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The Impact of Media on Health and Eating Disorders At any given point in the day, The Alliance for Eating Disorders Awareness says that one in three women will be on a diet and one in four men will be on a diet. The media is a big impact on peoples desire to change their shape. Looking at beautiful people with seemingly perfect bodies almost constantly can take a toll on someone’s self esteem and view of themselves. The Reader Programs Center for Eating Disorders’ website states that when asked to choose their ideal body shapes, 30% of women chose one that is 20% underweight while 44% chose one that is 10% underweight.
People choose what they think is attractive over being in good health. The media distorts people’s body images to think that they need too lose weight and that the thinner someone is the more beautiful and accepted they are, the media has a huge impact on peoples opinions on weight, body and physique. What many people don’t realize or remember is that bodies shown in magazines and movies are not real bodies. They models and movie stars spend hours in the hair and makeup chair and after they finish shooting their editors spend more hours doctoring up their pictures so they can look exactly they way they want them too.
Also, models go on extreme diet and exercise regimens in order to keep their The Impact of Media on Health and Eating Disorders By intimidation used by models was eating tissues to stay full. According to them they swell up in ones stomach and keeps them full. And many resort to eating disorders or drug and alcohol abuse to keep their small figure. Now someone reading this may be asking, “How does this affect people not in this industry? ” the Reader Program Eating Disorder Treatment Center also states that 73% of teenage girls who abuse diet pills and 79% of teen girls who self-purge frequently read women’s fitness and lath magazines.
Repeated reading of these magazines can cause girls to diet and exercise more dedicated than they already do. And that 9/10 girls who are high school Juniors and seniors diet while only 1/10 of high school girls are overweight. 35% of “normal dieters” progress to frequent or pathological dieting. Of those, 20-25% progress to partial or full-syndrome eating disorders. Unnecessary dieting can lead to deadly eating disorders. Many people recognize that eating disorders are a serious issue but they don’t see Just how serious they actually are.
Statistics from the National Center for Health Statistics show that anorexia” or “anorexia nervous” was the underlying cause of death noted on 101 death certificates in 1994. In the same year, bulimia was the underlying cause of death on two death certificates and mentioned as one of several causes on 64 others. Eating disorders also cause multiple health problems even after recovery and can leave the person that has/had the disorder with intense Who gave people the idea that its k to let the way other people look on TV or in an advertisement take over their life?
This kind of behavior isn’t normal, babies aren’t born with the desire to throw up what they eat so they can be skinny. This kind of body image is accumulated by endless pressure from society, family, friends or oneself to stay slim because that is what’s considered attractive now. A study by Glamour magazine showed that women have an average of 13 negative thoughts about their body each day, while 97% of women admit to having at least one “I hate my body’ moment everyday. This kind of distorted body image can lead up to severe emotional and self esteem issues. Being thin is unnecessarily important to people nowadays.
It used to be that people wanted to gain weight and have a healthy physique, quite chunky by today’s standards. But now people are the polar opposite of that, acting as if having a slender body is one of the most important qualities in a person In a study, children were used as an experimental group to rate pictures of other children based on attractiveness, the obese child was rated less attractive than the child with a facial deformity, a child in a wheelchair and a child who is missing a limb. Even children are brainwashed into thinking the thinner a person is, the better they look.
Although it’s hard to blame article stated that if Barbie real, she would be 5’9″ tall, have a 39″ bust, an 18″ waist, 33″ hips and a size 3 shoe. Her head would be the same circumference as her waist, meaning she’d have room for only half a liver and a few inches of intestines. Meaning that she would have chronic diarrhea and death. Also, she would cease to menstruate. If Barbie was a real woman, she’d have to walk on all fours due to her proportions, her feet are so small, her chest would pull her forward onto her toes. Barbie calls this a “full figure” and likes her weight at 110 lbs.
Weighing 110 lbs at 5’9″, Barbie would have a IBM of 16. 24 and would fit the criteria for anorexia. And because Barbie’s neck is twice as long as the average humans, it would be impossible for her to hold up her head. This is what young girls are surrounded with and aspire to look like because to them everyone says it is beautiful. There is a lack of positive support coming from the model community as well, in Allure magazine, model and actress Elizabeth Hurley stated, “Eve always thought Marilyn Monroe looked fabulous, but I’d kill myself if I was that fat. This “better you than me” mentality can lead women of or around Marilyn Monomer’s size, or even Just larger than Elizabeth Hurley to feel extremely insecure with their physical appearance. Insecurity can lead to negative Houghton, compromised mental health, depression and trouble with relationships towards other people. All enough display. An Image to Heal by Jill Zimmerman says a plus-sized model’s average size was between 12 and 18 only 10 years ago. Now, the majority of plus-sized models on agency rosters are between size 6 and 14.
This isn’t large at all, many girls in college and high school are this size and they are not overweight nor do they shop in the plus sized department. This pattern of increasingly thinning models can lead people to believe that they aren’t thin enough and the small goal to shed a few mounds can head to a downward spiral of extremities and self-hatred, which is what happened to many sufferers of eating disorders. There is also an underlying issue among eating disorders that no one seems to want to talk about: eating disorders in men.
According to the South Carolina Department of Mental Health, it’s estimated that around 8 million people in the United States are suffering from an eating disorder, and 10% of that number are men. The number is most likely higher since many males that suffer with an eating disorder don’t want to come forward to get the help they need because it is often dubbed as a “girl problem. As a stark contrast to females, men with eating disorders are more likely to be overweight and have a problem with overeating or binge eating rather than accepting of an overweight man than an overweight woman.
But of course, there are men that underrate too, males who are at risk of that include athletes that play in low weight oriented sports. For example, wrestling, always being told to cut weight to do better can increase the risk for one to develop an eating disorder. Males are also more hesitant to get help because very few treatment centers offer focus groups that are solely for men, which can intimidate them or make them feel shamed, as they don’t want to feel like the black sheep in the group or they even feel that they will not be allowed into the group because of their gender.
Even though they are male, the possible effects of an eating disorder are still the same. Such as the Miramar website for eating disorders tells, post traumatic stress disorder, depression, anemia, abnormal liver function, and many more that will affect someone life forever. These are permanent consequences to a temporary problem. A problem that wouldn’t even come up if the media portrayed beauty and attractiveness in a healthier and more accepting light. In any case, the outcomes and impressions of eating disorders are very real and very serious.
A study by the National Association of Anorexia Nervous and Associated reported that 5-10% of anorexics die within 10 years after contracting the disease anorexics will be dead after 20 years. Only 1 in 10 people with eating disorders receive treatment. A reason being the cost. Treatment of an eating disorder in the US ranges from $500 per day to $2,800 per day. The average cost for a month of inpatient treatment is $30,000 and it is estimated that people with eating disorders need around 3 to 6 months of inpatient care.
Also about 80% of the people who do get care for their eating disorders do not get enough treatment they need to stay in recovery. And as anorexia being the third most common chronic illness in adolescents it is unfortunate that not everyone can get the help they deserve. Without this help, up to 20% of people with serious eating disorders die. With treatment, the mortality rate decreases to 2-3%. The celebrities that cause these issues have the money to get the treatment they need and make it seem like they never had the disorder in the first place while the average person doesn’t eve this privilege and has to suffer in silence.
They don’t realize that the person they’re looking up too is Just as unhealthy, if not more, than they are. But unfortunately most celebrities don’t come out with their past or present issues in fear of losing their Job. Which most can agree is selfish, because them opening up about their problems can inspire others to get help for their own. As was previously stated, eating disorders are very serious issues that spark from the comes out of eating disorders aside from the lessons learned from it, there are absolutely no benefits. The media soonest realize what it’s doing, which is why the people surrounded by it have to.
They medias portrayal of beauty is not the only one that exists. No matter what someone’s body type is they matter, their body is their permanent residence so they have to take good care of it. Whenever one feels uncomfortable in their own skin they should focus on something else. And to conclude this on the subject of my thesis, what the media doesn’t tell someone are all the good things about them. So when one sees a triggering photo they should Just turn the other cheek and remember what they have to offer the world regardless of their figure.