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Media's Negative Effects On Body Image

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Beauty is a rather amorphous concept. When taking differing cultures’ views on it; interpretations of it can be complete polar opposites. Despite this, beauty still holds an incredible amount of control in almost every human society. When viewing Cameron Russell’s Ted talk, The Power of Image, she explains in depth the dangers of body image and the pressures it forces upon some people in our society. One subject she briefly touches on is that of societal image and power. A societal image can hold a large amount of power, but it can be completely dangerous as a result. The superficiality of beauty can cause depression, eating disorders & suicide. According to alarming studies, approximately 90% of all women from 10 countries through …show more content…

Esther Vargas from Penn State University would state “With the ever-increasing size and influence of the mass media in our daily lives, we are seeing more and more individuals suffer negative effects of being constantly exposed to images of ‘ideal’ bodies in the media. This can cause a negative perception of one's body image and contribute to developing eating disorders” (The Negative Effects of the Media on Body Image Paragraph 1). At the Bulimia.com, it tells us of the many eating disorders in depth, such as bulimia, anorexia, BDD. Along with this information, it gives us plausible reasons for why one could be suffering from such disorders. For BDD specifically, that negative body image is a key component to the disorder developing. As well, a most notable analysis comes from the article comes from Jon E. Grant and Katharine A. Phillips from the Department of Psychiatry and Human Behavior at Brown Medical School; noticing that those suffering from BDD or anorexia typically start it with excessive concern about their physical appearance. Others, such as Romeo Vitelli Ph.D., question: “Why have obesity and eating disorders become so common in children and adolescents? Along with an unhealthy obsession with food, diet, and appearance, there also seems to be …show more content…

Schwartz, M.D., professor emeritus of pediatrics at Wake Forest School of Medicine in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, agreed with the findings and noted that in another recent study, 77.1 percent of obese and 54.2 percent of overweight adolescents had an accurate perception of what they weighed” (Sharyn Alden Body Image Tied to Suicidal Thoughts in Young Teens).
Furthermore, if we go to the AFSP, it gives a concise list and explanation of the risks and warning factors of suicide along with recent statistics. Suicide can stem from feelings of anxiety, depression, and serious chronic health conditions such as eating disorders… sound familiar? These are all the minor effects of the poor body image. It causes stress, anxiety, eating disorders such as bulimia and anorexia, and extremely low self-esteem. These aren’t just the effects of failing to reach current “ideal” body images. It is also the beginning signs for another, even worse epidemic that plagues our society

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For example, girls will style their hair to “become more attractive” (Berger 2014), or they will purchase ‘minimizer,’ ‘maximizer,’ ‘training,’ or ‘shaping’ bras, hoping that their breasts will conform to their idealized body image” (Berger 2014). This all appears to be harmless activities, yet when body image is only addressed outwardly and not psychologically, there can be an increase in poor and destructive behaviors. For instance, body image dissatisfaction can lead to poor self-esteem, which can create a cycle of increased body dissatisfaction, followed by decreasing self-esteem (Stapleton et al., 2017). Ultimately, a teenage girl can find herself in a cycle of “depression, eating disorders and obesity” (Stapleton et al., 2017). On study in 2012 revealed, “Two-thirds of U.S. high school girls are trying to lose weight, even though only one-fourth are actually overweight or obese” (Berger 2014).

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