Recently I have been researching the negative effect that media, such as magazines, has on body image. I have been finding many frightening and surprising facts. Such as: 81% of ten-year-olds have dieted. This scares me to the core. Millions of girls have eating disorders as well as boys. What causes this devastating problem? I believe that a major cause is the media, especially magazines such as Vogue, Cosmo, or TeenPeople. These magazines show women and men who are "perfect". They show us what we "should" look like. They advertise clothing, perfume, and beauty products that half of us could not afford. They are brightly colored and attractive to look at. Doesn't that sound suspicious? When I look in a fashion magazine I always tend to feel worse about myself. I see women who are beautiful, rich, and thin. If I see this then what do other young women see? I feel like I'm worthless compared to these "perfect" people. I want everything in those magazines that I cannot have! This is a national problem. Millions of young women and men feel the same way I'm sure, so how do we stop people from feeling so low? I had an eating disorder because I felt fat and less attractive than everyone else. Eating disorders are becoming popular! People think they're easy and not destructive, but nothing could be further than the truth. How can we stop this destructive pattern? That is what I'm trying to find out. I am using this topic for my senior paper this year. I wanted to find out why so many young people are destroying their bodies. I wanted to find the cause of my unhealthy eating habits. Some people do not consider the media as being a problem, but I wonder where else would we have picked up such a negative influence. I understand that some of it comes from public places such as schools. I also understand that the influence can come from people's personal lives, meaning their family or friends. The media has the biggest influence on people in America. There are milions of T.V.'s, and computers. Millions and millions of magazine copies are sold every day. The question is, what's more important? Sales or the health of our youth?
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I think this is a good entry, but I had to stop reading midway through because the big block of text was painful. Double space between paragraphs and i shall revisit it!
http://www.progressiveu.org/blog/ediblewoman
Unfortunately, some people live their lives based on the media and if the new trend is to be thin, you might as well count them in. I hate the negative effects the media gives but we must not be influenced by the media. We have to learn how to be ourselves. For some, this will be a hard task. My advice for those who get influenced by the media is just be yourself. You can't be like everyone else and the media isn't always positive.
i totally agree with you. i love reading those magazines, but once i go through it i feel bad about myself. i always go on a diet the next day that doesn't last long because i realize that im fine the way i am. who's to say what the perfect body is? not everyone can be a size 00, because of the way that our muscles are built. the media can be good, but once it promotes negative and hurtful images that lead to eating disorders, it's more destructive than helpful.
it's a really good topic to pick for a paper
Well 81% of 10 yr old girls have dieted. That doesn't mean much, especially since our country is so obese. Who is to say these 81% of 10 yr old girls weren't obese, or over weight? I'm sorry but I don't like that statistic. And yea, you need to split it up into paragraphs, because I didn't want to read more than half either.
That's easy enough to find out. 81% of ten-year-old girls are not obese. Fifteen percent of children between the ages of six and nineteen are overweight (http://www.kidshealth.org/parent/general/body/overweight_obesity.html). So for 81% of these girls to have dieted is unreasonable and unnecessary.
http://www.progressiveu.org/blog/ediblewoman
Not necessarily. They are talking about 81% of 10 yr old girls polled. It depends on who they polled, and how many. There is no way they polled every 10 yr old in the U.S.
Do you seriously believe they found a sample that was 81% obese? That would be ridiculous! I mean, I suppose if they polled a fat camp, then yes, 81% of those kids have probably dieted, but that would be a biased sample. I sincerely doubt they would use a fat camp as their statistical sample.
http://www.progressiveu.org/blog/ediblewoman
I never said they were all obese. What I am trying to get at is they most likely polled a variety of different sized 10 yr olds so we cannot say that the 81% all were a healthy weight. That is all I am saying, I am sure some of those girls shouldn't be dieting. I get that. I just think we need to look more closely at the details of stats. So no I don't seriously believe that all the girls polled were obese.
Ah. I misunderstood your point. When you said "Who's to say these 81% of ten-year-old girls weren't obese, or overweight," I took it to mean the entire 81%. I'm sure some were, but I still think it is inappropriate for the majority of ten-year-olds to be dieting.
http://www.progressiveu.org/blog/ediblewoman
Sorry, you're right that was misleading. But I agree that most 10 yr olds shouldn't be dieting.
That's why i like SEVENTEEN mag.
They show girls and models of ALL shapes and sizes and use products that everyone can budget. They are awesome, they also write about things that matter, like college and politics and how to cope with rape and what not, it's a very diverse mag.
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