Media+Effects+Eating+Disorders

__Popular Perception:__
Priming: Happiness comes from being beautiful, and beautiful is being skinny (The ‘ideal’ body type shown in different forms of media)

__Research:__
In a survey of 232 female undergraduate students at a large Midwestern university in 1994, Harrison found that about 15 percent of the women met criteria for disordered eating--signs of anorexia or bulimia, body dissatisfaction, a drive for thinness, perfectionism and a sense of personal ineffectiveness.

According to the study, women who frequently read fitness magazines for reasons other than interest in fitness and dieting display greater signs of disordered eating than women who rarely read them at all. Further, reading fashion magazines in particular is significantly related to a woman's drive for thinness and her dissatisfaction with her body. (DeGroat, 1997)



Media promotes a certain image of the ideal body type, female and more recently the ideal male body type. By only portraying these ideal body types and playing them in roles where they get money, and the perfect girlfriend/boyfriend, subtly equating this body ideal to happiness.

Celebrities like Anna-Nicole Smith who dominate magazines, TV commercials, and own their own shows, gain a lot of weight and then loose it dramatically. They then commercialize diet pills and this sends a message that they were unhappy with their gained weight, and that now with all this lost weight they have everything and are envied. This makes girls and women think twice about what food they indulge in, and they strive to conform to this set ideal.

=Anorexia Nervosa=

Anorexia nervosa is an eating disorder marked by an extreme fear of becoming overweight leading to excessive dieting to the point of serious ill-health and sometimes death. It is known that 90% of all anorexics are women however that statistic is quickly changing as men are becoming more concerned with their physical appearance. Some anorexics, like in Jody’s case, stop eating and notice quick results. This reassures them that the decision they made was the right one and continue to starve their bodies. It doesn’t help that the images we see in the media constantly portray men and women inaccurately and only fuel the desire for everyday people to emulate these people.

=Advertisements and their Effects=

Times have changed and with it has changed the way in which advertisers target their audiences. Advertising strategies are constantly changing and in many cases, their advertisements don’t even contain the product or service they are actually selling. Rather, they chose to display a “model” that emulates all that is desired and will be expected to gain if one is to purchase this product. However, these models that are used in contemporary advertisements, do not necessarily represent men and women accurately. The men and women used in these advertisements are what society generally deems to be ideal yet denotes and connotes different things to various viewers. Ideologies are a system of beliefs that are widely held in a culture. It refers to the way that certain concepts & values are made to seem like natural, inevitable aspects of everyday life. In Western culture, particularly North American culture, desirable women are those that are tall, thin, larger breasted and exude confidence.

Advertisements target certain groups yet generally feature “models” that most of Western society has come to agree are ideal men and women or follow the conventions about gender, race or class. When ads follow these ideologies, they help to reinforce these ideas as well as strengthen gender stereotypes.

Most ads don’t represent men and women accurately but rather display what they think society desires to emulate or how they should perform their gender and how they //should// look. The advertisers use ideologies and contemporary ideas about gender roles in order to market their product and society buys into it by reading these ads in a dominant hegemonic or negotiated way. In either case, the advertising strategies are successful and the viewers are helping to construct and maintain these ideologies.

Society has become dependant on images and it is something that will accompany society far into the future. Because this is something that cannot be rid of, society must learn to read these images with more care and analysis and go beyond what advertisers want viewers to see. Semiotics should be used on a more conscious level so that a better understanding of what the media is trying to dictate is clear. Questions must be asked, “what made me conclude that she is a beautiful woman and why do I want to look like her?” Only then can society take these intended meanings, question them and possibly start changing the ideologies that exist and shape them more accurately. However, until then, the media will continue to use the ideologies that exist currently and use them to sell their products. This means that men and women, different races, classes and sexual preferences will continue to be stereotyped with certain roles and connotation attached.

Today's Music:
Today's music teaches young females to appreciate their bodies. For example the song "You are Beautiful" by Christina Aguilera motivate women to love their bodies through its lyrics. Even a song by TLC teaches women to not be manipulated by the male gender and that a 36-24-36 is not a perfect body. In the same song video by TLC, the female model dumps her boyfriend because she figures he does not love her for her but rather for her body image. In the end to love yourself make you distinct.

[|sonalattractiontothinmediapersonalitie/]
 * Experiment/Study: Does Interpersonal Attraction to Thin Media Personalities Promote Eating Disorders? Kristen Harrison (1997)

__Work Cited:__
-BMG (2005). //Magfaces.// Online at: http://www.bodymattersgold.com/acatalog/Magfaces.com,

- DeGroat, Bernie (1997). //Media influence eating disorders.// Online at: //[|http://www.umich.edu/~urecord/9798/Oct22_97/media.htm,//] -HighBeam Research LLC. (2004).// Does Interpersonal Attraction To Thin Media Personalities Promote Eating Disorders? . //Online at: [|21997/doesinterpersonalattractiontothinmediapersonalitie/]

- NOSTRAND, Janine Van (2001).// Eating Disorders: How the Media Have Influenced Their Development In Adolescent Girls. //Online at: [|http://www.gwu.edu/~english/ccsc/2001_pages/JanineVanNostrand.htm]

-SOCHOCKI, Marcin (2001).// Vogue Cover. //Online at: http://letycja.plocman.pl/arch.html - TRIMSPA (2005).// Anna-Nicole//. Online at: [|loss-nicole-weight.html]