Does the Media Play a Main Role in Causing Eating Disorders?

1399 Words6 Pages
There's no question that the opinions of society play a very big role in how we see ourselves, mostly in terms of prettiness. For example, in our society, women are judged greatly on their body weight. Men get criticized for not being muscular enough, although men are not criticized as much as women. There is a lot of pressure to be a certain body type from the pictures and messages the media send out. Two main eating disorders are anorexia and bulimia. People with anorexia have a great fear of weight gain and have a view of their body size and shape. As a result, they strive to keep a very low body weight. Some restrict their food intake by dieting, fasting, or excessive exercise. Bulimia is characterized by habitual binge eating. Someone with bulimia may undergo weight variations, but rarely experience the low weight associated with anorexia. Both disorders can involve compulsive exercise or other forms of removing food from their bodies, by making themselves vomit. Magazines for both men and women are thought to be responsible for problems with body image and eating disturbances. For example in women’s magazines there are articles like ‘Summer Diets’ and ‘ Slim Down For Summer’ causing great pressure on women to have the ‘beach body’ the media send out to the public. Models who are already skinny get photo shopped even thinner for articles like this, which is sending out an even worse message to all their readers. For men, the magazines highlight muscle gain, muscularity, and are gradually coming to include weight loss articles as well. And these influences are particularly important in teenagers; who experience huge social pressure, which is often based on how they look. For a growing proportion of children and teenagers, that concern can grow into an obsession that can become an eating disorder. Eating disorders such as anorexia nervosa or bulimia
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