But I just have to remind myself that being really skinny just to fit into our cultures’ unrealistic body image isn’t worth letting my weight control every aspect of my life, and defiantly isn’t worth risking my health and life for. I can say, because of my experience, that the media can be partially blamed for the millions of people with eating disorders.In conclusion, media has had a huge impact on the publics’ body image. Children are affected at a very young age by being imprinted with an unrealistic body shape and fat hating attitudes. Television advertisements send a message to the public that being thin will cause them to lead happy lives and be attractive. Magazines send a mixed signal with their conflicting advertisements, and like television ads show that thin is the only way to be. Models and actresses have gotten thinner over time and are risking their own health to portray the ultra thin body images of today. And my experience with an eating disorder has changed my life and made me become a more critical viewer of the media and its messages. The only way our culture will change is if we stop believing in the social attitudes that make us feel not good enough and start believing in ourselves and our right to our individual body, even if it isn’t a body type currently worshipped as fashionable. ...
