Melody Osorio
English 10202
June 18, 2013
Assignment: Research 1
Magazines, TV, movies, billboards all have something’s in common. Whether it’s realized or not the media is distorting the idea of beauty. Young girls and women are subjected to an unrealistically high standard of beauty that most women can’t achieve.
To be beautiful comes from more than the your size, the way you dress, the way you wear your hair, or even the color of your eyes. It comes from how you present yourself, your personality, and confidence. Women care too much about what they look like and how other people see them. They, myself included, compare themselves to celebrities,
TV personalities, and models, and will even go to extremes to look like them.
Body image is defined, as by nationaleatingdisorder.org, as “ how you see yourself when you look in the mirror or when you picture yourself in your mind. It encompasses: What you believe about your own appearance (including your memories, assumptions, and generalizations).How you feel about your body, including your height, shape, and weight.How you sense and control your body as you move. How you feel in your body, not just about your body.” There is positive and negative body image.
Positive body image is accepting who you are and knowing that you do have flaws but can’t do anything to change it. It is looking at yourself and feeling good. Negative body image is when you may feel that you don’t measure up, whether this feeling comes from
media, or your family’s expectation. Having negative body image can potentially become harmful causing depression, eating disorders, and others.
Dealings with the ideal body goes as far back as the 1800s. In that time it was ideal to full figured. Women wore tight corsets to cinch the waist and highlight everything else, but in 1890 artist Charles Dana Gibson created a slimmer woman known as the “Gibson girl.” Women then strived for that figure through the 1920s. Women were taping down their breast to have look thinner and more “boyish.” As time progressed women looked towards models, performers, and even pageant winners, who’s weight seemed to consistently go down. In the 1950s women looked to curvy celebrities like
Marilyn Monroe and tried to regain their lost figures, but as the 60s came dieting became more prominent. Magazines had articles on how to diet and lose the weight.
Now women desire a Victoria Secret models body, a size 02. Weight lost is bigger now then it was in the past. Advertisement on diets like, Weight Watchers and
Jenny Craig, and diet pills like Alli, and Xendadrine. Not to mention that they are promoted by Celebrities. Giving us an unrealistic goal on weight lost and the process of it. Many of the diet pills are not even FDA approved and are not safe. My friend’s sister,
Annabeth, once took diet pills to lose the last unwanted ten pounds, she was not over weight. She thought she was not thin enough. No one in her family knew she was taking these pills, until she had some complications due to their use. At one point Annabeth was not able to walk one flight of steps without experiencing loss of breath and a dangerously high pulse rate. Once she was able to see a doctor, she was diagnosed with hypothyroidism. Now she is over weight because of her under active thyroid and has to
take medication for the rest of her life. Just because its advertised and endorsed by somebody you know, does not mean that diet pills are good for your well being.
Annabeth is not the only one to fall to pray from the media’s clutch. The media is aiding the rise of negative body image. Causing young girls and women to become depressed, insecure, or become anorexic and bulimic. Some might say that the “fit” bodies that the media show promotes healthy living and gives people the boost they need to start a healthy life style. Is it really? Statistics from Radarprograms.com says:
