD. When people from other cultures are introduced to the medical system in Western culture, there is often a large degree of confusion and extremely different practices.

About one in 200 persons in the United States will develop anorexia nervosa at some time. Ninety Percent are women (Anorexia Nervosa—Part 1 1). Anorexia is defined as an emotional disorder characterized by refusing to diet or eat. This is targeting young girls all across the world! This calamity is struck by something every person loves, social media. The media realm needs to be ceased from the websites that support dieting, celebrities displaying perfectionist bodies, and the social media world: their main victim to such disease are young teens. In particular media plays a role in anorexia in young teens because of social media and celebrities, the model industry, and the “thigh gap”.

Body dysmorphic disorder is a psychological disorder in which a person thinks about their flaws and imperfections for hours a day and take extreme measures in order to “perfect their body” so it can finally appeal to them and be the way it is “suppose to be.” Those who suffer from this disorder cannot control there negative thoughts and it can prevent them from doing everyday activities such as attend school and attend work. They are more prone to miss social events than go out to show off their results and are insecure about how they tried to fix there “imperfections.” And are never satisfied with their results as they undergo more drastic measures to reach their end goal such as plastic surgery, continuous self-tanning, hours of laser surgeries

Eating disorders are mental illnesses that affect more than 7 million American women and usually develop in girls ages 12-25. The most common age for a girl to begin having an eating disorder is 17 years old (Discovery Health?). The National Eating Disorders Association states that eating disorders are conditions that arise from factors including physical, psychological, interpersonal, and social issues. Media images help define cultural definitions of beauty and attractiveness and are often acknowledged as one of the factors that contribute to the rise of eating disorders (NEDA). It is evident that the media influences teenage girls to develop eating disorders based on these reasons: the

“ I am forever engaged in a silent battle in my head over whether or not to life the fork to

We live in a society ruled by the media. At every turn we’re bombarded with images of what a girl is supposed to look like, what she’s supposed to wear, and how she’s supposed to act. Models range from stick thin to plus size, with no representation of average size six girls to be found. All around the world, girls are starving themselves to look a certain way, with terms like “thigh gap” and “collarbones” running rampant in their minds. But why? What are those things really worth?

Eating disorders are mainly depicted through two different types of anorexia, restricting and bulimia. TV shows and movies show girls throwing and starving themselves to lose a few pounds. Media representation has created a stigma that people with anorexia nervosa have a choice. … In American Dad, Stan Smith – the main character – becomes anorexic after overreacting and comparing himself to an overweight individual. Throughout the episode we see Stan becoming fatter and fatter, until the middle of the episode where – in a plot twist – was Stan reveled to be imaging his sudden weight gain. At this point the audience could see that Stan was underweight. The rest of the episode showed Stan and another anorexic girl bonding through their need to lose

In teenagers, BDD will eventually take over their life. Teens are influenced by something called the “buy me, wear me, be me” phenomenon. This message is put out by the stars in Hollywood, as well as all over the world in things like New York Fashion Week, and fashion shows all around the world featuring celebrities that are generally characterized as flawless. Everyone wants the celebrity body that has been photo shopped to look absolutely perfect with nonexistent body fat. This is something that needs particular attention especially when dealing with the puberty years when the body is trying to make your body in to an adult with the voice changes, and the ever so lovely, acne; this is when the teenager’s life can begin to turn upside down. In teenage boys, body image is something that is relatively the same. In boys, the problem is not only that they are not thin enough for the outside world, there is also a problem with not being muscular enough, spawning the disorder off of Body Dysmorphic Disorder, Muscle Dysmorphic Disorder, or MDD. MDD is a disorder much like BDD; however, it focuses on the muscles only. This disorder makes boys crave the body of the world’s models. This need to look like a bodybuilder is spawned by the media. When certain ads are on television, they make us feel like we could ultimately achieve that same look as they have which in all reality, results like the one’s shown on television are not typical. This feeling makes teenage boys start eating larger portions of food and start lifting more weights that could potentially injure him. Typically, feelings such as this make the boy engage in potentially destructive activities such as engage in performance enhancing drugs. These compounds include anabolic steroids and human growth hormone which can be purchased over the internet illegally” (Knobloch,

One way people with Body Dysmorphic Disorder become slaves to the idea of becoming 'perfect ' is from the media. Social media is constantly changing the average body shape, face shape, and characteristics of a female or male. These ideas are shown through magazines, social media apps, and the news, which destroy the minds of younger generations and their physical features. Magazines that show models create body image desires from both men and women. Tools like photoshop create a slimmer women or a lean muscular man. These advertisements create a question in our heads, "Am I pretty enough?", "Am I fat?"Advertisements of false bodies creates problems for the next generation. Even in children the toys that we see such as barbies make young children believe in how they should look like. "You don 't get self-esteem from a scalpel" (Amico.) Many teens avoid bullying by pressuring themselves into cosmetic surgery. Bullying has an effect in school when kids are called 'a ugly '. Encouraging teens that their differences is what makes them the person that they see is what the world needs to show. False advertisement and false depictions of how people should like destroys

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).