Body Image of Women in America Essay -- Self Image Eating Disorders He

Eleven million women in the United States suffer from eating disorders - either self-induced semi-starvation (anorexia nervosa) or a cycle of bingeing and purging with laxatives, self-induced vomiting, or excessive exercise (bulimia nervosa) (Dunn, 1992). Many eating disorder specialists agree that chronic dieting is a direct consequence of the social pressure on American females to achieve a nearly impossible thinness. The media has been denounced for upholding and perhaps even creating the emaciated standard of beauty by which females are taught from childhood to judge the worth of their own bodies (Stephens & Hill, 1994). To explore the broader context of this controversial issue, this paper draws upon several aspects on how the media influences young women’s body image. This paper examines an exploration of the prevalence and the source of body dissatisfaction in American females and considers existing research that presents several important aspects regarding the nature o f the connection between advertising and body dissatisfaction. From these distinctions, it will be shown that the media has a large impact on women’s body image and that the cultural ideal of a thin body is detrimental to the American female’s body perception that often results in poor eating pathologies. Body image can be defined as an individual’s subjective concept of his or her physical appearance. Body image involves both a perceptual and attitudinal element. The self-perceptual component consists of what an individual sees or thinks in body size, shape, and appearance. A disturbance in the perceptual element of body image is generally reflected in a distorted perception of body size, shape, and appearance. The attitudinal component reflects how we feel about those attributes and how the feelings motivate certain behavior (Shaw & Waller, 1995). Disturbances in the attitudinal element usually result in dissatisfaction with body appearance (Monteath & McCabe, 1997). Perceptions about body images are shaped from a variety of experiences and begin to develop in early childhood. It has been shown that children learn to favor thin body shapes by the time they enter school (Cohn & Adler, 1992). Gustafson, Larsen, and Terry (1992) reported that 60.3 percent of fourth grade girls w anted to be thinner, and the desire for less body fat was significantly associated with an increase occurre... ...ge something about themselves. For many people, the desire to change involves something about their physical appearance. Body image is something that influences everyone. Body image affects people of all ages, both males and females. However, in the United States females are in particular, more conscious about looking good. For some their happiness and self-worth are largely determined by their body image. Whether or not their body size, body shape, measurements, and so on match society’s ideals determine how satisfied they are with themselves. In many cases, appearance becomes more important to the female than one’s health and well being. The media has been responsible for promoting a standard of beauty that in most cases is unattainable to many woman and unhealthy to most people. However, due to the effect of poor body image influenced by several factors women fall prey to this cultural ideal of thinness. The impact that the media has on women’s body image is generally poor and often detrimental to their perception of their body image. This poor perception can cause several vulnerabilities in woman including the need to create poor eating pathologies to achieve this ideal.