|
|
|
|
|
“Body Image: Problem or Fashion”
|
|
|
What is the average weight? What is healthy? How do these two things compare to the standards society has on health and beauty today? What do you see when you look in the mirror? And why don’t people see regular people in fashion TV advertisements? I personally think that advertisers should introduce people of all weight sizes into the fashion advertisements. Throughout history, women’s roles have been to make themselves as attractive to others as possible. Although fashion and physical values have changed over time, this drive has remained constant. The recent change of women’s extreme thinness has become a topic of concern in the health department. This issue starts as early as the first day a person was born. Gender differences, the surrounding environment, and the pressure of ideal image are almost impossible to escape due mostly to the everyday occurrences that one encounters. Roberta Seid’s “Too ‘Close to the Bone’: The Historical Context for Women’s Obsession with Slenderness” discusses both present ideals and those of previous time periods, as well as the negative effects these standards have had on women. Andy Vu’s “The Struggle for a Healthy Body Image” presents a similar topic, but it’s related specifically to both male and female college students. S. Almond’s “The Influence of the Media on Eating Disorders” tries to make the point of how everyone was made to be unique. Almond says that products are often advertise to promote the ideal body image. A lecture by Susan Rausch touched on both college students and society as a whole, offering statistical data on eating disorders and societal views on physical appearance. And In Ann Marie Cussins “The Role of Body Image in Women’s Mental Health” she discusses the issue from a standpoint aspect. Rausch begins her speculation with a question: Why is it that people treasure variations in the magnificence of nature, but not in the concept of beauty in ourselves? Each expert comments the fact that over the past 40 years, the representations of beauty such as models, actresses, and Miss America, have been getting thinner and thinner. These symbols of perfect beauty are wearing sizes 1, 0 and even smaller (Vu 1), portraying only the thinnest 5 to 10 percent of Americas that fit in this size category (Seid 479). Each agrees that the current average American is now considered “overweight”. However, Seid and Raush support this statement with statistics: 90 to 95 percent of women do not feel they meet the “standard”, leading millions of women to think abnormal of themselves (Seid 479). Rausch mentioned that 47 percent of women with normal weight feel they are overweight (Raush’s speech outline 3). Seid mentions that women’s self-image successfulness, and survival could be determine mostly by the way the look. As for men, success is based on how they act and what they accomplish (Seid 480). The way a person looks and their personality determines the person they are able to interact with. In society today, women are viewed as beautiful and vulnerable whereas men are classified as strong and powerful. Cussins explains that women are unconsciously dissatisfied with their motherly role toward daughters (Cussins 2). One of Cussins’s patient talk about her unhappiness with the problem of bulimia, and how bulimia effected the relationship with her mother and family. The patient tries to develop a healthy diet to make her mother happy but she throws up everything she eats or she will feel depressed.
|
|
|
|
Still Can't Find What Your Looking For? Then Try a Essay Search!
|
