Media has Power Over Society, and Greatly Effects Girls' Self-Image.
Media comes in many different forms- television, radio, commercials, billboards, magazines, etc.- and the messages sent have strong effects on all people but especially females, of all ages. One of the main messages sent by the media is body image, the way one perceives oneself when looking in the mirror. Through models and advertisements, women are shown what society views as the "perfect" image; because of this perfect ideal, many women acquire a negative body image.

This distorted perception of one's shape leads to a desire to do "whatever it takes" to fit this ideal image. That drive leads to hundreds of dollars spent on dieting, make-up, designer clothes, and can even lead to more serious things such as eating disorders. As quoted on the National Eating Disorders Association, (NEDA), "42 percent of first through third grade girls want to be thinner, and 81 percent of ten year olds are afraid of being fat." How can girls at such a young age have worries about being thin? It goes back to the world in which they live.

From a very young age, children are taught that their looks matter more than their inner qualities. Common children's movies such as Snow White, "who's the fairest of them all" and Cinderella, show concerns with outer appearance. Cinderella is not accepted until the fairy godmother gives her a beautiful dress, shoes, make-up, and carriage. The "outer beauty matters" idea comes in other forms, other than common children's films, "a study of 4, 294 network television commercials revealed that 1 out of every 3.8 commercials send some sort of 'attractiveness message,' telling viewers what is or is not attractive" (NEDA). Since the average child watches over "21 hours of television each week" (ANRED), and sees over "5,260 'attractiveness messages' per year" (NEDA), there is no doubt why young children have an overwhelmingly strong belief that looks matter. This belief is a normal concept that follows them to adolescence.

Apart from movies, "researchers estimate that 60 percent of Caucasian middle school girls read at least one fashion magazine regularly" (NEDA). Not only are these magazines in the hands of 60 percent of girls, but "a study of mass media magazines discovered that women's magazines had 10.5 times more advertisements and articles promoting weight loss than men's magazines did" (qtd in NEDA). Media advertisements purposely target women's weakness to change themselves to fit the perfect image.

The media heads would say that not all movies have weight issues in them and neither do all commercials, but "32 percent of models and actresses in movies and commercials are underweight and maintain a weight at about 15 to 20 percent below what is considered healthy for her age and height" (qtd in ANRED). It is no secret either that all magazine pictures are electronically edited to make the people in them look absolutely beautiful. So if the models, which are already underweight, are being edited to look better, the goal of a perfect body, defined by society, is not possible.

Still, in desperation to be accepted many girls and women start restricting food, first in the form of diets, but "35% of normal dieters progress to pathological dieting; of these 20 to 25 percent progress to partial or full syndrome eating disorders" (NEDA). So, dieting is not as safe and not as healthy as it is portrayed.

The trends in all medium figures are decreasing in weight and increasing in articles discussing dieting and weight loss. These trends show that media is over-concerned with weight and appearance. There are "400 to 600 advertisements to lose weight in magazines, billboards, TV and newspapers that bombard people every day" (qtd in NEDA). All these advertisements tell people that losing weight will make them happier, when it really doesn't.

When people lose weight especially with eating disorders, their "goal" weight is not any longer good enough once they get there; this is why people can be underweight and in the hospital with an eating disorder and still think they are fat. That's proof that losing weight doesn't equal happiness.

When people diet they often feel anxious or depressed around food because their body cannot have what it wants. They do not enjoy social events because of the food situation. Being hungry also makes the body desperate and deprives it of the much-needed nutrition both the body and mind needs to function. This deprivation prevents optimum performance in every day life.

Diets do not even work sufficiently because the body has a set weight, which is why "ninety-five percent of all dieters regain their lost weight and more within one to five years" (NEDA). Media fails to mention the dissatisfaction with dieting and instead presents a picture of how great one will feel once weight is lost.

Media's defense to being overly concerned with weight and increase of eating disorders is that "yes, the images may not help; but for those already open to the possibility of negative coping mechanisms/mental illness, the media may play a small role; but ultimately, if a young man or woman's life situations leave them open to eating disorders, they will still end up in the same place regardless of television or magazines" (Something Fishy). The media is right in a sense that the media influence is not the sole reason girls acquire eating disorders, but the media does significantly down play its effect on females.

If there are two teenage girls with the same emotional and psychological situation and one constantly read fashion magazines and watched TV and the other one hardly ever looked at magazines and television, the girl who was constantly influenced by the media will be much more likely to have an eating disorder. This happens because, in many eating disorder cases, one of the reasons the girls start is to be accepted.

The media says thin equals beautiful, which equals acceptance. It is also hard for a person to stop an eating disorder once it has started because of the constant encouragement from the media. Pictures and other women's bodies on TV reinforce the idea that the individual viewing them is not beautiful enough. It also shows that a smaller body is possible and better.

Even mannequins in stores are made to be impossibly thin. With all this proof, the power of the media is still too often overlooked. But think; if people are constantly told they are stupid they will eventually believe it, even if it is not true. Just as when the media tells girls that they are not pretty enough and not thin enough to be loved, that is what they are going to believe.

A 1991 study shows that "sixty-nine percent of the girls reported that magazine pictures influenced their idea of the perfect body shape, and forty-seven percent reported wanting to lose weight because of magazine pictures" (Field 88). Another study shows "a positive association between weight concerns and frequency of reading fashion magazines or watching television" (Field 89). That study was thirteen years ago, and the pressure increases daily, so the effect and prevalence is even stronger. A recent survey of fifty high school girls resulted in "forty percent feeling pressured to look like women on TV and in magazines, sixty percent were not satisfied with their bodies; and seventy-six percent were willing to do something to change their weight or appearance".

Besides low self-esteem "80 percent of American women are dissatisfied with their appearance" (qtd in NEDA); if the low self-esteem progresses to eating disorders, the problem becomes life threatening. When lives are on the line, it should not matter how many movies are sold or how popular a TV program is. "One out of every hundred young women between ten and twenty are starving themselves" (ANRED); just starving themselves not purging or any other negative behavior. "Without treatment 20 percent of people with serious eating disorders die"(ANRED). Even with treatment many eating disorder patients die.

"In the U.S. alone it is estimated that after puberty, five to ten million girls and women and one million boys/men are struggling with eating disorders" (qtd in NEDA). The number of eating disorder sufferers should be enough in itself to warrant change.

The prevalence of eating disorders continues to rise every day and will continue to rise if the media does not step in and make some changes. The media has to make the changes because what the media says is what society believes and what is accepted. The media is not the only cause of the rise of eating disorders, but it is the cause of the obsession of body weight. "The media should be discouraged from using actresses and models who are severely underweight according to the medical community because they serve as unhealthy role models for young girls" (Field 89). The things girls see and are told is what they believe, true or not; so as long as the media feeds lies about body image, the ill effects will continue to rise.

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Works Cited
Anorexia Nervosa and Related Disorders. Oct. 2003. Anorexia Nervosa and Related Disorders, Inc..2
Jan. 2004 <http://www.anred.com>.
Field, Alison E. "Media Influence on Self-Image: The Real Fashion Emergency." Healthy Weight Journal
Nov.-Dec. 2000: 88-90. EBSCOhost. Fall 2003.
National Eating Disorders Association. National Eating Disorders Assn.. 2 Jan. 2004
<http://www.nationaleatingdisorders.org>.
Something Fishy. Something Fishy Music & Publishing. 1 Jan. 2004
<http://www.something-fishy.org>.