Example research essay topic: Eating Disorder Body Image - 1,726 words

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... old they received over 250, 000 commercial messages through the media. Some surveys found that 50 % of ads in teen girls magazines and 56 % of television ads appeal to use a beauty as a product. This constant exposure to female-oriented advertisements may influence girls to become self-conscious about their bodies and to obsess over their physical appearance as a measure of their worth (Dittrick, L. "About-Face facts on BODY IMAGE. " About-Face web site. Online: web) I already mentioned that people who already have body image problems exposure of idealized body images lowers satisfaction with their own attractiveness. Many teenage girls are determined enough in achieving their aim.

Without any basic knowledge of special losing weight therapy the start to starve themselves. Dissatisfaction with their bodies causes many women and girls to strive for the thin ideal. The number one wish for girls ages 11 to 17 is to be thinner, and girls as young as five have expressed fears of getting fat. Eighty percent (80 %) of 10 -year-old girls have dieted, and at any one time, 50 % of American women are currently dieting. (Woznicki, K. (1999). "Pop Culture Hurts Body Image. " On Health web site. Online web). Some girls even start smoking in order to help control their appetite.

Such carelessness leads to terrific results. Young girls cannot understand that canceling eating wouldnt help them to become thinner. They do not realize the danger. They do not understand that uncontrolled diets and starving usually lead to electrolyte imbalances caused by dehydration, low potassium, possible heart failure, and death. According to "Health Consequences of Eating Disorders there is also a great possibility of sudden death due to gastric rupture during a binge, or the rupture of the esophagus while in the midst of purging by means of vomiting In other words such attitude and unhealthy aspiration for false ideals leads to dangerous diseases with disgusting symptoms. I want to describe some of them.

Anorexia Nervosa: the relentless pursuit of thinness and an attempt to maintain strict control over food intake. The defining features of this eating disorder are (a) an intense and irrational fear of body fat and weight gain, (b) an iron determination to become thinner and thinner, and (c) a misperception of body weight and shape to the extent that the person may feel or see "fat" even when emaciation is clear to others. (Eating Disorder Definitions). The psychological features are the following ones: the person is terrified of becoming fat, going into hysterics quite often, continue telling about being fat while be sicken gly thin, falling into depressions, withdrawing food. Some people contrive strange rituals such as division of foods into "good / safe " and "bad / dangerous " categories. Bulimia Nervosa is another prevalent of future models.

It is the diet-binge-purge disorder. This eating disorder is characterized by self-perpetuating and self-defeating cycles of binge eating and purging. During a "binge, " the person consumes a large amount of food in a rapid, automatic, and helpless fashion. This may anesthetize hunger, anger, and other feelings, but it eventually creates physical discomfort and anxiety about weight gain.

Thus, the person "purges" the food eaten, usually by inducing vomiting and by resorting to some combination of restrictive dieting, excessive exercising, laxatives, and diuretics. (Eating Disorder Definitions, web) The psychological characteristics are much the same as in Anorexia. According to Eating Disorder Definitions they are As with anorexics, bulimics may have a distorted body image, an intense fear of fat, and the conviction that a slender body shape is absolutely crucial for self-acceptance. As the result of diets young girls do not achieve slim and beautiful body. They get such gifts as precipitating of hair and teethes, gums bleeding's, rachitic and many others beautiful things. Nevertheless, many overweight and normal-weight students reported unhealthy or extreme weight-control tactics. Roughly 18 % of very overweight and 16 % of moderately overweight girls said they had ever resorted to measures such as vomiting and taking diet pills or laxatives.

The same was true of about 6 % of very overweight and 5 % of moderately overweight boys. (Overweight Teens May Go to Extremes to Shed Pounds) In press I read an article about ballerina Heidi Geunther. I still remember that tragic story. Heidi wanted to become extremely thin and weightless. Once she came home on holidays.

Her mother was very worried of her daughters appearance (Guenther was 5 feet 3 and 100 pounds, 15 pounds below normal for that height). Even an administrator at the Boston Ballet, who had told Guenther last year to lose weight, told her several months ago that she had gone too far. Nobody knew that it was too late for good advices. Heidi Geunther died on the way to Disneyland. Her heart simply stopped beating. She died instantly.

Later was told that the eating disorder became the reason of her death. So tell me please is fine body worth of human life? It was the saddest part of my paper. Now I will try to be more buoyant. Believe me its not so bad. If, for example, there is a young girl whos figure she is not 90 - 60 - 90 but 120 - 120 - 120 (dont be surprise, I dont exaggerate).

And if this girl wants to lose some weight it is possible and even necessary. All she need is to consult with doctor who will appoint special diet and physical training. No spontaneous action! Just doing what the doctors said and everything will be fine. It is necessary to eat lots of fruit and do some physical training.

If you do everything intelligently you will achieve results and will save your health. Dont be ashamed to consult with your parents. Maybe all your worries about excess weight are nothing but your imagination. And lets remember Mass Media once more. Now there are great number of Internet pages, shows and books in which the ideal woman is first of all natural.

Slowly people are starting to value what nature gives them. For example lets take a look on popular Bridget Johns Diary. She was trying to change herself, lose some weight but she found a man who loved her the way she is. There are still magazines with artificial beauties on the covers but there are others too. I already mentioned that teens are vary vulnerable, the observe the world from the angle. The main task of adults, I think, is patience and attention.

TLC may say you and will be right. If teenager girl know that she has normal body (not perfect, because nobody is perfect) mass media can do nothing with her body image. The task of parents is to persuade her in this. It is possible.

The other way is controlling of ads and mass media products. But I doubt that it is really possible. Some educational programs will be on handy. Teenagers do many stupid things because the do not have enough knowledge on this or that subject.

There are sites ("Anorexic Beauty, "Emaciate Me" and "Salvation through Starvation. ) They glorify snapshots of women with their rib cages and spinal columns protruding. They also give such tips as how to hide an eating disorder from friends and family. Or how to trick doctors into believing you " re gaining weight by stuffing your pockets with weights. And doctors and nutritionists are appalled. (Jennifer Thomas). Visiting such sites by teenagers can prevail many disastrous.

So you see. Mass media can has positive influence too. Bibliography Body Image & the Media... , < web > Mary Thigpen, Media's Influence on One's Image, < web > Women React, < web > Health Consequences of Eating Disorders, < web > Media's thin celebrities influence womens eating disorders, < web > Media and Eating Disorders, < web > Eating Disorder Definitions, < web > Brumberg, J. J. (1997). The Body project: An intimate history of American girls. NY: Random House.

Durkin, K. and Nugent, B. (1998, March). Kindergarten children's gender-role expectations for television actors. Sex Roles: A Journal of Research, 38, 387 - 403.

Hargreaves, D. (2002). Idealized Women in TV Ads Make Girls Feel Bad. Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, 21, 287 - 308. Harrison, K. and Cantor, J. (1997). The relationship between media consumption and eating disorders.

Journal of Communication, 47, 40 - 67. Hofschire, L. J. , and Greenberg, B. S. (2002). Media's impact on adolescents' body dissatisfaction. In J.

D. Brown, J. R. Steele, and K. Walsh-Childers (Eds. ) Sexual Teens, Sexual Media.

NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc. Mundell, EJ. (2002. August 26). Sitcoms, Videos Make Even Fifth-Graders Feel Fat.

Reuters Health accessed at: web nm/ 20020826 /him / obesitytelevisiondc 1 (last visited 9 / 16 / 02) Bissell, Kimberly L. Zhou, Peiqin. Must-See TV or ESPN: Entertainment and Sports Media Exposure and Body-Image Distortion in College Women. Journal of Communication. 54 (March 2004) Issue 1: 5 - 22.

LexisNexis. Online. 17 March 2004. Body Image and Advertising. Media Scope.

web Online. 17 March 2004. Media Effects on Girls: Body Image and Gender Identity. National Institute on Media and the Family. 6 September 2002. web Online. 17 March 2004. < web > Fox, R. F. (1996).

Harvesting Minds: How TV Commercials Control Kids. Praeger Publishing: Westport, Connecticut. "How to love the way you look. " Teen People, October, 1999. Peacock, M. (1998). "Sex, Housework & Ads. " Women's Wire web site. (Online: web. Last retrieved April 14, 2000 ] Dittrich, L. "About-Face facts on the MEDIA. " About-Face web site. [Online: web. Last retrieved April 14, 2000 ] Media Influence on Teens. Facts compiled by Allison LaVoie.

The Green Ladies Web Site. [online: web. Last accessed April 13, 2000 ] Dittrich, L. "About-Face facts on the MEDIA, " op. cit. Media's Effects on Girls: Body Image and Gender Identity, Fact Sheet... Dittrick, L. "About-Face facts on BODY IMAGE. " About-Face web site. [Online: web. Last retrieved April 14, 2000 ] "Facts on Body and Image, " compiled by Jean Holzgang.

Just Think Foundation web site. [Online: web. Last retrieved April 14, 2000 ] INTRODUCTION TO MEDIA, < web > < web > < web > < web > < web > < web > < web > < web > < web > < web > < web >

Research essay sample on Eating Disorder Body Image