Defining "Beauty," As Seen on TV
             The television turns on. Two lanky models sashay their way down the 2 foot wide runway wearing nothing but lingere from Victoria's Secret's newest line. Change the channel. Britney Spears Live from Las Vegas. Britney struts around stage in extreme low rise jeans and a halter-top dancing to "I'm a slave for you..." Millions of viewers watch these types of shows daily. We are force fed this definition of ideal beauty that says that you have to be tall, thin, and tan to be considered beautiful in our culture. Many teenage girls in our culture fall victim to this definition of beauty every year. They ultimately end up thinking that they have to be tall thin and tan to be beautiful and force themselves not to eat or regurgitate everything they do eat. The Eating Disorders Awareness and Prevention (EDAP) website states that, "in the United States alone, 5-10 million women and girls have active, destructive eating disorders, including anorexia nervosa, binge eating disorder and bulimia."
             There has never been another time in the history of our nation in which our body image plays such a major role in our everyday lives. With the various forms of media present today, we are being exposed to thousands of images and messages that define this unattainable ideal body image as beautiful on a daily bases. The victims of eating disorders are classically adolescent females, although approximately 10% are males. Generally it is the females of our nation that feel the constant social pressure to live up to this definition of beauty that is most often beyond our reach. This social pressure often causes large amount damage to the physical and mental states of the person.
             To fully understand the crisis at hand, we must look at the reasons this is a problem. Why has the female body been pushed into the limelight of society and media? It is indisputable that...