The Media and Eating Disorders Essay -- Argumentative Persuasive Topic

The Media and Eating Disorders It is funny how so many girls and women forthwith are led to believe that the only way to feel engaging and be beautiful is to have their bodies consist of nothing but kowtow and bones. Women are dieting more today then they have always been before. They are striving for an unattainable body figure that is portrayed by the media as being the ideal standard for todays women. It gets worse. Not only are women dieting unlike ever before, but they will ruthlessly defame their bodies in order to achieve these inaccessible standards. This ruthless harm that haunts so many women today just so happens to be what we call feeding disorders. Anorexia and bulimia are the primary diseases that go in the category of eat disorders. Who is to blame for this daunting occurrence? In most cases, the media is either just about or all to blame for the take in disorder and standards placed for women. Commercials, billboards, womens mag ads, etc. are all forms of the media that portray negative images of women. When the women in todays order sees what is being advertised (which happens hundreds, if not thousands of times a day) it is not so shocking that many of them strive for these impossible body images. It is when the want and confide becomes so strong that these women drive themselves to starvation and other forms of eating disorders. In order to realize the answer that advertising is having on girls and women in alliance today, it is important for people to know the facts and statistics that are current about eating disorders. Eight million girls and women are affected with eating disorders (Wilson and Blackhurst 111). Among college-aged women, bulimia affects close to one in every five (Wilson and Blackhurst 1... ...than the media. It is important, though, to recognize the kind of effect media and advertising has on women. It is important to realize that because of what is portrayed in Hesperian society, many women will go to great lengths (sometimes deadly lengths) just to go out these portrayals. If society wants to change what women are doing to themselves every day, than it is up to the media to start display women today that it is okay to be who you are, big or small. Works Cited Key, Sandra W. Lindgren, Maryclaire. good Models in Ads Cause Immediate Anger, Depression in Women. Womens Health weekly (5/11/99) 11. Wilson, Nona L. Blackhurst, Anne E. Food Advertising and Eating Disorders Marketing Body Dissatisfaction, the gross out for Thinness, and Dieting in Womens Magazines. Journal of Humanistic Counseling, Education & Development 38 (99) 111-122.