Blog # 9

Body weight is a major area of concern for many Americans. Not many men and women know what to believe about body weight because we are receiving countless mixed messages from the media, medical industry, food industry and much more. One industry will promote weight loss products whereas another will push products onto consumers that will produce weight gain. The public receives so many messages about body weight, yet none coincides with one another.
The problem with the clothing industry is that most pieces of stylish clothing are designed to fit a smaller person. In a department store, sizes basically range from small to large. There is no extra-extra large and so on. A person would need to go to a specialty store in order to find larger sizes. Having these incidences in the present time, people are indirectly influenced about cutting down their weight even though there is not much necessity of it.
With eating disorders on the rise today, the media plays an important role in affecting self-esteem, leading a large amount of young adults to develop eating disorders. Many adolescents see the overbearing thin celebrities and try to reach media's level of thinness and ideal body weight. "Sixty-nine of the girls reported that magazine pictures influenced their idea of the perfect body shape" (Field). Not only is being thin associated with other positive characteristics such as, lovable, popular, beautiful, and sexy, but being overweight is connected with negative characteristics like fat, ugly, unpopular, and lazy. Therefore media is the distinct social pressure of operating to influence people to be thin and causing eating disorders.
It was fashionable to be fat throughout most of history. Obesity was attractive because it was considered to be a sign of wealth. Those who could obtain enough food to keep themselves and their family well fed were people with money. In the past century, however, food has been abundant in most of the developed nations, and thinness has become fashionable. Eating disorders have increased significantly over the past thirty years.
The two most common eating disorders include anorexia and bulimia nervosa. Anorexia nervosa is a disease in which women become very self-conscious about their weight and have an intense fear of becoming fat. They go to such extremes as starving themselves in order to keep thin, and some use additional methods such as vomiting, taking excessive amounts of laxatives, or exercising profusely. Bulimia nervosa on the other hand is an eating disorder in which the patient eats large amounts of food in a short period of time, also known as binge eating. Media is a very important aspect of life in our culture. Around 95% of people own a television set and watch for around three to four hours per day (Herr). Each type of media has its own purpose, to entertain, persuade, and change.