Anorexia Nervosa: A Media Induced Disorder

Anorexia Nervosa: A Media Induced Disorder

Jessica Marie

You may have heard it said that one of the differences between a man and a woman is that when a man looks at himself in the mirror, he admires the one physical feature about himself that is good-looking, while a woman only sees the features she considers unattractive. Our eyes focus in on our “imperfections.” We see the one eyebrow that is shaped differently than the other. We compare ourselves to the world’s current ideal of “beauty” and always fall short. Today’s women face extreme pressure to conform to a perfect physical model (Wilson, B).

Over the last eight years, cosmetic surgery procedures among women have increase by a dramatic 165%, according to the American Society of Plastic Surgeons. The top top cosmetic surgeries for women are liposuction, breast augmentation, eyelid surgery, and tummy tuck. Women of every culture are submitting with increasing frequency to the knife. In Mexico, nose jobs are the status gift confirming a girl’s 15^th birthday. Just over the border, their California peers are getting breast augmentation procedures as a high school graduation gift (Wilson, B).

This isn’t a new trend. Author Robin Marants Henig provides this historical overview of the price of perfection; over the centuries, woman have manipulated just about every part of their body that did not quite fit into the “cookie-cutter ideal of a particular era’s fashion.”

In China, almost until World War II, upper-class girls had their feet bound, crippling them for life but ensuring the three or four inch long feet that were prized as exquisitely feminine.

Among Padaung people of early twentieth century Burma, the ideal of female beauty involved a greatly elongated neck, preferably 15 inches or more. This was accomplished by fitting girls with a series of brass neck rings. Girls began wearing 5 rings; by the time they were grown they were wearing 24. The weight of the rings lead to crushed collarbones and broken ribs, and the vertebra in the neck become stretched and floppy. Indeed these women wear the rings round-the-clock because, without them, their stretched out necks are too weak to support their heads (Henig, M).

My contention is that Anorexia Nervosa is just one of the consequences mostly females go through in order to become as skinny and attractive as the movies, magazines, and television tells them to be.

Anorexia beings in adolescence and usually doesn’t extend past early adulthood. About 95% of those with anorexia are female. 1 in 100 females suffer from it. The two subtypes of anorexia are restrictors and purgers Restrictors are thin primarily because they refuse to eat. Purgers resort to vomiting and / or use of laxatives. The symptoms of Anorexia are plentiful. Symptoms include intense fear of gaining weight despite being underweight, refusal to maintain body weights at or above a minimal or expected weight for one’s age and height, and a distorted body image. The consequences of anorexia can be severe such as low blood pressure and body temperature, life threatening cardiac arrhythmias. Also, bone growth can be retarded. There is also a chance of anemia which is a low white blood cell count. White blood cells are in charge of fighting off diseases and therefore anorexics have a bad immune system. Amenorrhea (the absence of menstrual periods) can also result (Seligman, M).

The ideal shape for women as indicated by television stars, fashion models, and winner of beauty pageants and movie stars has become thinner over the last forty years. Over the same time period, there has been an increase in the average weight of women due to improvements in nutrition. Thus women are being told to become thin when it is increasingly hard to do. Media is the most prevalent causes of anorexia (Brocklehurst, P).

Fiji is a relatively small island, and the inhabitants had virtually no access to television prior to 1995. Television was introduced into their life style and monitored from 1995-1998. During the same three-year period, there was about a 50 percent rise in the number of girls who described themselves as “too big or fat.” What shows were these girls watching? It was found that the most popular show s included Xena, Warrior Princess; Beverly Hills 90210 and Melrose place…all of which had thin females as leads. Movies and Movie Stars contribute to the cause of Anorexia. Actors like Jennifer Aniston, Reese Witherspoon and Rachel McAdams Magazines and its contribution to anorexia (Jameson, G).

Cosmopolitan is a magazine read by 117,000 people that adds to the growing disease of anorexia. These results support the contention that eating disorders are, at least in part, a consequence of cultural influences that make young women aspire to meet a standard of beauty that is unrealistic for many of them. The media promote images that sell products ranging from make-up to band-aids to bras. Models in magazines should reflect the average weight of the population and not a glamorafied twig who looks anorexic. Movie Stars should gain weight. Television should not promote skinny, sexy females primarily as these successful perfect people. Anorexia is a growing problem among adolescent girls and some guys. Most suffering with Anorexia Nervosa will die without the proper treatment. In America’s history plumpness was considered attractive and of high status because one had enough wealth to feed themselves well (Jameson, G). Nowadays, it is how much one can spend to join a gym and make themselves more fit…how much plastic surgery one can afford to change what God didn’t give them…but what is the real price of beauty?

Work Cited

Brocklehurst, P., Gray, R., Henderson, J. (2007).Anorexia Nervosa. BJOG:

An International Journal of Eating Disorders, 114. Retrieved May 14, 2007, from http://prox1.harper.cc.il.us:2052/ehost/detail?vid=4&hid=118&sid=02d36f43-6e48-4afb-adb6-423bd2fd465f%40sessionmgr106

Henig, Robin Marants. “The Price of Beauty.” New Jersey: Prentice Hall,

1997.

Jameson, G. (2007). Health matters. Depressing news on anorexia. Retrieved May 14,2007 from www.cinahl.com/cgibin/refsvc?jid=1724&accno=2009554182

Seligman, Martin E. P. “Abnormal Psychology.” New York: W.W. Norton &

Company, 2001.

Wilson, Brion J. “Anorexia Nervosa and Bulimia.” New Perspectives. Ed.

Charles Beckwithe. Oklahoma: U of Oklahoma P, 1988.