Some people say that popular media has no influence or correlation with body image issues or disorders.
I beg to differ.
The pressure to be thin is alive and well and shows no sign of abating… not when there is serious money to be made.People magazine devoted its cover story to the subject – claiming that “Drastic thinness has become the beauty ideal – and it’s having an alarming effect on girls everywhere”.
According to eating disorder specialist Dr. Ira Sacker:
“I have a lot of A-list celebrities as clients, both actresses and models, and what they are telling me is that the pressure to be thin has never been greater. Why? Because whoever is thinner gets the job, and the competition is enormous.”
The Hollywood actresses are role models but they are also victims too.
Selling Pills to the Fearful
In the last two weeks, Australian pharmacists have reported “increased demand from customers who do not need it [the diet pill Xenical]” (via Sydney Morning Herald). In Australia, Xenical is available over the counter from pharmacies (without a prescription).
Why the sudden demand? Australian Idol. 1.5 million people tuned in to watch the show, and 320,000 were under 16. In the prime ad spot was a sales pitch for Xenical aimed (apparently) at teenagers.
Placing the drug ad in the Australian Idol timeslot had everything to do with appearance and very little to do with health, said David Henry, a professor of clinical pharmacology at the University of Newcastle.
Many of these girls are a normal weight. “These [mainly female] patients look like they have a healthy weight, yet they’re all telling me they want to lose another 5 to 10 kilograms” says one pharmacist.
THIN: The subtitle reads “If it takes dying
to get there, so be it”
Dying to be THIN
While a diagnosed eating disorder is a far cry from wanting to be skinny – body image is powerful contributing factor.
People Magazine are currently hosting a preview of a heart-wrenching documentary called THIN (see more). Within one minute of watching this my eyes were tearing up.
Where is the yardstick? Where is the balance? We see daily reports that most of us are overweight, and yet… most young women’s role models are extremely thin.
How does a 12 year old girl navigate through this? How much of her self-worth is invested in faulty beliefs?
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i agree with all of these comments, but one thing – not all skinny girls are skinny because they want to be! seriously, i am a junk food addict who’d take german chocolate chocolate cake over skimpy salad any day, but i don’t gain weight even though i really want to! i don’t want to be a shapeless stick and i actually want to be able to find clothes that fit me without having to go through ten different stores first! no, not all of us are skinny to spite other girls!
The only thing that seems to have made a difference for my body image was becoming an athlete. There’s something about enjoying your body and teaching it to be strong and competent that makes you love it, regardless of how it’s shaped.
All the health benefits of exercise don’t hurt either, and neither does the attitude of, “Naah, I don’t want that fritter because it’ll crash my blood sugar when I’m trying to kick @$$ tonight!” Not saying it made me thin. I’m still about 40 lbs overweight, but my doctor is impressed by my cholesterol, blood pressure, resting heart rate, etc.
I still get “fatty” comments in the street, but I can just smirk to myself because my body is beautiful in ways they have no way of seeing. And it’s not empty “everybody’s beautiful in their own way” pablum either. DO something with your body. Give it the care it deserves, and enjoy it. And flip the bird at anybody who dares comment.
picking up on sakurapower’s post, i just wanted to add that the pro-skinny culture in Asia (especially East Asia) is much more institutionalized and vicious than it is here in the U.S. the young women there are supposed to be thin and fair-skinned, but never muscular. dieting is advocated while muscle-toning exercise is discouraged. my own mother warned me of developing bulky calves after i started working out. thankfully, my calves only got leaner. i actually avoid traveling back to Asia because it’s like the parting of the Red Sea whenever i walk down a sidewalk – i can almost hear people thinking “Big American girl coming through, make way!” keep in mind, i’m 5’2″ and 103 lbs.
the ideal for women in Asia is quite literally perpetual childhood. women strive to look, dress, act, and talk like pre-teens. the american notion of a sexy powerful woman is not accepted there.
It is sort of ironic that the majority of celebrity magazines prompt women to be thin like skinny actresses. They’re just doing it to gain more attention. It contradicts the portrayal of women of other media as curvy, athletic and healthy, such in the case of superhero comics and in computer games. There are two main opposing sides of the portrayal of women in the media: one is the media that portrays the classic image of women as curvy, slightly modernized (in the case of most superhero comcis and issues at certain times, some computer games) and the other that portrays them as dark and slight (movies, television shows, fashion and celebrity magazines, you name it).
By the way, celebrity and fashion magazines are somewhat directly related to each it and share similarities, like fashion advices and on wanting to lose weight even if the individual woman is healthy. Except celebrity magazines focus on celebrity and celebrities, fashion usually on clothes save for articles on other topics. If I read a fashion magazine, I’d rather desire for the beautiful dresses worn by the models than the models themselves. Aren’t fashion magazines supposed to be about fashion and beauty (but I prefer healthy beauty)?
In the Asian pop/entertainment industry, there is also a similar occurence where they pressure to make the women look slight and young through rigorous exercise. The same for skinny boys. I think the overall mass media’s selection in ideal body ideals parallels the Nazi’s perference of the perfect race, blond and pale, eliminating Jews, Gypsies and other unwanted folk.