In the past thirty years, America has become a nation obsessed with appearance. In the 1950’s and 60’s, Miss Americas and models wore a size 10 and rarely exercised. Now almost every woman and many men in America have tried some type of diet, and losing weight has become a national obsession. Studies show that 90 percent of high school students diet regularly, even though only 10 to 15 percent of them are considered overweight according to standard height weight charts. The problem is no longer restricted to teenagers and adults, but a recent study showed that 80 percent ten year olds are trying to lose weight (Hittner 84). Why does society says as a whole that we must conform to a ideal body size and shape that is unnatural for the majority of the population.

Body image is a complex topic that has fascinated psychologists for many years. It is related to the mental picture an individual has about their body, the way they feel about that picture, and the way they think others feel about that picture. The media is a major factor that affects body image. Media stereotypes such as fashion magazine models, television actors and actresses, movie stars, as well a

What is extremely alarming is that the current thin ideal for women in Western society, which is unattainable for all but a very small percentage of the population, is compounding this problem. It is a very serious issue when someone's body shape is determined by genetic disposition and yet they try to alter it to fit some kind of imaginary ideal of how a person should look. Thus, one of the most serious problems is that female nature is not what society says it should be. Some researchers theorize that anorexia is a young woman's way of canceling puberty. Since they lack body fat, anorexics don't get their periods and often lose their sexual characteristics such as public hair. They remain, in other words, little girls. There is also the complex issue of women feeling that by having an eating disorder they are finally in control of something in their life. This may sound strange, but much research has shown that women who have been abused or neglected in their childhoods develop these problems of control. (Attie and Brooks-Gun, pp.70-71).

The media has influenced society to obsess over losing weight. Although dieting is not considered an eating disorder (unless taken to the extreme), it does have negative effects on a person’s body. Many times when a person works hard and loses the weight they were striving to lose on a particular diet, they then quit the diet. Then most often they gain all the weight they lost and a few extra pounds back. After the weight gain, a person usually tries a different diet and the cycle continues. Throughout the vicious cycle, an individual is lowering their metabolism each time they quit one diet, gain the weight back, and begin a new diet. Lowering an individual’s metabolism, causes their body to need less energy (food) to function properly, which means that any excess food they intake is stored as fat.Many teen girls suffer with anorexia nervosa, an eating disorder in which girls use starvation diets to try to lose weight. They starve themselves down to skeletal thinness yet still think that they are overweight. Bulimia, meanwhile, is a disorder in which young women binge on food and then force themselves to vomit. They also often use laxatives to get food out of their system. All of these young women who suffer from this problem are considered to suffer from apsychiatric disorder. While the causes are debatable, one thing that is clear is that these young women have a distorted body image. (Wolf, pp.214-216)

Some argue that disordered eating is not at all caused by the media. These people say that eating disorders are psychological diseases, and that some individuals have a genetic predisposition. It has been shown that when an identical twin develops an eating disorder, the chance that the other twin will develop the same condition increases. Some say that because identical twins are composed of the same genes, this study proves that eating disorders are genetic. What is really happening is that when one identical twin develops an eating disorder, the other twin (who has always looked like their sibling) many times feels such an extreme pressure to compete

Some topics in this essay:
Mental Health, Miss Americas, Attie Brooks-Gun, African Americans, African American, eating disorders, Thin Hurt, eating disorder, body image, ideal body, body weight, body shape, body size, african americans, modern society, lose weight, Americans Atrens, suffer eating disorders, anorexia nervosa eating, average american woman, negative body image, males eating disorders,