When I was small, I would always admire how skinny and tall the women from Disney were. However, every time I looked at myself, I just saw a chubby girl, who didn’t even look as pretty as they did. It made me feel so insecure how they always had that white pearl smile, with long hair, red lips, big eyes, and a perfect figure. So what did I do? I began to eat out of frustration and anxiety. “Why can’t I look as tall as them?”I would ask myself, “Am I not pretty enough?” “Am I too short?” “Will I ever get a boyfriend with the way I look?” Those were the types of questions that I’ve started asking myself since I was 10 years old! It wasn’t until I went to therapy that I finally learned to appreciate myself for who I was. The hardest part for me was to admit that I was insecure because who likes admitting their flaws or personal problems? No one! However, I had to do it in order to vent my feelings out first and then finally move on and seek new ways to solve my problem. After a long time going through therapy and recovering from my insecurities, I’ve been finally able to breathe and not care about how everyone else looks because I’ve learned that nobody’s perfect, so why should I try to be? Nevertheless, now that I’ve recovered, I absolutely fear for the future generations because of how the media has such a strong influence in today’s society. Every day more and more people are trying to keep up with the media in terms of “image”. Therefore, since the media has such a big influence, it displays images of what the media wants, which is skinny, tall beautiful woman, and muscular, tall, handsome men. This is potentially a negative thing because it makes males and females, especially teens, feel insecure about themselves. The more the media uses physically attractive people to sell products in magazines or movies, the more people try to “mimic” their image. Because of this, more individuals are starting to believe that they should look skinnier or muscular to be happy. According to BBC News, a survey of 2,000 girls, from Bliss magazine, showed that three quarters of girls thought thin females were more popular and physically appealing to boys. In addition, more than half of the girls, from the survey, wished they looked like their female role models (Teenage girls hate 1). According to Body Image, one in 10 people with Anorexia Nervosa are now male, and 4 percent of males are purging (Body Image – men 1). Needless to say, it is shocking how the media is negatively affecting girls and boys. The more the media uses physically attractive people to sell products or even make them appear in magazines or movies, the more people are trying to “mimic” their image. Because if this, more individuals are starting to believe that they should look skinnier or muscular to be happy. Although it is important to exercise and look nice to be healthy and feel good, people shouldn’t do it to the point where they are starting to hurt themselves physically or internally because then they’re not taking care of themselves anymore but rather trying to become something they’re not. Therefore, the media should stop putting images of extremely skinny females or buff males because of how it makes young adolescents and adults more focused on what the media wants and less focused in loving themselves.




Citations:

<ahref="http://www.betterhealth.vic.gov.au/bhcv2/bhcarticles.nsf/pages/Body_image_issues_for_men? ">Body image - men - Better Health Channel</a>
Body image is how you perceive, think and feel about your body. Men can have a poor body image too. Poor body image may contribute to eating disorders such as anorexia nervosa, bulimia or binge eating in men. http://www.betterhealth.vic.gov.au/bhcv2/bhcarticles.nsf/pages/Body_image_issues_for_men : "Teenage Girls 'hate Their Bodies'" BBCNEWS.com, 6 Jan. 2004. Web. 7 Dec. 2011. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/3368833.stm