The Media and Eating Disorders

             In society today, many people are worried with their weight and appearance more than before. The media idolizes the thin and beautiful (or handsome) celebrities, while alienating the heavier, but not necessarily overweight, ones. Authors from the National Eating Disorders Association, with “The Media, Body Image, and Eating Disorders”, and Doctors Jennifer Derenne and Eugene Beresin, with “Body Image, Media, and Eating Disorders” both believe that there is a strong relationship between what is shown in magazines and on the television with a negative body image. On the other hand, Margarita Tartakovsky writes in “Why the Media Isn’t to Blame for Eating Disorders” that even without fitness and beauty pushed in the media, there would still be dangerous eating behaviors. Contrary to Tartakovsky, the other two articles are more informative in explaining how negative eating behaviors are highly attributed to images in the media. Although media cannot be completely to blame, there is still a lot of evidence that adolescents will sometimes do anything to look like celebrities portrayed in the media.

            To begin, the authors of “The Media, Body Image, and Eating Disorders” suggest that on average, Americans are exposed to approximately 5,000 advertising messages per day (Aufreiter 1). Most of these messages include an attractive spokesperson, but that is not necessarily true for all of them. A study on teen magazines shows that in 74% of articles about fitness or exercise plans, the main reason to start was “to become more attractive” (Guillen & Barr 1). If the reason adolescents are exercising is to become more attractive, then there is a better chance that they have a low self-esteem or body image, which can lead to disordered eating. This is likely to occur because society puts so much pressure on being thin and many teens do not know how to control pessimistic emotions or find safer solutions. People should want to exercise in order to get healthier despite how much they weigh and what they look like. Another study analyzed 4,294 different commercials on television and concluded that 1 out of every 3.8 commercials send viewers some sort of “attractive message” of what is or is not attractive (Myers 1). Society has constructed a definition of beauty, but unfortunately it does not include a variety of different people. Because of this, an abundance of teens (both boys and girls) feel forced to fit this definition by any means.

            Similarly, the article, “Body Image, Media, and Eating Disorders” also supports the idea that media influences body image negatively. It focuses on the fact that “the ideal of beauty has been difficult to achieve and has been shaped by social context” (Derenne & Beresin 1). These authors explain that adolescents are not playing outside as much and are getting less exercise. Because of this, teens are watching more television and spending more time on the computer. Not only does this laziness contribute to a weight gain in adolescents, but it also increases the amount of media they are exposed to. At the same time, the amount of eating disorders recently is rising as well. Authors Derenne and Beresin questioned the correlation between an increased exposure to media and eating disorders. They looked at different ideal body types throughout history (shaped by society) and decided that the most influential media advertisement was the Barbie doll. The doll supposedly has the “perfect body” according to society, but these proportions are almost realistically impossible to achieve. Since then, the media has idolized this thin body type, and society has taught young girls that this is the ideal type. For males, the muscular body type is what society tells them to strive for. If males or females do not have this body type, then they are most likely not considered beautiful or attractive. Derenne and Beresin argue that this pressure leads to disordered eating because people obtain low self-esteems and are less confident in themselves.

            On the other hand, some researchers believe that the media is not to blame for a negative body type and eating disorders. Tartakovsky notes that, “eating disorders have existed well before our weight and dieting obsessions” and that if beauty obsessions were eliminated, there would still be disordered eating (Tartakovsky 1). Although she admits that the media can contribute to problems, she believes that it cannot be completely to blame. She argues that the majority of people (males and females) do not have eating disorders, so the media cannot be that influential if there are less people with eating problems than with them. There is also debate that eating disorders are heavily influenced by genetics and neurobiology. Because of this, it is hard to blame the media if it in inevitably embedded in certain people.

            In conclusion, there is a stronger argument that the media influences and causes eating disorder than the opposite. Society has put a huge amount of pressure on people to have the perfect body, and if they do not, they are ostracized. This can cause poor eating habits because of a bad self body image. Even though some believe the media is not to be fully blamed, it still extremely influences how people view themselves and others. Instead of focusing on being thin or having muscles, society should focus on being healthy and help adolescents to accept themselves and their peers.

Works Cited

Derenne, Jennifer L., and Eugene V. Beresin. "Body Image, Media, And Eating Disorders." Academic Psychiatry 30.3 (2006): 257-261. ERIC. Web. 27 Feb. 2012.

Aufreiter, Barr, Guillen, Levine, and Myers. "The Media, Body Image and Eating Disorders." National Eating Disorders Association. NEDA, 2005. Web. 27 Feb. 2012.

Tartakovsky, Margarita. "Why The Media Isn't to Blame for Eating Disorders." Psych Central.com. Psych Central, 2012. Web. 28 Feb. 2012.