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Example research essay topic: Low Self Esteem Anorexia And Bulimia - 2,605 words

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The Media and Eating Disorders For most people, eating is one of the simplest pleasures in life. It usually provides nutrients as well as great satisfaction. But for many men, women and adolescents, it is anything but a simple pleasure and can be one of the most excruciating events of a daily routine. These people are not odd, just suffering. Suffering from a complex psychological disorder called an eating disorder, which may appear in the form of anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa or obesity. Obesity, though it is not as widely known, is the prevailing number one eating disorder among adolescents and adults.

However, anorexia and bulimia are a rising tragedy in the United States among teenage girls and women. Up to one percent of girls, aged between thirteen and seventeen, develop anorexia, and bulimia is rampant among a slightly older age group in which two to four percent of women in their late teens and twenties experience the horrors of an eating disorder and its consequences. Anyone, despite race, religion, ethnicity, social status, and age may fall victim to an eating disorder; however, women- particularly teens and young women- are more likely than men to develop a problem with eating habits because females are generally more conscious of weight and fashion. There are many factors that affect the development of an eating disorder such as psychological, physiological, sociocultural, sociological, familial background and predisposition, but perhaps one of the most controversial and major factors that may cause an individual to resort to an eating disorder is the influence of the media. Media includes magazine advertisements, billboards, catalogues, actresses / actors , musicians, television commercials, as well as the modeling industry (which can incorporate all forms of media because models are acting as well as being photographed and are appearing in media images everywhere).

The media, particularly the modeling industry, negatively affects the way that individuals, particularly young girls and women, perceive body image, especially their own. The media is corroding the minds of today? s youth by flaunting a seemingly perfect body image that in reality does not exist. Through a series of definitions, statistics, facts and relevant, convincing instances of real-life battles with eating disorders, it will become painstakingly obvious that the media is conveying a message that is doing nothing but destroying the mental and physical health of adolescents and young adults.

The three major eating disorders that are extensively studied in the medical field are anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa and obesity. All three are serious disorders, mainly psychological, and can result in death if not treated properly once recognized. Perhaps an even more tragic fact is that often times people suffering from eating disorders do not seek help early enough and are robbed of the chance to live full, productive lives beyond the eating disorder. Anorexia can essentially be described as self-starvation or extremely excessive dieting characterized by significant weight loss. Anorexics may vomit, abuse laxatives and diuretics, and exercise in a conscious effort to control their weight. They consider themselves to be fat no matter what their weight may be and they will avoid food and a normal, constant intake of calories and fat.

Anorexics often strive for perfection and set very high standards for themselves, always believing that they need to prove something. However, perhaps the primary characteristic of anorexics is their need to feel control by dieting and losing weight. Sometimes, everything else in their lives feels chaotic and the only aspect of their lives they feel they have sole control over is their ability to diet. Focusing on calories and weight can be their way of escaping adverse emotions and blocking out displeasing feelings. Anorexics typically have low self-esteem and may feel as if they do not deserve to eat, which leads to the denial of hunger. Bulimia, slightly different from anorexia, is another disorder.

It is characterized by a cycle of binge eating followed by purging in order to rid unwanted calories before the body absorbs it. Bulimics usually consume large, high calorie meals and then purge due to guilt. There are several methods of purging, the most common being vomiting, but other forms include excessive exercising, fasting, and the use of laxatives, diuretics, diet pills or enemas. Bulimics tend to feel little or no self-worth and strive for the approval of others; they are the ultimate people pleaser's.

Food becomes their escape, their only source of comfort. Bulimia is similar to anorexia, but bulimics often realize that they have a dangerous problem and are more likely to seek help before it is too late. A third eating disorder which, unfortunately, society does not yet take very seriously, is compulsive overeating, which leads to obesity. However, high percentages of people suffer from it and it can be just as fatal as anorexia or bulimia. It is characterized by uncontrollable eating and consequent weight gain. Overeaters view food as a coping mechanism for stress, emotional conflicts and even daily concerns.

They are often people who never acquired the proper ways to deal with stressful situations. Like bulimics, compulsive overeater's often recognize their problem. Though there are several factors that can influence the development of an eating disorder and cause a person to feel physically inadequate, perhaps the most controversial and debated is the media and its propaganda. Not only is the media very persuasive, but there are so many different forms of it that surround each and every one of us on a daily basis. There is no escaping media for it is in magazines, newspapers, catalogues, television, movies, music, and commercials. People directly associated with the media affect us even more than even families and friends, and the media can be even more omnipresent.

The people associated with the media are models, musicians, actresses, and actors. These people are affecting us everyday, whether we realize it or not. Everyday approximately 400 - 600 advertisements bombard us in all forms of media and one out of every eleven has a direct message about beauty, let alone the amounts of indirect messages thrown into the mix (Dittrich). This is a horrifying fact for this is not what should be apparent to anyone when leafing through a magazine or newspaper or watching television or driving past a billboard.

So much emphasis is put on beauty and we not even realize how much we are being persuaded by all this media. What is this saying about society? It is tragic that the people in presidential and high corporate positions, people just like us who have children who are being affected by media images also, are the very people responsible for putting out such media that is essentially demeaning, objectifying, and demoralizing the youth of our nation. Society has become so superficial and a majority of individuals are seeking to shape and sculpt the body that will illustrate perfection; however, as a result, this train of thought has only created a population that has come to fear fat. Media has brought the people of America to a point where some people avoid looking in the mirror, for it becomes a depressing event. When most people look into the mirror, do they notice their best feature or even realize that they have unique, extraordinary feature?

Absolutely not. The first thing an individual is bound to notice is a negative feature and this concept of being completely dissatisfied with one? s body has become so prevalent in today? s society that it seems almost disturbingly normal.

A poll taken in Glamour magazine in 1984 proves this as its results revealed that 75 % of women believe they are too fat (Dittrich). Also significant is that it is inevitably common knowledge that females are more likely to be influenced and therefore are ten times more vulnerable to trying to maintain standards set by society. A survey said that 90 - 95 % of all anorexics and bulimics are women, and the American Anorexia and Bulimia Association found that one thousand American women die of anorexia each year (Dittrich). Furthermore, our entire culture puts more emphasis on physical beauty pertaining to females rather than males. Due to images that are thrown in their face every day, women long for a slim figure that is virtually unattainable by any average woman. Our society is one in which their is always room for some sort of improvement and this leaves women with a constant craving to change and better themselves, and not always for the better.

The pursuit of thinness has become such a widespread trend and society unfortunately links being slim with happiness and success. One study found that 69 % of female television characters are thin and only 5 % are overweight (Dittrich). Pictures of emaciated models seem to always grace the covers of such popular fashion magazines like Vogue, Glamour, Cosmopolitan, Allure, and Mademoiselle. The fashion industry has created this type of? ideal figure? , when in reality, the average model now weighs 23 % less than the average woman (whereas in 1968, models were only 8 % thinner). Maintaining a weight that 15 % below your expected body weight fits the criteria for anorexia; medically speaking, most models fall into the category of being anorexic (Zero 102).

Perhaps the one thing that people reading these magazines need to realize is that the body image they are seeing on that page is unattainable and it is a waste of time to think that you can look exactly like a particular model. The models seem to flaunt perfect skin, a perfectly sized nose, long legs, a voluptuous chest, gorgeous hair and teeth, and a flat stomach. But those photographs that appear in advertisements are not entirely real. With today? s technology, computer graphics and photography specialists can alter photos more than most people are aware. Most photos have been at least slightly air-brushed or touched up to reduce the appearance of wrinkles, excess fat, blemishes and various other physical imperfections, which are normal features to an average person.

Many surveys taken have shown that individuals feel undeniably worse about their bodies and style after reading almost any type of women? s magazine, which are overflowing with so-called beautiful people and diet advertisements. Ads that encourage dieting and excessive exercise have become prominent in several magazines, including men? s. Such magazines as mentioned above are screaming about ways to? lose weight fast! ?

Covers of magazines in every newsstand, everyday are splashed with cover stories of miracle weight loss and new and improved tricks to drop pounds easily or rapidly. There are even whole magazines such as Fit, Fitness, and Shape that are devoted to the maintenance of an acceptable figure. Dieting has become an obsession and many people literally fear becoming fat and ugly. It has come down to the fact that individuals want to be the best and look the best; it seems that if we look the best, then we are in control of our lives and it shows. The devastating truth is that all of this negative media causes us to be anything but in control; in fact, the whole issue is out of control.

Everyone becomes so wrapped up and overly concerned with what other people think and they allow, whether consciously or subconsciously, the media to dictate how they are supposed to look, act, and carry themselves. ? We need to formulate the concept of the body without focusing so single-mindedly on control? (Winkler 238). Perhaps if everyone was not so concerned about being in complete control of every aspect of their physical appearance, they would be a lot healthier. There are just some things that are out of our control and we need to accept them as they are, including physical features.

The focus simply needs to be on remaining healthy. Society is essentially brainwashing the population, particularly the youth of America, that being thin is imperative and necessary, which does not have to be the truth. ? We need to think deeply and critically about what kind of body our scientific and social thinkers construct and idealize? (Winkler 238). One story of a supermodel who survived her battle with bulimia is amazing. Her name is Magali Amadei, a native of Nice, France. She survived seven years of binging and purging and now at the age of twenty-six, she looks back in disgust.

She says its an extraordinary miracle that bulimia did not take her life for it controlled her days for so many years. She says, ? It? s amazing to think of all the time and energy I wasted on this. It controlled every second of my life? (Villalva 10 D). She became bulimic at the young age of fourteen, before she even became a model, and it soon became her full-time obsession.

At her worst, she was binging and purging up to seven times a day and swallowing forty laxative pills. Most models refuse to talk about this issue or the fashion industry publicly, but Amadei says that she understands first-hand and wants to help as many people as she can. Though she is past her struggle with bulimia, it is still difficult to deal with the trying issue of weight and appearance for Amadei. She will never forget her ordeal, for she has had a great deal of oral surgery to correct her teeth because as a result of her purging, stomach acids eroded her teeth.

She now reflects that she is lucky to have walked away with bad teeth- actually just to walk away at all. Now Amadei does not even own a scale and is trying to live each day without a reminder of all the pain she endured for seven years of her adolescence, as well as years as a young adult (Villalva). In conclusion, it can be firmly and confidently stated that eating disorders are one of the leading problems that the youth of today, as well as thousands of men and women, are faced with. Eating disorders are a serious problem which encompass a plethora of other acute problems such as the formation of dysfunctional relationships (both familial and friendly), dysphoria, fatigue and low self-esteem. There are many factors that can be labeled responsible for the development of an eating disorder, but more and more instances of negative media influence are being reported due to surveys being taken and personal stories being published in magazines and periodicals. However, it is not entirely fair to place complete blame on the media because we are the ones keeping the diet and fashion industries thriving.

We continue to buy into the idea that perfection is attainable and all we need to do is just try a little bit harder. Perhaps we, as a well-educated society, need to step back and look at the big picture and recognize how widespread this problem really is and how many individuals are suffering even at this moment. Everyone wants fat to disappear, but maybe we should concentrate more on making negative body images disappear. Only we, as a united community in our country, can rid the population of a distorted body image and feelings of self-devaluation, and restore a healthy confident message that encourages individuals to be satisfied and happy being unique.

Perhaps we need to cut down on purchases of demeaning magazines and refuse to watch such programs (both television and film) that are biased. How many children do we need to watch starve themselves for the dream of being a model? Perhaps the qualifications for being a model desperately need to be altered before anything can be done to begin to solve the problem of eating disorders.


Free research essays on topics related to: anorexia and bulimia, forms of media, low self esteem, girls and women, bulimia nervosa

Research essay sample on Low Self Esteem Anorexia And Bulimia

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