In
society today, many people are worried with their weight and appearance more
than before. The media idolizes the thin and beautiful (or handsome)
celebrities, while alienating the heavier, but not necessarily overweight,
ones. Authors from the National Eating Disorders Association, with “The Media,
Body Image, and Eating Disorders”, and Doctors Jennifer Derenne and Eugene
Beresin, with “Body Image, Media, and Eating Disorders” both believe that there
is a strong relationship between what is shown in magazines and on the
television with a negative body image. On the other hand, Margarita Tartakovsky
writes in “Why the Media Isn’t to Blame for Eating Disorders” that even without
fitness and beauty pushed in the media, there would still be dangerous eating
behaviors. Contrary to Tartakovsky, the other two articles are more informative
in explaining how negative eating behaviors are highly attributed to images in
the media. Although media cannot be completely to blame, there is still a lot
of evidence that adolescents will sometimes do anything to look like
celebrities portrayed in the media.
To begin, the authors of “The Media,
Body Image, and Eating Disorders” suggest that on average, Americans are
exposed to approximately 5,000 advertising messages per day (Aufreiter 1). Most
of these messages include an attractive spokesperson, but that is not
necessarily true for all of them. A study on teen magazines shows that in 74%
of articles about fitness or exercise plans, the main reason to start was “to
become more attractive” (Guillen & Barr 1). If the reason adolescents are
exercising is to become more attractive, then there is a better chance that
they have a low self-esteem or body image, which can lead to disordered eating.
This is likely to occur because society puts so much pressure on being thin and
many teens do not know how to control pessimistic emotions or find safer
solutions. People should want to exercise in order to get healthier despite how
much they weigh and what they look like. Another study analyzed 4,294 different
commercials on television and concluded that 1 out of every 3.8 commercials
send viewers some sort of “attractive message” of what is or is not attractive
(Myers 1). Society has constructed a definition of beauty, but unfortunately it
does not include a variety of different people. Because of this, an abundance
of teens (both boys and girls) feel forced to fit this definition by any means.
Similarly, the article, “Body Image,
Media, and Eating Disorders” also supports the idea that media influences body
image negatively. It focuses on the fact that “the ideal of beauty has been
difficult to achieve and has been shaped by social context” (Derenne &
Beresin 1). These authors explain that adolescents are not playing outside as
much and are getting less exercise. Because of this, teens are watching more
television and spending more time on the computer. Not only does this laziness
contribute to a weight gain in adolescents, but it also increases the amount of
media they are exposed to. At the same time, the amount of eating disorders
recently is rising as well. Authors Derenne and Beresin questioned the
correlation between an increased exposure to media and eating disorders. They looked
at different ideal body types throughout history (shaped by society) and
decided that the most influential media advertisement was the Barbie doll. The
doll supposedly has the “perfect body” according to society, but these
proportions are almost realistically impossible to achieve. Since then, the
media has idolized this thin body type, and society has taught young girls that
this is the ideal type. For males, the muscular body type is what society
tells them to strive for. If males or females do not have this body type, then
they are most likely not considered beautiful or attractive. Derenne and
Beresin argue that this pressure leads to disordered eating because people
obtain low self-esteems and are less confident in themselves.
On the other hand, some researchers believe
that the media is not to blame for a negative body type and eating disorders. Tartakovsky
notes that, “eating disorders have existed well before our weight and dieting
obsessions” and that if beauty obsessions were eliminated, there would still be
disordered eating (Tartakovsky 1). Although she admits that the media can
contribute to problems, she believes that it cannot be completely to blame. She
argues that the majority of people (males and females) do not have eating
disorders, so the media cannot be that influential if there are less people
with eating problems than with them. There is also debate that eating disorders
are heavily influenced by genetics and neurobiology. Because of this, it is
hard to blame the media if it in inevitably embedded in certain people.
In conclusion, there is a stronger
argument that the media influences and causes eating disorder than the
opposite. Society has put a huge amount of pressure on people to have the
perfect body, and if they do not, they are ostracized. This can cause poor
eating habits because of a bad self body image. Even though some believe the
media is not to be fully blamed, it still extremely influences how people view
themselves and others. Instead of focusing on being thin or having muscles, society
should focus on being healthy and help adolescents to accept themselves and
their peers.
Works Cited
Derenne, Jennifer L., and
Eugene V. Beresin. "Body Image, Media, And Eating Disorders."
Academic Psychiatry 30.3 (2006): 257-261. ERIC. Web. 27 Feb. 2012.
Aufreiter, Barr, Guillen, Levine, and
Myers. "The Media, Body Image and Eating Disorders." National
Eating Disorders Association. NEDA, 2005. Web. 27 Feb. 2012.
Tartakovsky, Margarita. "Why The
Media Isn't to Blame for Eating Disorders." Psych Central.com.
Psych Central, 2012. Web. 28 Feb. 2012.
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