Eating Disorders and Media

Eating Disorders and Media

The fashion industry and media have managed to change the ways young girls and young women see themselves. As a result, many young girls and women are causing serious and sometimes permanent health problems or even death. Many young girls and young women are just dying to be skinny, literally. The Media and the Fashion Industry play major factors in eating disorders, by Utilizing super skinny models by the media and the fashion industry promotes eating disorders.
There are many different types of eating disorders, but the two most commonly known are Anorexia Nervosa (AN) and Bulimia Nervosa (BN) these two types of eating disorders can be deadly to many young girls and women. Extreme dieting by starving ones self, limiting calorie intake, looking emaciated and extreme exercising are all characteristics of Anorexia Nervosa. While Bulimia Nervosa primarily use is to maintain a weight, using binging, and purging along with laxatives to rid the body of any food consumed.
Anorexia Nervosa has been around for along time well over 60 years, but in the 1960’s this rare disorder became widespread in Western societies, within a decade, Bulimia Nervosa well known as well. Although both disorders have been around in the ancient times, they have been a secret until the mid 1990’s (Polivy, J.).
The average American woman is 5 feet 4 inches tall, weighs around 140 pounds while a normal model is 5 feet and 11 inches tall, and only weighs 117 pounds (Smolark, 1996). According to the National Eating Disorder Association 98, percent of most fashion models are thinner than the average female. With a fashion models weight and height calculated by using the Body Mass Index (BMI) that measures the amount of fat a model weighing 117 pounds and being 5 feet 11 inches tall puts their BMI at 16, while an Average woman might weigh 140 pounds and who is 5 feet 4 inches tall there BMI would be 24. A healthy BMI is from 20-25, and below would be under weight...

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