Eating Disorders Argumentative Essay

For a long time social media has been a part of society 's influence for negative body image. The individuals who are more influence generally speaking, are teenagers through the age of young adult women and men. Their faced daily with the Internet, magazines, and television. Depending on how self-conscious the person may be, all of this disposer to the media could lead them down the road to having depression and disordered eating structures. Even though it is true some social media and television entertainment promotes self-love and acceptance, there is an equal to or more than amounts of promoters for body shame over certain body types, suggesting that we change ourselves to fit in if we don 't already look the part. That being said, I will address how social media, peers, magazines, and television can impact young individuals in a negative way. Through that I will stress my point that social media should promote self-acceptance and show more love to all body types.

There are many different opinions regarding eating disorders whether they are genetic, ethnic, cultural problems, or a culturally reactive problem. Stereotypes from the past believe that white middle class adolescents have the most related problems to eating disorders because of their anglo-saxon cultural backgrounds. Research has shown that imagery of the ideal Western body has had a chain reaction of body shape and eating habit conflict between all ethnicities, cultures, and sexes. The issue between the two viewpoints is whether the problems associated with eating disorders is cultural or culturally reactive.

91% of women are unhappy with their bodies. 5% of women naturally possess the bodies that are regularly displayed in the media. 80% of ten year old girls in america fear getting fat. 7 in 10 girls believe they are not good enough. As a result of my research I found that the body standard the media sets for adolescents leads to disorders, Suicide and self loathing.

Have you ever looked at an image on Social Media, seen a movie, commercial, or show and looked at yourself and felt ashamed or unsatisfied. Many women around the world have struggled with their weight and how others see them. Media images of ridiculously thin women are everywhere – television shows, movies, popular magazines. The Media often glamorizes a very thin body for women. These are also the pictures that are being shown to teenagers at a time of their lives that they are particularly susceptible to peer pressure and looking good(Tabitha Farrar). They see other women who look different than they do and think to themselves why can 't i look like that. The idea of the “Perfect Women”, long wavy hair, a nice slim body, practically a barbie doll, is what causes these women to think such harsh thoughts about themselves. Some women will begin to think that they are ugly, unacceptable, substandard, the list goes on. This idea that every girl needs to look the same, like a doll, to be beautiful is absurd, and the people who enforce such thoughts are just as damaging.

Society demands a perfect image. In certain societies, people must have the perfect body image. Men and women will do anything to fit this certain body image. Individuals believe they can not have a trace of body fat on their body. In Judith Lorber’s article, “Believing is Seeing: Biology as Ideology,” she explains the influence society has on individuals body images. In Sharlene Nagy Hesse-Biber’s article, “The Spread of the Cult of Thinness: Preteen Girls, Adolescents, Straight Men, Gays, Lesbians, and Ethnic Women,” she explains the extremes people go to achieve the high standards set by the society in Lorber’s article. With such high standards set by society, men and women will have the urge to join the Cult of Thinness. Society demands

Magazines, TV, music, books, and movies help one make decisions and take action whether consciously or subconsciously. This large sphere of influence, however, is not always beneficial for those who suffer victim to these forms of public entertainment. The medias version of beauty, shames those who are considered overweight and scares almost everyone into thinking that being thin is the only way to be pretty. Jolene Hart emphasis how important beauty is in the American culture in her book Eat Pretty: Nutrition for Beauty, Inside and Out: “There’s a multi-billion-dollar industry built on helping us achieve greater physical beauty” (Hart 33). By creating this manipulated and untrue image of beauty, the American culture encourages eating disorders like anorexia (undereating) and sustains obesity (overeating). When interviewing Shannon Herman, a licensed professional counselor and certified eating disorder specialist, she revealed that adolescents in 2015 are exposed to media about body types and sizes more than any person in history. It goes without saying that mixed messages are bounding and truth is always relative. There are no absolutes. Media does not have mercy on anything but perfection. The perfection that surrounds today’s media causes eating disorders like anorexia and bulimia. In order to achieve the body culture claims to offer, one resorts to dieting and exercise; dieting and exercise,

Dissatisfaction amongst today’s youth regarding their personal body image is increasingly common, warranting a necessary change in the norms and behaviours that are portrayed to Canadian youth. The necessary change that must be implemented moving forward is the portrayal of healthy and attainable body images through media. A 2012 ABC News article stated the average model weighs 23% less than the average woman (Lovett, 2012). Such an appalling statistic is something that must be tackled as we progress toward the future seeing as it showcases to the youth of today that anorexia and unhealthy body weight is seen as desirable or attractive. The relation between such a statistic and anorexia is clear. Such unrealistic body images featured prominently in media platforms (i.e. television, internet) and with media becoming more accessible to Canadian youth, it is unsurprising that anorexia and bulimia are being diagnosed at younger ages (Derene & Beresin, 2006). The link to such media representations and overweight is less evident however through further research it is clear that media can promote both extreme weight loss or lead to extreme weight gain. With media moving away from the promotion of healthy lifestyles, and rather working toward feeding the current media addiction plaguing Canadian children and teens, today’s media companies are feeding into the slippery slope that is weight

Sage, George H. "High School and College Sports in the United States." Journal of Physical

In her book, Body Shots: Hollywood and the Culture of Eating Disorders, Emily Fox-Kales, a clinical psychologist with a strong background in the treatment of eating disorders, which includes bulimia, anorexia, binge eating, OSFED, EDNOS, and PICA, as well as body dysmorphia disorder describes the strong impact media has on women’s perceptions of themselves and displays the evolution of eating disorders through firsthand accounts. Fox-Kales describes society’s current culture as “the culture of eating disorders” (1). She points out that women no longer exchange recipes, but rather share a fear of food as well as diet tips and tricks to reduce weight. She continues to explain that “food has become more taboo than sex ever was and the bathroom scale more challenging a confrontation than the confessional booth” (1). Our culture has engorged the minds of women young and old with diets that are taken too far and become problematic.

This book explains the main idea of the different eating disorders which are anorexia, bulimia, binge eating and obesity. The reason for this book is to inform and explain why eating disorders happen, what the symptoms are, and the treatment for the eating disorders. The author highlights the significance of learning reasonable eating, exercise patterns, and the task of self-help in mending. There are little fact boxes all throughout the book and a couple of anonymous stories throughout the book as well. One mini story in the book talks about a girl feeling like she needed to be thinner and all of her friends were dieting but her mother didn’t allow her to diet. Her mother claimed that it was just baby fat and that it will go away. But she knew that it won’t just go away so she had to pretend to not be hungry and not eat because she wanted to be skinny. The information in this book is extremely informational about my topic.

disordered eating as means to achieve an admirable goal; as stated by the author, “too frequently,

It’s all about how an individual looks at their own body, and it also includes their imagination, emotions, and physical feelings. “The effect of media on women’s body dissatisfaction, thin ideal internalization, and disordered eating appears to be stronger among young adults than children and adolescents. This may suggest that long-term exposure during childhood and adolescence lays the foundation for the negative effects of media during early adulthood.” (“Media, Body Image, and Eating Disorders”) The media has been able to shape culture and also influence the public's opinion. However, when abused, the power of the media can harm everybody and anybody. Images portrayed by the media tend to make people attempt to accomplish trying to be someone else's idea of perfect while also ignoring what they want and what makes them happy. The majority of the media today often portray the perfect body to the public, hoping that people will strive to achieve fitness using a certain product or idea. Many people suffer from self infliction as a result of failure to achieve the perfect body. It makes it harder to accept someone for who they truly are: The effect of media on women’s body dissatisfaction, thin ideal internalization, and disordered eating appears to be stronger among young adults than children and adolescence lays the foundation for the negative effects of media during early adulthood”. (“Media, Body Image, and Eating Disorders”). The passage above talks about how it isn't okay to expect a certain “look” from someone and expect them to be ‘beautiful’ just because someone wanted them to be like no. The world doesn't revolve around you and what you want. So don't put people down just

Eating disorders, such as anorexia and bulimia, have become an increasingly tragic reality among men and women, especially adolescents, in today’s society. These mental illnesses involve seriously distorted thoughts and ideals by an individual regarding the appearance of one’s body and the importance of nourishment, and can lead to a wide number of dangerous symptoms, including bone deterioration, severe cardiovascular issues, and, in many cases, death. Current cultural pressures and expectations play a large role in the development of these disorders: firstly, in the commonly held ideals and norms that are deeply rooted in Canadian society, and similarly in the destructive messages portrayed by the media regarding self image.

Anorexia is a condition that affects every part of you, your body, and your mind. In the world that we live in, where on every magazine cover, every tv show, and even in your home room, you see beautiful, skinny girls and guys that seem to have everything they want. They seem to be popular, always happy, and have the perfect body. Many girls that are just beginning to go through adolescence feel that to be these perfect girls or this guys, they have to be skinny. They turn to anorexia. Anorexia is a serious eating disorder, in which girls and guys have an intense fear of becoming fat. Anorexics have a refusal to maintain body weight at or above a minimally normal weight for age and height. Their weight loss leading to maintenance of body weight is below 20% of the expected body weight of healthy individuals at the same age and height.

The Binge Eating Disorder is one of the main issues of our society nowadays. This disorder is suffered by a variety of people. It is not exclusive to people of a specific age or sex, but it attacks anyone who might be undergoing depression, has unhealthy and unsupervised dieting plans, and coping skill problems. As it is known that stress is common in our world today, it is not common knowledge how we are all on the verge of getting an eating disorder that is not as easily identifiable as the rest. The Binge Eating Disorder is not widely known among the society, however, its effects and coverage is growing as our population increases as well.