The Resaons for Eating Disorders

In our society, we tell little girls to love and to be true to oneself. As they grow up, this message begins to disappear because our culture contradicts this idea. As girls enter the world, they are already confined with how the media set unrealistic standards for the female population. This leads girls to harm their own body, including eating disorders such as bulimia, and anorexia. The most prominent cause of these acts is advertisements. Advertisements are everywhere and they have the power to promote, sell, encourage, and give unrealistic ideals of the common people. Advertisements and media images have a negative effect on the way women view their body image which leads to self-harm.

Teenagers at risk for eating disorders more than double to 29 percent. The number of high school girls

Many people are unaware of the background of eating disorders. Women are more likely than men to develop an eating disorder and they usually develop in childhood before the age of 20 (Ross-Flanigan 1). Women as well as men can develop an eating disorder; it is just more likely for a woman to develop one. Eating disorders are usually developed in adolescent or childhood years when a person is influenced the most. Also “Eating disorders are psychological conditions that involve overeating, voluntary starvation, or both. Anorexia nervosa, anorexic bulimia, and binge eating are the most well-known types of eating disorders” (Ross-Flanigan 1). Many people assume that an eating disorder is when a person staves themselves; they do not realize that it can involve overeating as well. Some eating disorders also involve purging, but not all. People with an eating disorder fear gaining weight even when they are severely underweight. They do not lack an appetite (Ross-Flanigan 1). These people are

In a recent survey done by the National institute on Media and the Family, fifth graders, ten year old boys and girls told researchers they were dissatisfied with their own bodies after watching a music video by Britney Spears or a clip from the TV show “Friends.”(4) If this isn’t shocking enough, the research group reported that at the age of thirteen, fifty-three percent of American girls are “unhappy with their bodies.” This grows to seventy-eight percent by the time the girls reach seventeen. Also, eating disorders are beginning to start at an alarming young age. Statistics show that girls are developing eating disorders at the age of six.(1) Young girls that are exposed to appearance focused television programs, and magazine shows feel that they need to look like the models that they see. Most of these girls are not even have fully developed bodies yet and are already trying to perfect themselves. One girl had even shared how one of her best friends discovered that her fifth grade cousin was bulimic. Girls at that age should not even be concerned with their bodies yet and eating disorders being developed is a harsh wake up call as to how young girls everywhere are being effected by the media each and everyday.

The fact is, one in three adolescent girls has suffered or is suffering from some form of an eating disorder, from severe dieting or excessive exercise, to actual starvation (Steinhausen, 95), and six out of ten high school girls diet, along with one in four high school boys (Berg, 17). These percentages are ridiculously high, and show that there is definitely a problem in our society.

Ever since the development of the media such as television, the internet, various fashion magazines and commercial advertisements, society focused more and more on personal appearances. Not only were runway models becoming slimmer but the viewers that watched and read about them were becoming more concerned with their weight. In the past fifty years the number of adolescent girls developing eating disorders increased just as television, advertisements, and magazines were becoming a social norm that was easily and often available. Today, more than ever, adolescents are worrying about weight, shape, size and body image and. It does not help that these children are growing up in a world filled with media material emphasizing dangerously

Media is everywhere we turn. It’s displayed on billboards, commercials, Facebook, Twitter and Youtube. It influences people to purchase certain things or even vote for a certain presidential candidate. Media tells us who we are and who we should be. Although media has its positive effects, like spreading the latest news quickly, it also has many downfalls for teenagers, specifically teenage girls, who are hounded with a stream of media related to body image. Today most women always feel the need to look in a mirror whenever they see one to fix their hair or makeup, or even compare themselves to an advertisement featuring an unblemished, blonde haired, skinny woman with perfect hair and skin. Every single girl has done this, but how can it possibly be her fault? For so long women have been trained to compare themselves to others. Girls see flashing lights on every corner that scream to them “they aren’t good enough” or “skinny enough”. Seeing those ads and their negative message that is sent, girls will go to drastic measures to fit themselves into this image of what society calls “perfection”, but advertisers are not worried about the person who is buying the product, they are just more worried about if they are going to buy it and often look beyond the point that their ads affect the way girls internalize their messages.

Is there too much pressure on girls to have perfect bodies? People are worried about their body image,which is putting them in a dangerous position for anorexia,or using laxatives to lose weight.Media puts intense pressure on girls today to look like the “ideal” image.The medias harmful effect on self body image and self esteem has brought three damaging effects:eating disorders,mental depression,and physical depression.The media is always putting a new form of pills to lose weight.Many girls have been choosing the easy way to lose weight by starving themselves.Girls may try fasting or purging,because media-portrayed thin body ideal is related to eating pathology.Association between risk for disordered eating and subsequent thinnes expected

There are numerous forms of eating disorders, such as anorexia and bulimia. In this case it deals with overeating, under eating, or provoking oneself to vomit consumed food. People with anorexia limit the amount of food they eat, even if they are harmfully thin to begin with. Other problems associated with the media’s negative influence on body image are depression and anxiety. Teenagers spend most of their day worrying about their appearance causing anxiety and depression when they can’t measure up to popular media’s standards.The root for these serious issues is the negative influence media has on society, with distorted body images directed to only one specific body type. However it is possible to restore one’s self esteem, but may need professional assistance, like a therapist to help with deep rooted insecurities. At the end of the day we all can’t have long hair, clear skin, and be a size zero. In a way it’s a miracle not all teenagers are diagnosed with eating disorders, due to puberty changes and constant pressures from society. Because of developing technology, it is hard to disconnect from social media and personal

Over 20 million women and 10 million men will suffer from an eating disorder at some point in their life(Get the Facts, n.d.). A person with an eating disorder will start out eating small or large amounts of food. Then at some point that person will spiral out of control to where they are not eating at all or eating excessively. “Severe distress or concern about body weight or shape, or extreme efforts to manage weight or food intake, also may characterize an eating disorder”(NIMH, n.d.). For girls the need to feel skinny can start at the young age of 6 years old. According to a recent study 40-60% of girls from six to twelve years old have said that they are concerned about their weight or of becoming to fat. The rate of people

One of the many factors why it is more prevalent is in large part due to the standards of beauty that the media provide. For example, McNicholas et al., (2009) in their paper found that the adolescents who were most at risk to develop anorexia nervosa viewed the portrayal of weight and shape of women as ‘just right.’ What this means is that the adolescents who are most at risk view the standards of beauty presented by the media to be indicative of what women should look like. This is problematic in large part because models presented in the media are, as Kilbourne states, “23% thinner than the average woman” (as cited by McNicholas et al., 2009). In other words, these at risk adolescents view the ideal self to be something worth striving for even though the thinness of these model should not be sought after. These standards of beauty do affect the rates of anorexia and other eating disorders. For example, Becker found that Fijian adolescent girls had a marked increase in eating disorders after the introduction of western media (as cited by McNicholas et al., 2009). McNicholas et al, explains that before the introduction of western media, the women who represented the ideal woman has bodies closer the average. The adolescent aims to reach this ideal of beauty because they believe that is what is expected of them. They are pressured socially to look ideal because looking good is

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.

The body image and self-comparison is getting stronger every day. The media and other social Medias are some of the causes of anorexia and other eating disorders that are caused by the images seen in the media. The media bombard us with images of being thin, how to lose weight fast and thin model on magazines and others beauty products even in toys. And this leaves us thinking that in order to be beautiful we need to be thin. The media plays a big role on teenager lives and on how they think. There are more and more commercial and product that promises you to lose weight. Most companies target women using social comparison in order for them to buy the product in order to get to the ideal look.

The standards of beauty never stay the same and have changed over time from one end of the spectrum to the other. With the dramatic changes in what is considered physically attractive, it understandable how it is impossible to reach the goals presented by the media. Now, females are influenced by the growing disparities in the actual body weight compared to the portrayed weight of models, celebrities, and actors to be rail-thin. Girls are raised to focus on their appearance as an indication of their worthiness and the media feeds on this vulnerability. With all the focus on appearance instead of other abilities, girls develop low self-esteem and have an increased of psychiatric disorders, including eating disorders. “[W]e have a lot to learn

Eating disorders stem from a combination of psychological, biological, and social factors. Feelings of depression and anxiety along with daily stressors can contribute to