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Essay On Cult Of Thinness

1916 Words8 Pages

Is it possible for society to counteract „The Cult of Thinness“?
Give examples or specify measures?

Nikolay Nikolaev Petrov Faculty number: 1414169
Group: 1345

Like most young girls, I grew up surrounded by fashion magazines, beauty queens from different beauty pageants, Victoria’s Secret catalogues, movies and sitcomes filled with thin, beautiful women - the only body type that was ever presented. I played with Barbie dolls and idolized Disney Pricesses, both with waists so thin as if untroubled by the existance of iternal organs. At that fragile age of growing up and shaping as a human, I coudn’t quite see that something was wrong with my Barbie or the princesses I worshiped. I could only see how beautiful they are, how slim and fragile their bodies are and dreamed of becoming like them one day. Subconsciously I was already applying for membership in the most manipulative and even sometimes life-threatening club called „The Cult of Thinness“.
Men have always been portrayed in terms of how powerful, dominant, intellegent and ambitious they were while women, on the other hand, have been judged by their attractiveness, beauty, appearance, fertility etc.
According to author Sharlene Hesse-Biber, the obssession with achieving the standard of perfection has …show more content…

Because such a high standard of perfection is impossible for most women, failure is almost inevitable. When women constantly fail in their attempts to meet this standard, negative consequences follow. The number of girls with eating disorrders is estimated to several milion. The physical problems associated with dieting include malnutrition, destruction of tooth enamel, organ failure and death. The American Anorexia/Bulimia Association has estimated that up to 10% of those diagnosed with anorexia may die. Bulimia is thought to be four or five times more common than anorexia, but at the same time more difficult to

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