...eating disorders – particularly anorexia. Even though the fashion industry claims to be without guilt, because - as I once heard a man express in a show about the same theme – (of course I can’t remember the name of the show or the exact words, but it went something like this): models are just hangers, which show the clothes, there’s no reason for young girls to get so worked up over the model’s figure. The only problem is: there is! Many girls dream about becoming a model and they quickly learn if they want to be a model, they have to be thin. Really thin And the fastest way to become thin is by starving themselves. Furthermore when girls reach their teen years and the interest in boys and an aspiration to become popular emerge, insecure girls think (because of course it’s nothing like that – at least not everywhere) the only way to obtain those things is by being thin. And sometimes this obsession to achieve a perfect body goes too far. This extremely dark side of being a teenager is portrayed in Helen Olajumoke Oyeyemi’s short story Ellyday. It is about two friends, Sophie and Elly. On a cold Saturday morning Sophie pays Elly a visit to confront her, because she has discovered Elly has anorexia and she wants to help her. Sophie starts up by saying she knows, but Elly pretends she doesn’t know what Sophie is talking about. Sophie notices that Elly is nervous and seems physically weak. Sophie then asks Elly to pull up her jumper, but Elly doesn’t want to because she’s afraid...
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...When the consumer first looks at this ad they might think that it will only be about just being men and making humor out of women and cigarettes. This ad goes into a deeper perspective and into a controversial topic about smoking and having a rich thin women. In this attached 1970s ad for Silva Thins it displays a pack of “Thin and Rich” cigarettes and in the background there is a man and women smoking a Thin and Rich cigarette. This ad was made by the cigarettes company Silva, and their purpose was to grab the attention of smoker’s worldwide and make them think that by purchasing this you will living the glamourous life. How the attention is grabbed from the ad by using techniques such as transfer, snob appeal, and logos. The biggest thing that puts emphasis on the ad is the big bolded text which says, “Cigarettes are like women. The best ones are thin and rich.” Also, below the text Silva...
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...hottest thing on the planet. What you don’t know is that a good portion of these models are suffering from eating disorders. I believe the media is to blame for our nation’s epidemic of eating disorders because, not only do magazines and television portray skinny to be in, but also songs in our culture convey the attitude “…that only the beautiful and thin are valued and loved” (Hesse-Biber 88). Some women and men in the world are happy about how they look. Some think that they are ugly and reach toward plastic surgery, but even more think that the only way they can be happy is by starving themselves, or throwing up everything they have eaten that day. In this paper I will discuss facts and information on how the media is to blame for our nation’s epidemic, the pro’s and con’s to eating disorders and the media, and a few possibilities on how to fix this epidemic before it starts to spiral out of control. When you think about the billions and billions of people in this world, it is hard to believe that “2 million Americans-most of them women and girls-do suffer from eating disorders” (Gorman 110). That number is shocking isn’t it? How about the fact that “approximately 1 in 150 teenage girls in the U.S. falls prey to anorexia nervosa… Not so clear is how many more suffer from bulimia” (Gorman 110). What could be more shocking than knowing that “Anorexia has been diagnosed in girls as young as eight? Most deaths from the condition occur in women over 45” (Gorman 110)? There have been...
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...Assignment: Fat/thin people test When I saw my result from the Implicit Association Test, I was surprised because I thought I had a bias towards thin people. The thought of me having a slight preference for fat people just makes want to scream. The fact that I am a thin person and I have lived with thin people all my life made me think that being thin is the norm or is normal while fat is abnormal. From my background, it is assumed that fat people are lazy and that they have control over their weight but choose not to control it. All these have shaped my idea about thinking people were not normal. When I was young, I would not even make friends with fat kids in my class. Taking the test made me realize something I do unconsciously. I tend to be nicer to fat people than thin people. This change of reaction developed when I grew much older and understood that fat people did not choose to be fat and that some even inherited it as a result of genes transferring from a fat parent or grandparent. So I think I am actually biased towards fat people. Using the Implicit Association Test, I learned that I have a slight automatic preference for fat people. The result showed further that I responded faster when images of fat people and good words were associated together than when images of thin people and good words were associated together. Ever since I understood that fat people do not necessarily choose to be fat, I kind of just want to help them and do stuffs for them. I do not really...
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...The media and womens body image Its been argued that the western culture is a culture so consumed by image that those with fame give praise for being thin and disapproval for being fat, birthing a generation of women and girls that are often extremely self conscious about their appearance and body image. Media images of the unattainable thin body can be found almost anywhere. There has been continual interest in women’s body image throughout the years. Is there truth in the fact that women’s self-esteem and eating patterns are affected by what a woman sees in the media? Have this been researched enough to show the link between poor body image and the media’s portrayal of women and could this research allow for successful interventions to be evaluated and implemented. Could and intervention lead to fewer cases of anorexia and bulimia and could this lead to increased self-esteem and a more positive body image amongst women? The question many people want to know is if this is the case, where did these stereotypes come from exactly? Is it from the movie, television industry, fashion and beauty magazinesor is it from social and cultural influences , or maybe its just something we learn naturally. Does it really affect women and adolescent females selfworth, or does it go beyond that, leading to serious medical conditions? This paper explores the different factors that influences women body image and if the media is soley responsible for how adolescents and women view their body...
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...it is not true and not even beneficial. One of it is, we can see nowadays, that the issue in which woman always concern about their body image and think that there is only one ideal and perfect size is all because of the influenced by media. Media tend to show and portrays unrealistic standards of beauty. It gives people, especially women a lot of pressures until it have successfully predisposed women’s behavior till they are willing to do anything for the sake of having that “perfect” size and shape—super thin body. By using an essay written by Deborah Tannen “There is No Unmarked Woman” as a reference, we can see that women tend to do their best, as it is a must for them to dress up attractively to astound other people as it is unavoidable for women to be judged by other people...
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...Blink is a book about how we think without thinking, about choices that seems to be made in an instant-in the blink of an eye that are not as simple as they seem. The author describes the main subject of his book as thin slicing. Thin Slicing is our ability to use limited information from a very narrow period of experience to come to a conclusion. This idea suggests that spontaneous decisions are often as good as or even better than carefully planned and considered ones. The author draws from a wide range of examples from science, marketing, gambling, dating, sports, military, movies, and music. The author also uses many examples of regular people's experiences with "thin-slicing," including our ability to mind-read, which is how we can get to know a person's emotions just by looking at his or her face. The author explains how an expert's ability to "thin slice" can be corrupted by their likes and dislikes, prejudices, and stereotypes. We become more...
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...major force on both global economics and cultural learning. In the fashion industry I feel that it is the same way, while forty percent of the United States is obese, Vogues magazines and many others show those unreal skinny bodies that everybody is dying to have. The fashion industry has shaped women’s ideals of what to wear and what to look, and until the industry can shift from encouraging people to be a shape which nature never intended them to be, however, the media will continue to form young people’s view of the world, a world that is apparently populated by only thin girls. The words "eat" and "boring" are usually never found in the same sentence, but leave it to a supermodel to accomplish this task. Bodies in a bathing suit, underwear, or a skimpy tank top flood magazines magazines today. How many times have you flipped through the pages of a Vogue magazine and spotted an article about how women should have a good perception of themselves and "celebrate those curves?" However you then turn the pages the only thing you see is skinny no curves at all. The Mass media influences lot teenagers. Therefore, it is much more difficult for them to obtain a body like those of the women in the advertisements, or almost impossible without developing severely disordered eating...
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...changed for the better. The world previously had no such knowledge of what a computer even was and now everything is all about technology. Over time the world has become resourceful and gained plenty more knowledge. Most people would agree that the world has altered for the better. However, some things have not changed for the better. Throughout history, people have drilled into one another brains that thin is beautiful. If someone doesn’t look like the model on the front of a magazine then there must be something wrong with them. Some might not be accepted if they don’t look like those models or to be...
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...becomes a teenager, her mother rewards her with plastic surgery so she can look more “caucasian” (Hidayat). The previous statement was written about young asian women in Japan and Korea. Nina Hidayat wrote an article about the expectations and body image issues for young women in Asia. When people think about body image, they only think of the US. Not many people think about how those in other countries have the same issues we do. Studies show that the more reality television a young girl watches, the more likely she is to find appearance important (Web 1). The media plays a large role in how women perceive body image and themselves (ie, magazines, internet, television, etc). The results said peers predict the negative outcomes...
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...There may be murmurs about that girl who only fixes herself a salad with only vinegar at dining services or suspicious glances at someone who spends 45 minutes on the treadmill and then switches to the stair stepper at the rec. On-campus eating disorders are talked about everywhere and yet are not really talked about at all. There is observation, concern, and gossip, but hushed conversation and larger scale efforts to help and change never seem to earn public attention. There is this girl that I grew up and graduated with. I talked to her almost everyday at school, but we were never that close. I never saw much of her over the summer except when she was out running after a two to three hour softball practice. At my younger sister's volleyball game about a month or two ago, I saw this girl. She was so thin it was almost disgusting. Her skin was pale, her hair was thin, and I could see her ribs through her shirt. She went from looking healthy and physically fit to looking sick and fragile. This is why I chose this topic. People need to pay more attention to this disease. Anorexics are literally dying to be thin. Most of you probably already know what anorexia is, however in case you don't anorexia is basically a disease involving self-starvation. Anorexia victims have a very low "ideal" weight. It might begin as a normal diet carried to extremes, reducing their food intake to a bare minimum. Rules are made of how much food they can eat in one...
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...Everywhere you look throughout the world, on television, radio, magazines and even billboards, you can see that people are encouraged to try to be thin. Females are especially affected by this type of advertisement. The television commercials tell us that we can be thin by taking one little pill. Teenagers are taught by television and magazines to watch your figure by watching what you eat. Some teenagers get really depressed about the issue. Once they get depressed sometimes they develop eating disorders. The eating disorders can be a really large problem. This is when it gets to the point where the person needs help for the safety of their life. On television teenagers watch shows that have good looking guys and girls in it. Along with their looks they are also thin. The teenagers watching these shows want to be like the person depicted on television. In magazines you see articles all the time on how to lose weight. These articles tell people how to try to lose weight and keep it off. And on the radio and bill boards you see this men and women advertising some type of drug that made them lose weight. All of these things that teenagers see in life leaves an impression. That impression is that they want to be thin. The teenagers that read these articles in magazines on how to get thin try to follow them. They try to obey different diets and exercise to try to lose weight. For some people it may actually shed a few pounds. Also for some people it does not help them. Some...
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...Anorexia and Bulimia Modern Western Culture is obsessed with and emphasizes thinness. As such, media often over exploits thin models and actors. In our culture success and worth are often equated with being thin. So many people of all ages are finding themselves fighting eating disorders because of this obsession with being thin. The top two eating disorders are anorexia and bulimia. According to the National Association of Anorexia Nervosa and Related Disorders (ANAD), there are approximately twenty-four million people suffering from an eating disorder. (anad.org) It is amazing how these disorders are psychological. While anorexia is not really about food; it is an unhealthy way to try and cope with emotional problems. When you have it you often equate thinness with self-worth, so they have an intense fear of gaining weight or becoming fat even if they are under weight. Or they may have an extreme drive for perfectionism, which means they may never think they're thin enough. Whereas with bulimia they are preoccupied with their weight and body shape, and judge their self severely and harshly for their self-perceived flaws. Because it's related to self-image — and not just about food. (Web) (Mayoclinic.org) or (Anad.org)...
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...Media has been and still is a part of the childhood world. In many countries, children spend a lot of time consuming many different kinds of media. The negative impact of media on children's idea of their body images and self-esteem has been a controversial topic and it is a concern for many parents with children. Today's society seems to be teaching women and young females that their self-worth is more about beauty and their bodies and less about their intelligence and personalities. Meanwhile young girls are constantly reminded of ''perfection'', most being extremely thin waistlines, long shiny hair and alluring features, how do you think males would feel if we all compared them to handsome Disney princes, such as Prince Charming or Adam?...
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...Thin” Reaction Paper “Thin” a documentary about women facing their eating disorders. “Thin” focused on four particular women Polly, Shelley, Brittany, and Alisa. These women were all brave enough to realize they had a problem and wanted help with the exception of Brittany. Sometimes when I hear about women with eating disorders I can be unsympathetic. I just feel there are so many things in life to think about other than what people think of you. Then I had to realize media has a lot to do with the way our young women picture themselves. We all want to look like this superstar. They all see this fat, ugly person when they look in the mirror and I realized I do the same thing, if we admit it we’ve all done it. The only difference is I’ve come to embrace this so called “fat” person. I wasn’t happy with my body image so I’m doing something about it but in a healthy way. These woman have so much more going on mentally they probably should have gotten therapy way before it got this far. These women just had so much more going on than they can show in a short documentary. I felt the documentary was ok. I don’t know what the director was going for but the documentary was a bit fluff. I don’t think it really went as deep as it could have. I mean the stories were real but the Renfrew just seem like it wasn’t really helping that much. The fact that they would throw you out as soon as you’re insurance ran out, even though it’s clear you still need to be there, was disgraceful. It showed...
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