The Role Of Eating Disorders In Magazines

Under society’s customs for decades, young women have found themselves immersed in the pressure and anticipation to have exemplary bodies. Nearly every young woman prefers to be slim, have a perfectly shaped body, that is beautified by applying pounds of makeup to their face but does not appear ridiculously overdone. Who’s responsible for these measures imposed on young women? When a young girl picks up the model on the cover of Vogue being called flawless, naturally it’s easy for her to then aspire to be a real-life imitation of the that model. These companies produce magazine covers shown with girls’ images daily. As if keeping the perfect body wasn’t hard enough, our culture also forces girls into the forever expanding world of composition, however, body image is a surging subject for young girls. Advertisements and pictures of lean female models are all over. Young women are measured and perplexed by their physical appearances with attire intended to raise their physical structures; social media, magazines, the society, marketing campaigns, advertisements, and the fashion gurus add to a strand of excellence.

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?

Why are women and men pressured because of an image of skin and bones or walking muscles? Most commercials and magazines flicker photos every second of photoshopped or unrealistic bodies. In addition, Americans on average spend 250 billion hours watching television. More importantly, children and teenagers gape at 20,000 commercials a year. Using unflawed advertisements, they gnaw at children's minds into thinking they aren't beautiful. For example, women are accentuated to live up to the expectations of a Victoria's Secret model--a skinny waist, huge breasts, and meaty thighs. Men, on the other hand, are bombarded with pictures of a projected, heavily built abdomen. In society, people are driven to look like living Barbie dolls. Human beings shouldn't have the weight on their chest to look like the model on an advertisement. Several people can have higher expectations of a person, develop eating disorders, and even lose self-esteem.

Millions of people struggle daily to maintain a perfect physical body image in hopes of receiving approval, love, and happiness. The need to maintain this perfect image is supported by society and the media with a mirage of messages that you can be happy if you obtain this perfect image. Society 's ideals of what the human body should look like have caused numerous people to develop abnormal eating patterns in a contempt to conform and seek society 's approval of their body image.

Some people might develop bulimia which is an emotional disorder where people have a distortion of body image and an obsessive desire to lose weight. People with bulimia have bouts of extreme overeating that are followed by depression and self-induced vomiting, purging, or fasting. Others could be diagnosed with anorexia which is also an emotional disorder in which people will lose weight by refusing to eat and becoming extremely thin in some cases. The ideal body type that America sees has a huge impact on young people by shaming them for their body type if it doesn’t fit the standards. People can lose their self-esteem when they’re constantly reminded that their body isn’t perfect since it doesn’t match the ideal body type which is often

“Body image: what we're supposed to look like - is made so unattainable that all girls are put in this position of feeling inferior. That's a horrible thing.” -Amy Heckerling. This is exactly was photoshopping models in magazines is doing. It is creating an unrealistic standard that girls’ are holding themselves to. Most magazine and advertisement companies are not just removing a blemish or a stray hair, but shedding 20 pounds and changing features. Magazines are taking advantage of their models; they are no longer just retouching models, and they are creating false standards. Magazines and advertisements should not be allowed to publish photoshopped models.

The life of a young girl taken by the pressures to be perfect happens all too often in today’s society. It is not uncommon for a teen girl to diet, purge, or even stop eating all together to achieve the standards of beauty that the world has forced upon her. Most of the time these pressures cannot be escaped because they are pushed onto a girl from the time she is born and sometimes she does not even realize the brainwashing. There is too much pressure put on girls to have a perfect body because it is impossible to be perfect, girls are developing eating disorders, and being imperfect is resulting in bullying and peer pressure.

Young women are much more likely to develop eating disorders fueled by unrealistic cultural standards for weight in Western societies (pg. 448). We often see on television or on social media, what the “ideal” body looks like. Young women are looking at this and comparing themselves to what they feel like they should look like. In reality though, the “ideal” body is a complete sham. It’s not about how “ideal” a body can look or be, but rather how healthy you are as a person. A personal example of mine was when l was around thirteen years old and l looked at a fashion magazine with a bunch of beautiful models on the front cover. At the time, l thought to myself, “Oh, they’re so pretty! I want to look like that too!” But in reality, l was hurting myself by taking extreme measures to either be as skinny or as porcelain as these models. The truth is, l would never look like them, no matter how much l tried. My body was built a certain way, and of course l can be healthy and exercise and eat nutritious food, but if l was going to do that, it would be for my own personal reason and not to look like someone l wish l could be. Like me, a lot of young women go through this, but unfortunately, go through much more extreme measures like developing eating

Whether it is walking into a clothing store, standing in the checkout line in the supermarket, or driving down the road, one is likely to see some type of advertisement for the “perfect” body. In the store’s front windows are slender, tall, and muscular mannequins. Few stores actually have plus size mannequins. This tells people that they must be thin and tall in order to look good in the clothing. Standing line at the grocery store one is surrounded by magazines with beautiful models gracing the covers. Those models have been photoshopped to look a certain way, to fit society’s standards of beautiful. If you look at a model, their thighs are often a little thicker and their faces are a little fuller than what they appear to look like on the billboards and magazine covers. Many modeling agencies will not hire

When researchers asked one hundred eighteen female, college-aged students to look at twenty pictures in ads from women's magazines, they felt a sudden change in mood after the pictures were observed. There was notable depression in the women, a depression that has seemed to hit many women after leafing through women's magazines (Key and Lindgren 11). This depression is due to the fact there are so many negative messages being conveyed in advertisements that are published in women's magazines. But who can blame the women for their depression anyway? When the majority of the ads in women's magazines show super-skinny models advertising nice clothes, makeup, jewelry, etc., one might find themselves to be a little down. Skinny models portray their figures to be the cultural norm in Western society today. How often does one find a model in a woman's magazine that is over a size six that is not shown advertising plus size merchandise? The answer is not very often, or sometimes never at all. If women do not see their body type being depicted in

Throughout history, women have transformed their appearances to match the current beauty ideal. Today, the idea of being a size zero has transformed itself from a trend into being an obsession. The fascination to be thin and “perfect” has invaded the minds of women and girls all over the world, it feels as if the pressure to have the perfect body everywhere. The ideals of beauty have been constantly focussed on women 's bodies. It’s gone from the boyish figure during the roaring twenties to an hourglass figure that swept the 1930s and 1950s. Every year beauty standards change and continue to impact women’s lives.

We all want to have a skinny, toned, tanned, perfect body. A ‘perfect body’ being created by the media and fashion industry. Frederique van der Wa, a former Victoria's Secret model, even says that the runway models today have an “unnatural thinness” and that it is not a good message to sent to “young, impressionable women.” Each year a new image of a perfect body is released and the models keep getting skinnier. This makes young women develop eating disorders. Seeing the unnaturally skinny models gives them the idea that ‘this is what we are supposed to look like.’ The media and fashion industry does contribute to eating disorders in youth and the thought of a perfect body image.

Eating disorders are definitely a mental and physical disease, and are often accompanied by other issues such as anxiety and depression. However, what our culture represents and desires as an ideal body does play a role in the lives of young girls, those who are most at risk for eating disorders. One of the myths discussed during the presentation was that eating disorders were more common amongst the wealthy. Many people have this perception of tying body weight to economic status, which most likely comes from the media. Although, there is some truth in that people can afford to eat healthier, lower fat

Fashion Magazine. Magazine covers are a streamlined approach to bombard consumers by influencing their body image ideals, even if the magazine is not purchased or read in its entirety; the cover alone has the ability to affect a women’s perception of self (Conlin & Bissell, 2014). When you go to an airport or to the grocery store the shelves are filled with fashion and fitness magazines with font covers blurbs telling you what the newest, trendiest fashions are; how to lose belly fat with “one step,” health myths debunked, how to enhance or change yourself is various ways, but rarely do you see blurbs about self-acceptance. Fashion magazine covers usually displays a young, thing woman or young girl wearing revealing clothes. Magazine publishers

A large contributing factor to this problem is that many people in the fashion world encourage the use of overly thin models in editorials and fashion shows. For example, as Kathryn Shattuck, What's On Today: [The Arts/Cultural Desk], mentions that Kelly Cutrone, world renowned fashion publicist, encourages, “Clothes look better on thin people. The fabric hangs better” (1). The fashion industry’s emphasis on being thin and its use of extremely underweight models in unacceptable. Many people would agree that the fashion industry plays the majority role in eating disorders, but Lisa Hilton, British Vogue writer, disagrees. Hilton argues, “Its objective is selling clothes, and the consensus remains that in order to achieve this, models need to be thin . . . Fashion is about fantasy, about impossibility, about, dare we say it, art. Most women can’t tell the difference” (1). Hilton condescendingly continues to refute the criticisms that models are too thin and the fashion industry encourages eating disorders.