Does the role media play in society, influence the development of eating disorders in women?
Yes. Even during childhood, children are taught by society that what you look like matters. As we all know, children and teens are surrounded by ads that promote weight loss systems and men/ women with incredibly thin bodies which are yet all superficial. All of these ads clearly state that being thin means being perfect, and beautiful.
Thin women are often portrayed as amazing, successful, and beautiful people while others are seen as lazy couch potatoes. Take Barbie for example. Barbie is an very un-proportioned doll that leans toward the belief that being thin, being object-oriented, and being beautiful simply equals happiness. children, and also teens are impressionable and seek to be like the role models surrounding them. Barbie is actually often blamed for the development of eating disorders and body image issues. In Barbie world, Barbie is perfect. When children see that, they feel that they also need to be perfect.
The media in society really influences teens and women. Every where you go, you find magazines with all these gorgeous models that are oh so very thin. These images often catch the eyes of young women and make these girls feel self conscious about their own body. This obsession about being thin gets to them. That, then results in starvation.
Ballet dancers, gymnasts and figure skaters are easy targets when it comes to eating disorders. Dancers are often faced with stress to be the best dancers out of all the other dancers, and want to perfect their performances. All of this stress often leads these dancer into body image problems. Their peers and instructors sometimes may pressure dancers to maintain a perfect image. With the stresses of competition, this just complicates everything. Heidi Guenther was a ballerina who died at age 22 in 1997. She was told that she was, "Too chunky", by a theater company. That led to her anorexia, and then one day collapsed.
In our society, anorexia is a growing social issue. Thousands are affected by anorexia.
No comments:
Post a Comment