Eating Disorder Though the Eyes of the Media
...Even if the media’s portrayal of women is just a mirror of society and not an initiator, the media’s still needs to take responsibility for at least perpetuating the dysfunction. In many television advertisements, thin and beautiful models grace the screen to sell beauty products. In these commercials beauty is being equated with being thin and flawless. These ads portray women weight to be below average, and have no imperfections. According to a recent survey of adolescent girls, their main source of information about women’s health issues comes from the media (Commonwealth Fund, 1997). It is virtually impossible to attain this look that women that on the television and the women watching these ads at home do not realize that. It is also almost impossible to avoid these advertisements, unless we commit ourselves to a television free life. Ads like are viewed during shows like Dawson's Creek and Melrose Place, where teenage girls are watching their show. This is the age when women are most vulnerable to pick up an eating disorder, and these ads make it that much easier. The more that a person is exposed to these ads; the greater their desire is to be thin. A study of 4,294 network television commercials revealed that 1 out of every 3.8 commercials send some sort of “attractiveness message,” telling viewers what is or not attractive (Myers et al., 1992). These results were used to estimate that we are exposed to over 5,000 of these ads a year, and each one adds to women's body dissatisfaction and the desire to be thin and beautiful. Women resort to eating disorders because it is their only road to achieve this goal. For the most part, magazines are full of images of the "ideal woman". It gives an image that this ideal woman is too thin, and flawless, and they present society's image of what all women should look like. If women do not look like these women on the magazine ads, then they are not considered beautiful. These media ads also affect men to develop eating disorders. A study of mass media magazines discovered that women’s magazines had 10.5 times more advertisements and articles promoting weight loss than men’s magazines did (Guillen & Barr, 1994). As a result, these young girls spend time worrying about how to lose this weight. They want to attain society's "idea...