The media exposes young girls and teenagers to an ideal body image
that can make teenagers feel dissatisfied with their own bodies. This
can lead to eating disorders.
What factors are causing this?
Media gives an idea body
type that is almost
impossible to obtain for
most teenagers
teenagers are trying to meet the ideal
Teenagers are are spending so much time on the internet and
watching TV that they are exposed to a large amount of
advertisements
Models are getting
skinnier and skinner
Since media is constantly surrounding us, there is the constant
need to lose weight as the victims of the eating disorder are
always seeing the people who are skinnier than them
Always seeing what is better than them (in their eyes)
Impacts
Individually
Teenagers who restrict what they
eat can harm their bodies
Will not be functioning
properly (need food to function)
Society
Other teens will see their
peers weight loss, gives them
the idea of restricting the food
they intake
Families and Friends
Eating disorders are serious and people who have
eating disorders need treatment
Family and friends need to be supportive and
helpful when the person with the eating disorder is
getting better
Sociology
Groups of people all seek to meet the ideal body image
Compare their weight loss
results to the others involved
in this
Since many groups of teenage girls want to lose
weight, they do it together
Encourage each other that it is
okay even though it is not
Psychology
Individual mental process
Why are they choosing to do this?
How can we stop this?
Media can give us accurate
representations of normal looking
and healthy body types.
We can teach teenagers what a healthy
body is like
The media can begin to use models that are an average
height and weight to accurately display what a healthy
body looks like
Be accepting of all body types
Encourage healthy eating instead of
encouraging teens to lose weight
Statistics
50% of girls and 30% of boys resort to
skipping meals and starving themselves in
order to chanage and control their weight
91% of girls interviewed at college had tried to restrict
their eating before
The average model weighs about 120 pounds
Thesis
Teenagers who are exposed to large amounts of
media resort to restricting their eating in order to
meet the ideal weight and body image that the media
provides us with.
Conclusion
If we want the number of teens who have eating disorders to
decrease, we must encourage healthy eating, and the media
needs to represent products using models who are a healthy
weight to represent healthy lifestyles. The media needs to
encourage that beauty can come in many shapes and sizes.