Eating Disorders. Is The Media At Fault?

For many years Hollywood has been the center of attention. The movie stars a famous and attractive, what's not to like? It now seems as though we are looking too closely to these physical appearances and not knowing about what is going on in their life. The media seems to make everyone out to be skinny and perfect which is what people thrive for. The truth is they don't tell us the hard parts about their life and that the reason they may be so small is because of an eating disorder, which is evidently caused by the media and the yearning to fit in. Of course if it adds enough drama to their story they will tell us about the occasional eating disorders of these celebrities but we never know the true struggles they face just to be famous. I think many of the problems that people face in the society today has to do with the media and they way they portray these people who are too skinny to be beautiful.

For many years the media has been targeted as having some cause on the increased amounts of eating disorders that are occurring in the US. With weight being a big issue in America it's not hard to see how people are pressured to lose weight and be "skinny". One of the main eating disorders in the youth is anorexia nervosa. Anorexia Nervosa is an eating disorder when the person has a distorted body image of themselves and usually thinks they are fat when they are a very low unhealthy weight. The Teen health website describes anorexics as "people who are so afraid of becoming fat that they starve themselves. Even when they are really skinny, they continue to 'diet' because they still think that they are fat. This can mean that they are obsessed by thoughts of food and have a constant fight to convince themselves that they are not hungry." Many people don't take anorexia seriously and do not realize that not only is it a physical disorder because the person does not eat but it is also a mental disorder because their vision of themselves is altered to think that they are fat. Many of the people with anorexia do not see what they are doing to themselves as a disorder. They think it is a lifestyle that they have chosen and are not willing to end.

With more and more evidence pointing to the media it's hard to deny that the media is involved with the rising rates of eating disorders. There is no specific form of media that affects anorexia. There are magazines, music videos, movies, websites and television shows that influence this need to be skinny. The first media that I think is the most important is magazines. So many young people look at the people on the pages of the magazines and see that the majority of woman in them are skinny. In an article by Bernie DeGroat he discusses a survey with a group of 232 female students at a Midwestern university which took place in 1994.

"Harrison found that about 15 percent of the women met criteria for disordered eating. The study, which appeared recently in the Journal of Communication, shows that magazine reading and television viewing, especially exposure to thinness-depicting and thinness-promoting media, significantly predict symptoms of women's eating disorders, Harrison says. According to the study, women who frequently read fitness magazines for reasons other than interest in fitness and dieting display greater signs of disordered eating than women who rarely read them at all. Further, reading fashion magazines in particular is significantly related to a woman's drive for thinness and her dissatisfaction with her body, although magazine reading, in general, has little effect on body dissatisfaction."

This survey shows how great the impact from magazines is on eating disorders. Surveys found on a website created by five girls who attend Hofstra University states that "25 years ago the average model weighed 8% less than the average American woman, today's model weighs 23% below the national average." This shows that the models have changed their appearance and since there are more magazines out there is more chances for people to be affected. Models make being skinny look beautiful, but in reality most of the time their body weight is unhealthy for their height. Girls who read these magazines don't see the struggles that go on in the models lives, they just see the people reading them and admiring the woman in them. Young woman who are trying to become models also have a big problem with anorexia because they want to be the size of the models and celebrities who already are in the magazines because that's what agency's look for. Magazines do not need to be cancelled or taken away completely but I think it would help if they showed a more positive body image.

Another form of media which has a lot to do with body images in today's society is movies and television. The celebrities, both men and woman, in these movies and television shows are usually not big in their size. The most popular television shows, which include things like, One Tree Hill, Grey's Anatomy, heroes and Desperate Housewives, have main characters that are thin and beautiful. The people on these shows are unrealistic with making people think that this is how all people look. The young woman who are struggling with their weight see these shows and think that this is what everyone looks like. This forces them to exercise excessively, slow down on what they eat, constantly watch their weight and think that if they do not look like these people on television they won't be up to "standard". Movies also include many actors or actresses who are thin. These actresses are usually well known and everyone who goes to watch the movie looks at them and admires them. Actresses like Angelina Jolie, Nicole Richie, Paris Hilton and many others make it hard to think that being skinny isn't going to make you look good. Television shows and movies are not the only ways that Television promotes the way to look skinny. Many Diet advertisements and exercise programs show woman and men who are fit and gorgeous and make claims that if you take the diet pills or exercise continuously you will look like the people on these shows. In most cases this is not completely true. The website Something Fishy says:

Diet advertisements

are another problem. On television, in magazines and newspapers, we are continually exposed to the notion that losing weight will make us happier and it will be through "THIS diet plan". Time and time again it has been proven that, for the long-term, regimented diet plans DO NOT work, yet our society continues to buy into the idea that they do. Pop-culture's imposed definition of "the ideal body" combined with the diet industry's drive to make more