Distorted Images:�
The Media�s Portrayal of the Perfect Body
by
A. L. C.
Project
#3:� Newsletter
Professor
Roufs
26
March 2001
����������� At the beginning of her freshman year at Ohio State University, Andrea Carlson decided to go on a diet.� This diet drastically changed her life.� Standing at 5�4� and 115 pounds, Carlson lost four pounds in three days by skipping lunch.� �I felt so good after I lost those pounds.� Eventually, I stopped eating completely except for an apple for energy prior to my daily workout,� Carlson said.� �I never felt uncomfortable with my weight until I came to college.� The �ideal body� that is shown on television became my goal, my obsession.�� Weighing in at 83 pounds, Carlson regrets altering her eating habits.
����������� Carlson, like many college women, fell to the pressures of both the media and college life.� According to Susan McClelland, author of the article �Western Cultures are Exploiting Their Dangerous Obsession With Thinness� from the magazine, Maclean�s, one in five college women suffer from either anorexia, a disease in which a person starves him or herself, or bulimia, a disease in which a person binges and purges. Eating disorders have become so severe that about 100,000 Americans die from the disease.���
����������� The �ideal body,� portrayed by the media, has not always been this unrealistic.�� In the article, �Designated Shopper,� by Laura Shanahan from the magazine Brandweek, the average weight and height of celebrities in the 1950�s, such as Marilyn Monroe, was 140 pounds standing at 5�4�.� Over the last 50 years, the average height has remained at 5�4�, but the average weight has dramatically decreased.� Jennifer Aniston, from the television show �Friends,� stands at 5�5�, but weighs a mere 100 pounds.
����������� In addition to the media using ultra-thin celebrities, today�s commercials suggest that dieting should be easy for women.� More and more, women want to be associated with the adjectives will power and strong.� Giving into to temptation labels a woman as weak.� Women, advertisers know this.� Those commercials were made especially for you.�
����������� Do you ever pay attention to the commercials aired during prime-time television and soap operas?� More often than not, you will find advertisements that promote appetite suppressants, diet plans, and foods that either low fat or fat-free.� �Getting the Skinny on TV,� an article from the magazine Discover, suggests to viewers that in advertisements that eating bad food is �sinful, and consuming healthy food is �heavenly.�� Advertisements like these, challenge a person�s values by capturing their emotions.�
����������� Imagine watching your favorite television show and when the program goes to a commercial, you are constantly reminded that if you are over weight, you are weak.� The article, �Getting the Skinny on TV, states that today�s media sends this message out at least nine times in one half hour program.� If you focus on what the commercials say, you will find that a majority of commercials suggest to women how you can �Lose Weight and Feel Great.�� More specifically, it is easy to find commercials that challenge women�s values by suggesting that women who are thin and strong-willed are beautiful, and conversely, women that are overweight and give into to temptation are unattractive.
Now more than ever, the diet industry targets women.� By targeting women, the diet industry will succeed.� There are eight super-models in the world, and we are constantly compared to them.� Giselle, Molly Simms, and Cindy Crawford wear a size two, but weigh 110 pounds at 5�10�.� Be realistic, very few women have this �ideal body.�� The �ideal body� could be better called the �unattainable body.��
The �unattainable body� displayed in the media is the number one factor for eating disorders today.� The steady increase of eating disorders can almost be considered an epidemic.� Women need to realize that the average size of a woman is a size twelve, not a size two.� Distorted images of the body leads to an unhealthy lifestyle of eating disorders.
�Next time, dieting crosses your mind because the media suggests that losing weight will make you feel great, remember how Andrea�s diet turned out for her.�
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