While the increasing rate of obese Americans and the heath effects that obesity causes appear in the media more and more each day, there remains a much less publicized group whose numbers also continue to rise one that is starving itself for the sake of beauty. Anorexia nervosa, while not often talked about, is just as much a product of our society as obesity. There are many causes for Anorexia Nervosa in our country, ranging from childhood abuse to an obsessive-compulsive need to have control over some part of their lives. However I believe almost all of the causes for the increase in Anorexia evidenced among young children in our society today result from a combination of lack of parental guidance and increased pressure from peers and media sources.
With divorce rates in our country soaring to epidemic rates and most adults in both single and dual parent homes working full time our children are left more and more frequently to raise themselves without all the guidance past generations received. For this reason American youth spend more time watching television, surfing the internet or hanging out with friends than did the generations before them, and it is from these venues that our children gather most of their ideas, opi
nions and morals. The belief that thin people are more successful, more attractive, more fun to be around and more desirable to the opposite sex is reinforced over and over with soap opera type dramas such as Beverly Hills 90210, Melrose Place and Dawson Creek. In these types of television shows our children are shown glimpses of how thin people are supposedly treated and they start to develop ideas that if they were only thin they might reap the same success as the fictional characters. Those children that don't watch television dramas learn these same lessons by seeing movie stars or popular musicians enjoy the limelight, since these people assume almost an omnipotent role in an adolescent's life anything they do is scrutinized and duplicated. Since the entire American society is subjected to these same standards over and over again, the fictional world created by Hollywood and record producers slowly becomes a reality as it becomes an ideal upheld by a large majority of Americans.
For this reason as the young girls begin to develop the eating disorder Anorexia Nervosa they are complimented on the 'improvement' in their looks and receive positive feedback from peers and adults alike which encourages them to continue starving themselves in order to receive even greater recognition and greater rewards. How
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