Society's Standard of Beauty Contribute to Female Eating Disorder

Abstract

This paper discusses the relationship between women in the society and young women's self-esteem and concepts of beauty among society and what role does it plays in women's eating disorders. It is mainly women who idolize women in the media because they want to become like them, even though they are not an accurate representation of the average person. This paper concludes, the only reason why thin and beautiful women are chosen is because it is what attracts our attention. We are brought up to judge a woman's appearance; therefore if a woman in an advertisement is not very attractive or over weight, it's most certain that she would not gain the same attention as an attractive woman.



Thesis Statement

The thesis of this study is that women's self-images are lowered by exposure to women in the media. To study this, 30 young females from John Abbott College were given a questionnaire. The results were compared to Health Canada's statistics of the average female's body proportions.

The results anticipated was that the participants would have a higher average for breasts, smaller for waist and hips, taller for height and lighter for weight than Health Canada's statistics. This paper personally think that just because a woman doesn't have a perfect face or figure, that she should still be given the time of day and the respect that every person deserves. Everyone was created differently and for that reason nobody is perfect.

Society is fixated on pressuring women into becoming the ideal "Barbie figure" which is extremely unfair and is a mentality that must be changed. It is important to do research on this topic because we must come to a conclusion on why women feel as if they need to be perfect, to feel accepted.

Problem Statement

Exposure to ideal, perfect, Barbie-like women, in advertisements influences a women's self image. Whether it is television or magazine ads, the majority of North American women are exposed to aspects of media on a daily basis. This paper discusses the role of media, in which women are usually portrayed as sex objects and are mainly thin and beautiful.

Discussion

Psychology lets us understand the complexities of human behavior. One's self image is very psychological because it is people's concept of themselves. Each individual has a personal self-image, but women's self-image is more vulnerable. It is proven; in the case of adolescent girls, they have a lower self-image and emotional self-efficacy than boys (Bacchini & Magliulo, 120).

From a psychological perspective, the results may be seen as the media influencing one's psychological disposition. Many diseases such as anorexia and bulimia, which deal partially with one's self-image, are psychological. A psychologist therefore may look at this study showing that the media has a psychological influence on young women (Stice, Schupak-Neuberg, Shaw & Stein, 29).

This is where our image of an ideal body is derived. (Byrd-Bredbenner & Murray, 256)

Women's self-image is affected of those who are striving to be like the unrealistic portrayals ...