statement holds true to everything in our everyday lives. From the time we can sit up our

parents plant us in front of the television to keep us out of their way. Commercials and

media shape our outlook, our self-image, and our stereotypes. Every commercial has a

message in it; we’re to fat, to stupid, not driving the right car, we are all supposed to be

beautiful…. The list is endless, and by this we are ‘socialized” into our identities.

I am not going to take a look at any one commercial in particular but I am going

to look at few of the market dominators, self-image and dieting, and where they come

from. From catalogs, stores, commercials and magazines, it is not surprising that eating

disorders are on the increase due to the value society places on being thin. In modern

Western culture, women are given the message at a very young age that in order to be

happy and successful, they must be thin. Every time you walk into a store you are

surrounded by the images of withered models that appear on the front cover of fashion

magazines. Women are constantly bombarded with advertiseme

appearing on our television screens telling us that once we lose the weight, we will be

The 90’s saw a new trend emerge dubbed “heroin chic” because of the ultra-thin,

culture’s longstanding admiration of thinness, it is no wonder that so many young women

Some topics in this essay:
Richard Jenkins, London Paris, Womencom Web, American Girls, , Shalom Harlow, Jacobs Brumberg, eating disorders, thin children, modern western culture, modern western, teach children, heroin chic, claiming diet, store surrounded, fashion magazines, western culture, society's unattainable,