Media influences eating disorders

I am 5’7, about 125 pounds, and I wear a size 6 in jeans. This makes me a “plus size” model. Today’s modeling industry considers all girls sizes 6 and up as plus-size models. This is just one sad example of how today’s “skinny” is never quite skinny enough.

Modern media conveys the idea that people need to be skinny to be happy, implying that the smaller your waist size the happier you will be.

Half naked women on TV and magazines boasting “LOSE 10 POUNDS IN 7 DAYS” constantly bombard people (women especially) to be skinny, no matter the cost. Even if the cost is your life. Shows like “90210,” “The Victoria Secret Fashion Show,” and “Skins” are just a few examples the subliminal messaging that is constantly forced on the viewers.
                                                                                                                                                                                             Eating disorders are one of the most common illnesses faced in America. With a 10 percent mortality rate, according to the National Institute of Mental Health, they have become the deadliest of any other mental illness. Eating disorders such as anorexia and bulimia have become today’s silent killers. With media pushing for perfection, it’s no wonder that 86 percent of college students surveyed by the National Association of Anorexia Nervosa and Associated Disorders, reported an onset of an eating disorder by age 20.

While anorexia and bulimia are the most common eating disorders, they are only two of the  four main types. The four main categories for eating disorders are anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, binge eating disorder, and eating disorders not otherwise specified. Less known illnesses like binge eating is defined as someone who feels like they cannot control how much they eat, so in turn they eat large amounts of food to the point of being sick. EDNOS is the least specific of the other three disorders. It is defined as when a person does not meet the definition of other disorders perfectly, or switches between multiple disorders. The broad range of EDNOS is what gives it its high mortality rate.

With so much emphasis on about getting smaller it’s hard for young teens to not be affected by it. “Media does push people to be perfect,” said one student who was uncomfortable being named, “it lowers individual self-esteem.” On websites such as Facebook and Tumblr, teens that are just a little overweight are condemned; while girls that are unhealthily skinny and boys with the cut muscles are looked upon as if they are some new deity. A picture of celebrities with rib bones almost bursting from their sides, with all their weight in their all the right places  circulates the Internet and gives the impression to kids that the smaller you are, the better. “Everything you see on the Internet is the girls with the curvy bodies,” said one senior. The smaller you are the more people will like you and the more you will like yourself.

What a lot of people don’t realize is that yes, eating disorders can make you skinny, but at a great cost, and for only a short amount of time. Research shows that 95 percent of dieters will regain their lost weight in only a matter of five years. Not to mention the other health problems that will arise from poor eating.

“Every tooth is either pulled or capped in my mouth,” said my mother, who suffered in high school from bulimia. “That’s when the skinny look was in, full hair, skinny face, that’s what you wanted.” My mother knew at the time that was she what she doing was bad, but the “attention and the drive to be skinny is strong.”

What my mother didn’t know at the time was that she was cutting her life short and by the age of 47 she would have the body of close to a 60 year old.

Media’s push is strong. Teens must realize that eating disorders are a vicious and terrible cycle. Eating disorders make you feel good in the now but will damage you in the end both physically and mentally. The ANAD reports that 50 percent of those suffering from eating disorders meet the criteria for depression.

Media’s influence is powerful. But you have to belief that you are more powerful than any words on a screen, or photo in a magazine. “Don’t let someone tell you what to do….don’t get pulled in” said one senior. “Perfect is boring.”