The influences are everywhere. Images of women, teenagers, models, and famous people who are extremely thin dominate the media. Such intense scrutiny is placed on the weight and body images of women, that the rates of anorexia, bulimia, and other related eating disorders have skyrocketed in recent years.
The Media Influence
Watch television, visit a movie theater, or pick up a magazine and you will surely notice that most of the women are very thin. Rarely is a plus-sized actress cast in a lead roll, a model hired who is above a size zero, or a full figured singer featured on a magazine cover. The media influence is inescapable. Girls and young women are bombarded with pressure to be thin. According to the National Eating Disorders Association (NEDA,) “the media is the main source of information about women’s health issues” for adolescent girls. In addition, NEDA finds that, “1 out of every 3.8 television commercials sends some sort of ‘attractiveness message,’ and the average adolescent sees an estimated 5,260 attractiveness messages per year.” With these statistics, it is no surprise that as many as 10 million females and 1 million males suffer from bulimia, anorexia, or other eating disorders.
A Particularly Disturbing Outcome
Recently, London writer Liz Jones chronicled her three week struggle to eat healthily after battling with anorexia for forty years. A columnist for the Daily Mail, Jones listed the results of the experiment in her June 8, 2009, story titled, "For 40 Years I Have Battled Anorexia – So What Happened When I Had to Eat Normally for Three Weeks." At 5’ 8” tall, Jones began her ordeal weighing approximately 112 pounds. She states: “I love my concave stomach and I can’t help, despite my beliefs, but regard women who are fat ... as somehow lazy. They just don’t try hard enough.”
During the first week, Jones begins to purchase the foods she will be eating during the experiment. Shocked at how much money all the food costs, she struggles to purchase and consume the 3,000 daily calories. The constant eating triggers memories of her life at age 17 when she began her struggle with anorexia. She describes feeling as if she were having a breakdown.
Week two brings Jones to the realization that she enjoys eating again for the first time in years and is often hungry. She reports being in a better mood and smiling more often. She even wonders why she didn't begin to eat normally sooner.
During the final week of the experiment, Jones finds herself looking forward to dinner and enjoying herself, but outgrowing her jeans. While it seems she has found new joy in eating, a weigh-in on the scale completely throws her off course. After increasing her weight to approximately 126 pounds, Jones states, “My stomach is huge ... I’m horrified.” The experiment ends with Jones conceding that she is disgusted by her larger frame, and “All this eating has proved what I thought all along: food makes you soft, lazy, undisciplined.” She ends her column by stating, “it’s too late for me,” and declaring she will go back to her anorexic eating habits in order to lose the extra weight.
Not an Isolated Incident
Today, so many women and teenagers attempt to attain the media's coveted thin body images that millions are struggling with eating disorders. The pressure to look like the people in the media is extremely intense. According to the National Association of Anorexia Nervosa and Associated Disorders (ANAD), girls as young as 10 years old are being diagnosed with anorexia and “86% report onset of the illness by the age of 20.”
Change is Needed
With the average American woman weighing in at a size 12-14, there is growing pressure for the media to promote more healthy sizes. Watchdog groups such as that run by NEDA regularly monitor various forms of media in an effort to recognize and celebrate “advertisements that send healthy body image messages.” In addition, the group expresses concern about ads which send negative messages.
In order to free women and girls of the extreme pressure to be thin, media outlets must begin to promote a variety of body types and sizes. Consumers can influence the media by supporting companies which foster healthy body image standards. In addition, women must change their own mindsets in order to avoid pitfalls such as those described by columnist Liz Jones. Women can not continue to view one another as fat, lazy, or undisciplined simply based on weight. Instead, they must begin to appreciate health and fitness, rather than the size printed on a tag or the number that appears on the scale.
