Eating Disorders

The Media and its Effects

on Eating Disorders

Growing up in the world today, it is hard to fit in with society. People are always judging others and this can have major negative effects. Some people, mostly women, can turn to eating disorders in order to fit into society. Eating disorders have resulted in deaths around the world. Girls are putting their lives on the line in order to achieve the perfect body type by not eating or throwing up anything that they do eat. Women are putting themselves in great danger in order to try to attain perfection. Women want to receive the perfect body by not eating or throwing up, but instead of physical beauty, women should look inside themselves and decide what is important. Berg states, "An eating disorder is an unpleasant full-time occupation, terrifying in the way it takes over a child's life and that of her or his family's" (117). Eating disorders are becoming more and more popular as well as more and more dangerous. Many people all over the world are being pressured into looking their best and according to the media and magazines. To look the best that one can, they must be the perfect size and weight. Women in society should not let the media control how they feel or think; women should look past physical beauty and find out who they truly are deep down.

When women are pressured in society it results in major negative effects and can be harmful. Some people may develop eating disorders in order to try and fit in with society because they don't want to stand out or be a pariah. Eating disorders have led to many deaths. This should send a message to others about how dangerous this style of life can be. All the facts and statistics that are out there about how dangerous eating disorders are still do not cause people to stop developing them. Some people need to experience things first hand and make their own mistakes to stop their dangerous habits. Since people do not stop developing eating disorders, it just shows how much pressure the media puts on people to try and look their best. Eating disorders do not only affect a person physically, they can also affect the mental state of people. Dominique Bolden is a writer for The Daily Vidette and on her first page in her article Bolden states, "It is hard for many people to live in a society where the media and one's surroundings can influence the way a person thinks and feels about oneself." It is extremely hard not to look to the media and magazines to see what people want to look like and what others consider beautiful to be defined as. Hirschmann states, Magazines, newspapers, radio, television and the movies bombard us daily, promoting ideas that have nothing to do with our nutritional or physical needs" (68). Her point is to show people that even though people in the magazines might look good and beautiful; their nutrition is probably very bad and is going to harm them in the future. Not eating or eating very little is extremely bad for a person and it can cause major harm in the future and no one knows how soon or how long the effects will kick in and can really hurt that person. The media puts too much emphasis on achieving and maintaining the perfect body and this causes people to forget what is truly important in life. People don't realize what is important in life until it is gone and after someone gets involved with eating disorders, they may not realize what is important until they get sick or know someone who gets sick from it. Wolf says, "eating disorders rose exponentially and the cosmetic surgery became the fastest growing medical specialty" (487). This shows people that the media is getting into the minds of Americans if these two things are the most popular and the fastest growing. This shows how close minded Americans are and that we don't care about what is safe and important but we care about looking good and trying to impress others by any means necessary. Surgeons should be more professional and only do surgeries that are essential for health reasons and not to just look good in this world. Berg states, "to be overweight in society means to fail" (17). If people in the world today believe that failing is being overweight, it just shows how the media has affected the minds of people in this country. Being overweight or not as slender as others are does not mean that the person fails or can not be successful in life. This just shows that people today are very close minded and they can not accept people for who they really are. If a person is overweight they can still become very successful and many will surpass people in this world who are trying to be perfect because those people are getting distracted by the material life and are not focusing on what is truly important.

Anorexia and bulimia are very hazardous diseases and they can become deadly. "Anorexia is characterized by a significant weight loss resulting from excessive dieting. Most women and an increasing number of men are motivated by the strong desire to be thin and a fear of becoming obese. Bulimia is a second type of eating disorder where someone with bulimia eats a lot of food in a short amount of time (called bingeing) and then tries to prevent weight gain by purging"(Berg 129). The media has a major effect on women and eating disorders. On television and in magazines, women are portrayed to be perfect and flawless. Others who look at these women want to look like them and they are willing to do anything, even put theirs lives at risk, in order to look beautiful. Easterbrook states, "plastic surgeons began offering a procedure that would make any belly button cute and symmetrical like Britney's" (400). Women turn to eating disorders and to surgery to try and fit in. We must understand that these women that we see in the magazines are not perfect; they are just average like us. The pictures in the articles of these women have been airbrushed and touched up to make the models look perfect even though they are not.

If people want to fit in with society they should look to do it in a safe way. 40 billion dollars