Eating Disorders and the Media :: Argumentative Persuasive Topics

Eating Disorders and the Media Todays society is undeniably marked by cultural norms and imagels. The question is, however, does the mass medias depiction of this norm cause abusive behavior in its population? Researchers have shown that there is a bias in the way television targets children in advertising (Ogletree, S., Williams, S., Raffeld, P., Mason, B., Fricke, K., 1990) and that this media influence over citizenry has always been observable (Miles, M., 1995). This targeting of audience members serves the purpose of singling out the most desirable consumer for the product to encourage their economic support. So if advertising is only concerned with marketing product, why is it blamed for the low self-esteem and body image and thus the bulimia and anorexia seen in todays women? The images projected by the media in commercials, products, wrote ads etc. give todays consumers an idea of what normal should look like (Sellers, M., Waligroski, K., 1993). The people in the ads woul d all have the ideal body proportions, material possessions and social status in order to be the attention the ad places on them. Viewers see the ads and compare the body images they see to themselves, which is likely to reveal a discrepancy. Five years ago, the average effeminate model weighed 23% less that the average woman of the time (Miles, M., 1995) and the difference is only growing. Men to are affected by the medias portrayal of what ideal looks like. Jirousek explains the developing of the ideal male figure from a slim and romantic shape to the superhuman image we see in television and the rest of media today (1996). With the starting line of televised football in the 1930s, the popularized image of males incorporated the larger than life appearance from shoulder pads and other armor to encompass movie heroes, comic book characters and garb models. With the males in the public eye having these muscular figures and distorted proportions, the normal male then received the impression that this is what women wanted even if the look does not convey easily to most men. Fabio is a good example of this image (although Jirousek states that Fabio is more for the female consumer than the influence over male viewers, 1996). This male image could be respectable the thing a man needs to see in order to feel completely below expectations thus, resulting in low self-esteem.