Kayla Turner English 225 Professor Puntenney April 29th, 2008 Media and How it Affects Girls and Even Women In the book Mediated, Thomas De Zengotita expresses his views on how the media affects the world and the way we live in it. Media includes movies, music, television, internet, video games, advertising, and more. All of these have an affect on people, and for some, the affect is crucial. The media has affected hundreds of thousands of girls by flaunting skinny models as if that is the “normal look.” It has caused bulimia and anorexia in many young women. The media has not only affected the self-image and nutrition habits of young women, it has altered values, ambitions, the view on young girls and teenagers, and their upbringing as well. In “The Real Skinny,” Belinda Luscombe describes that models are too skinny and that “everyone in the clothing industry agrees that something has to be done about the waning weight of models” (92). Though she feels this way, she doesn’t believe it is the models’ fault. The average model today is a size 0; a size 8 was the average twenty years ago. Hollywood and the advertisers are partially at fault because they say that their products are more desirable when they are on slender body types. Therefore, there are all these models trying to be as slender as possible so that they get the jobs and make the money. In order to do this, they are very malnourished and will take any means necessary to meet the standards. Luscombe also has a very good observation: designers design for the thin. Therefore, not to put all the blame on them, it instigates the slender figure if there are better clothes for that class of people. Though models are a huge instigator in teenage girls having the desire to be skinny, they are not the only cause. Advertising also aids in this desire. More often than not, you hear advertisements advocating diet pills, liposuction, Slim for Life, Nutrisystem, some herbal tea that supposedly helps lose weight...