Does the media cause anorexia?

Does the media cause anorexia?

“I find it a misconception amongst most people that the media, magazines, models, and celebrities cause anorexia. I don’t believe these models or magazines cause eating disorders,” claims Fuller. So it’s a coincidence that so many women/girls are led to believe the only way to feel attractive and beautiful is by becoming thinner? Women are dieting today more than ever before. They are striving for an unattainable body type that the media portrays as a standard for today’s women. In order to achieve this “ideal” body type, girls are harming their own bodies. In most cases, the media is either some or all of the blame for causing women and young girls to become anorexic (or in some cases bulimic).We see hundreds of thousands of commercials, billboards, magazines, etc. a day that almost always portray this ideal body type. When you think about it, it really doesn’t come as a surprise that young girls and women try and strive for this body type because everyone is constantly surrounded by the media and its standards of what is attractive.
“However it could be thought that the media does encourage people to be thin. It seems a common thing that people associate being thin with happiness. Is this right? Surely not. You can be happy whatever your size if your healthy,” argues Fuller. On the other hand, in a study when researchers took 118 females (about college age) to look at
twenty pictures from women’s magazine ads, they felt a sudden change in their mood
after they saw the pictures. “There was then a notable depression in the women.” (News
RX) Could it be that this depression is caused by the depiction of these thin women all over the magazine? How often can you find a model size six or over that is not considered a “plus-sized” model? Not often or pretty much never at all! So it would make sense that when women do not see their body type posted up everywhere, they feel left out and depressed. When one sees all of these magazines...