The slender, “beautiful” women are regarded as influential, successful, and erotic. This being said, it is very much so based on facts and reason, also known as logos, in the aspect that real life is often viewed this way. Throughout Elementary school up to High school, no one wanted to be best friends with “the fat kid”. As the world already knows, girls and women in general seem to stress over their physical appearance and have been especially concerned about weight for many years now. The emotional effect media has on a woman’s mindset, or ethos, could very well send her overboard into what is commonly known as an eating disorder.
In today’s society women are always worrying about their appearance. Their perspectives on how they should present themselves are imposed by everything around them. Friends, celebrities and the media are the main reasons why women fee the need to live their lifestyle a specific way. Sometimes, celebrities don’t even need to say anything to have an effect on one; women in today’s society are already provoked on changing just by feeling intimidated by them. In Nina Power’s text, ‘One- Dimensional Woman’ the author also argues that you don’t need superficial things to feel good about yourself, or to even look like perfectly thin stick figure to be a feminist.
When many people look at the successful super models, actresses or women in the advertisement marketing, they all fit the “thin ideal” (1101). “The portrayal of super-slim women as more fashionable, desirable, and successful can contribute to eating disorders that can kill, and the mass media has been identified as one of the most influential social cultural factors contributing to anorexia” (1101). How are young girls suppose to feel pretty and beautiful when by America’s standard they are overweight? For instance, “society tends to view distinctly overweight people as unattractive and lacking inner discipline” (Turfs University). Society’s perception throughout history has put extremely unhealthy looking women in the media spotlight as the ideal image of beauty.
(SoYouWanna Be a Model?) WeightWatchers, however, gives a chart of healthy, active body weight based on height and build. Pertaining to the criteria above, WeightWatchers predicts that a woman who is 5’8”, should weigh between 126 pounds, and 167 pounds (HealthDiscovery). However, being 5’8” and the minimum of 108 pounds, it would put a model fifty-nine pound underweight. From the statement in SoYouWanna, “...a somewhat scrawny build drapes clothing nicely...” it is suggested that, basically, the skinnier the better.
In my opinion, Americans tend to think that their appearance is everything and go to great measures to get their desired looks. I also believe that people in society are always trying too hard to make them self look like their ideal celebrity. I feel that men and women have different standards when it comes to appearance and how they view it. I also agree with Nancy Hellmich in her article, “Do Thin Models Warp Girls Body Image?” as she says that girls are becoming skinnier and skinnier as the years go by. I think as society tends to focus on their appearance more, it also becomes more dangerous.
Certain magazines, like Seventeen, talk about being body positive, but show slim models in their pages (Benowitz-Fredericks et al, 2012). How is an adolescent girl going through changes supposed to make heads or tails of what they are reading? In addition, many television networks talk about going against body ideals, but have only thin actresses on the network. Even within the music industry there are songs about being body positive, yet they come from singers who are relatively slim. Being heavier than “normal” becomes a criticism of character and leaves girls the most vulnerable.
Regardless of the criticism she soon became a trend setter. She was a model for women in both dress and action, again just like Barbie. Some people disputed that "Gibson Girl" as a national standard for feminine beauty. They felt she would disturb social order but in fact most women welcomed the change (Gibson Girl, 2010). The caricature image became very popular representing American girls.
(Hamilton and Beck 2005) stated National Collegiate Athletic Association study of eating disorders in athletes revealed 1.1% of female athletes met the criteria for bulimia, but not for anorexia. This research explained problems in weight control behaviors which cause female athletes to feel negative about their appearance. Weight control behaviors are a major challenge when dealing with eating disorder. It makes women feel as though they have to be thin in order to compete at the highest level in their sport which is not even n important factor
But the biggest difference with her is that achieving her looks may be highly unlikely. What is accepted to society has gone from being beautiful as a woman, to being a beautiful woman. Being proud of natural attributes and capabilities have gone to wanting to be tall, skinny, and powerful within one's
They have made bad decisions in their life and they are getting publicity out of it. Is this really the type of thing that you want your child to be looking up at? Seeing these popular movies, television and teen icons influences us to think that it is cool to be pregnant at a young age. The media is influencing us too much, we follow whatever the "trend" is and we don't think for ourselves. Casual naked people dancing around, thin and built models, and teen pregnancy is subconsciously affecting us to think all of this is okay.