Images of Beauty and Eating Disorders
The influences of the media as a factor in the increase in eatingdisorders among young women have become an increasingly pervasive problemthroughput the world. Many professionals and researchers place a large partof the blame of this increase on the influence of the media and advertisingin the Information Age. "The consensus among medical professionals,researchers, and lay people alike is clear: Regarding our children's bodyimage, something has gone wrong". (Harrison) The ubiquitous image of the super-thin model and the svelte modernfemale has almost certainly had an effect on the body image of young women. The fact that the media has had a profound affect on the increase ofeating disorders among teenagers is largely unquestioned; however,academics and researchers are not all unambiguous in their estimation ofthe precise affect the media has on eating disorders. The two main eating disorders, which are associated with theattainment of thinness and body image, are anorexia nervosa and bulimianervosa. Anorexia nervosa is "characterized by the refusal to eat enough
(Brown) Brown also states that "reading beauty and fashion magazines leadsmany young women to internalize and embrace the socio-cultural "thin ideal"and, in turn, motivates them to attain it, sometimes through pathogenicpractice ". " This study polled the attitudes of 3,000 young boys and girls and theirgeneral attitudes towards their school and society. (ibid) Femalesare most likely to be affected and influenced by the self-images in themedia. This aspect iscombined with social pressure that is implied in films, advertisements andother media. " (ibid) There is little doubt of the pernicious and pervasive influence ofmedia images in influencing young women and promoting images that theyaspire to. The AmericanPsychiatric Association has estimated that the prevalence is 4-22 percentof college-age females. In a study conducted byStice, Schupak-Neuberg, Shaw, and Stein (1994) it was found that Mediaexposure was indirectly related to an eating disorder symptomatology"through gender-role endorsement, ideal-body stereotype internalization,and body dissatisfaction. Advertising has been vilified for upholding - perhaps even creating - the emaciated standards of beauty by which girls are taught from childhood to judge the worth of their own bodies (Freedman 1984; Nichter and Nichter 1991; Solomon 1992)". Orenstein's findings on self-esteem are supported by fellowresearchers. the pressure to be slim is continually reinforced both by advertising and by peers. (ibid)Extent of eating disorders An important aspect that is evident from research carried out onthese two central eating disorders it that it is predominantly a femaleproblem.
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Acceptance Essays
