They have to learn that there is such a thing as too much or too little. The best thing one can do for their kids is to take walks because it's beneficial to their health (the Media, 2007). Although a good argument can be made that it is not the media that leads women to get eating disorders and that it is instead society that perpetuates this, I think it could be said that one goes hand in hand with the other.
The manner that the main stream media portrays women in the images that they depict has a definite influence on the way that women feel and how they believe that they need to look like. There is a constant barrage of overly think women seen in advertisements that lead women to believe that if they look the same way as the models that they will too be as happy and satisfied as those that are seen in the advertisement. There are references to weight all over television, radio, print, and the Internet. No matter where one turns this is all that can be seen.
American women along with many other women from around the world are not only fixated with weight but with looks in general. This obsession feeds into the focus on ones outside rather than on what is inside of a person. The majority of the media force is seen in advertisements. Advertisers fuel impractical outlooks in order to get women to purchase their products. And most women think that being thin will help them fit into society and be accepted.
It is this advertising that leads society as a whole to promote the attitude that women need to thin in order to be beautiful. Children are often...
The reason that this occurs is because advertisers have portrayed to people forever that this is the way that it should be. Advertisers not only promote products that are aimed at improving ones looks but when promoting products in general it is well-known that good looks make things sell. Society as a whole is greatly influenced by looks and products that are promoted by good looking people tend to sell better.
If advertisers were less concerned about beauty then society as a whole would be less concerned about it. The notion that women have to be thin in order to be beautiful is very harmful because it often leads women to take drastic measures in order to be thin. This necessity to be thin leads women to develop eating disorders in order to attain the norm that society has established because of the advertising that is done in main stream media. There needs to be more research done in order to figure out how to better educate the
public as a whole that body size is not something that can always be controlled and that
body image should not be the sole criteria that is used to define ones
happiness.
Works Cited
Coakley, Tedra. 2007, "Eating disorders no longer discriminate," viewed November 24, 2010,
< http://www.iccjournal.biz/eating_disorders_no_longer_discr.htm>
"Cultural Roles." 2007, viewed 24 November 2010, < http://www.something-
fishy.org/cultural/roles.php>
"Eating Disorder Statistics." 2010, viewed 24 November 2010, <
http://www.raderprograms.com/causes-statistics/eating-disorder-statistics.html>
Saguy, Abigail C. And Gruys, Kjerstin. 2010. "Morality and Health: News Media
Constructions of Overweight and Eating Disorders."
Social Problems, 57(2), p. 231 -- 250,
"The Media." 2007, viewed 24 November 2010, http://www.something-
fishy.org/cultural/themedia.php
"Women, Websites and Body Image." 2008, viewed 24 November 2010, <
http://www.ourbodiesourselves.org/book/companion.asp?id=1&compID=7>
