Obsession with Body Image

Obsession with Body Image

The effects of trying to achieve the "ideal" image are not worth the price of significant damage to the body, or in some cases death. Some people lose weight only to gain it back later. This pattern of losing and gaining is called yo-yo dieting and causes several health problems. These diets also do not address the fact that each person has a different body type and metabolism, which means some people can't lose weight even if they try to. This basic understanding of how the body works can leave them depressed and anxious in the "journey" towards the perfect body. Bulimia and anorexia are horrible diseases to deal with because of the things they do to the body. This does not mean that people who are fat can not exercise or live a healthy life. They can achieve healthy lifestyles. Just look at the line men playing football, or sumo wrestlers; they are "big" but at the same time they are healthy. People can not just look at the body from the outside, but from the inside. Skinny people are not always healthy, sometimes they are malnourished, or have diseases such as anorexia and bulimia (Calogero).

Mass media is designed to reach large audiences through the use of technology. Its purpose is meant to give information consumers need to function as a society. Mass media is everywhere. From the moment people are awake until they fall asleep They are confronted with media. Almost every home in America has at least one TV, the internet, and cell phones. A person cannot drive down the highway without seeing billboard signs. Checking out at the grocery store can be tricky if trying to avoid magazines. The media is supposed to portray what is considered to be normal; therefore, affects what society considers normal. The media's portrayal of body image affects teens negatively through using stereotypes, encouraging sexual behavior, and promoting unnecessary products. Teens are very impressionable during the difficult and already confusing part of their development. Thus what the media

tells them is "normal" affects them more so than adults. The media contribute the most damage to the "not ideal" people. When or if they are fat, they have a negative image. Because when people watch TV all they see in the fashion advertisements is thin models. Not only do they see them on television, but also in most fashion magazines. Even if they are not "fat", they can not even imagine how an "average sized" person feels when they see mostly thin people advertising something that is not fitting for them, or too small. The media should advertise products and fashion for all types of people: thin, oversized, pretty, ugly. This way of advertising would please all consumers, and it would help reduce the problem that it has created: the "ideal image" (Bosson).