media and eating disorders essays

media and eating disorders essays The media today is one of the greatest influences on societies actions, personalities, and beliefs. Society conducts their lives to the point where they are just living a life that media has created for them. Sometimes this influence is taken into consideration to deeply and starts to harm society. The image of a woman in todays society as portrayed by media is one that is almost artificial. Mass media has come to develop this idea that to be a beautiful women, one has to be passive in personality, flawless, and most of all, as thin as a yard stick. Media has taken the image of a woman and warped it into something so unpractical that women and young girls are harming their bodies to look like these manufactured models. Mass media definitely has heavy influence on the growing rate of eating disorders among young girls and women in todays society. The media is something that the average American cannot escape unless they barricaded themselves in their house forever. The media is all around us. In stores, on TV, on the radio, and even on the back of a bathroom stall door. A person sees on average 3000 ads per day and spends almost 35 years watching just television commercials (Kilbourne). These forms of media we see everyday influence the way we live. This can range from the style of clothes that we wear to what we eat for dinner. Media corporations run our lives. Society as a whole feels that these things that are advertised are standards that we should be living by. Given that we as a society strive to live up to the expectations of the media the argument is if media has any influence at all of eating disorders. There is no doubt that media has an effect on this. Women and young girls, especially girls going through puberty are constantly having images of extremely skinny women shoved into their faces. They are taught and influenced that if they want to be beautiful then they must definitely look this way...