Eating Disorders: How the Media Have Influenced Their Development In Adolescent Girls :: Free Essays Online

Eating Disorders: How the Media Have Influenced Their Development In Adolescent 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 reminiscent of the Holocaust clad only in a bathing suit, underwear, or a skimpy tank top flood popular fashion magazines today. How many times have you flipped through the pages of your favorite magazine and spotted an article about how women should have a good perception of themselves and how they should "celebrate those curves," and then turned the page to find a centerfold makeover section complete with before and after pictures? Mass media serve as a type of "normative influence" to teens, and those who are high in susceptibility to the media’s influence are much less skeptical of advertisements (Mangleburg & Bristol 30). Therefore, it is much more difficult for them to realize that attaining a body like those of the women in the above advertisements is impossible without developing severely disordered eating habits. In the United States, the "conservative estimates" indicate that after puberty, 5-10% of girls and women are struggling with eating disorders. That translates to 5-10 million girls and women! Out of that 5-10 million, at least 50,000 will die, and that’s not including the number of cases not reported due to the shame and secretiveness associated with the disease (EDAP Handout- Basic Facts). Sufferers of eating disorders have admitted that images of skinny models enflamed their condition. In an article titled, "War on Waifs," they agreed that they "would like to see the fashion industry present a range of sizes in magazines just like you see in the stores" (Jedeikin, sec. Responses). Susie Orbach, the therapist who treated the late Princess Diana for her bulimia, has similar thoughts on the controversy: Eating problems are now at epidemic proportions. There is so much anguish felt by so many women and girls of all ages, even in childhood†¦ We need to target the diet industry. If diets worked, we wouldn’t need so many of them†¦ I will also suggest that it is in the fashion industry’s interest to glamourise girls and women in all sizes and shapes, as that is how we really are. I’d like to see model agencies and designers setting aside profits for fashion students to promote gorgeous clothes in all sizes" (Jedeikin, sec. Responses). 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.