Media Influence On Body Image

Media Influence On Body Image

Is it only medias fault the ideal body image in society has changed for the worse? In the text called Body Image, Media, and Eating Disorders, Derene and Beresin claim that media is usually the blamed one for imposing unhealthy body image which may lead to disordered eating but the truth is far more complicated. I agree with this statement because there are many other factors which effect peoples standarts about beauty such as cultural ideas, trends, family values and political climate.

Women are influenced by the celebrities they see on mass media who give them confusing messages which lead them to mental problems and eating disorders because these actors seem to have an excellent body and life which is just an unrealistic situation in real life. Derenne and Beresin also believes that media imposes women that they should have a family,career and home to be perfect which is extremely hard to achive. For example, one can also see slim and attractive models promoting consumption of high calorie food on advertisments. It would be impossible to have such a beautiful body if they actually ate those food in real life. This also leads to a confusion in society.

One of the other factors which affects eating habits is environment. It provides a variety of food high in calories with putting pressure on people to consume them. For Instance, portions at restaurants keep getting larger and the media also promotes eating unhealthy food through advertisements. As a result people put on weight and the gap between the ideal and the normal body shape increases and I believe that it also causes anxiety among people, especially women.They try to fix that problem by going on diets but, since weight is not totally under ones control,they gain the kilos they lost again that leads people into a bad relationship with food. According to Derenne and Beresin, in short, dieters pin all of their hopes on overly restrictive diets that were doomed to fail from the start. I also support...