One of the most hidden yet prevalent battles today is fought by everyone of this generation; we are all child soldiers at war against the Kim Kardashians and Alexis Rens of the world, who are unfairly equipped with photoshop, genetics, popularity, and plastic surgery that render our weapons of self confidence and acceptance useless. And we keep on losing. According to the renowned Dosomething.org, 91% of women are unhappy with their bodies, 59% of girls under 11 have resorted to dieting in order to lose weight, and 11.3% of teenagers have used unhealthy doses of diet pills. Eating disorders such as Bulimia Nervosa and Anorexia Nervosa occur to every 1 in 100 girls- that number skyrockets to 1 in 4 girls when involved in a physically orientated sport such as ballet or gymnastics. While the pressures of the media have obviously contributed to an increased obsession to be thin, there's a lot more to it than that. With around six billion people in the world, and a mere ten million of them suffering with some type of disordered eating (.18% of the overall population -- less than 1%), the media obviously doesn't cause everyone to develop Anorexia, Bulimia or Compulsive Overeating. Due to the complexity that extends far beyond just body image and food, eating disorders have the worst recovery rate of any mental illness, with less than 60% of women making a full recovery- and that's being generous. The bleak truth is that eating disorders have the highest mortality rates of any physcological illness, including depression. Media is a major factor influencing the prevalence of eating disorders. It's not hard to believe in a era where self esteem is equivalent to waist size: size zero. According to feminist Margaret Atwood, modern day eating disorders can now be more attributed to political culture than physcologial factors. When women and girls are entangled in the complicated relationship with consumerism, the beauty industry, and patriarchy, body image is proven to be more negatively connoted and eating disorders to increase. By empowering women to objectify themselves less and prioritizing intellect over image, a sharp reduction in eating disorders is expected. Women and girls must be taught that from their first breaths, the perpetuating idea of equating beauty and popularity to self worth is invalid. This is obviously easier said than done due to the Big Brother like appeal of models and catwalks that are plastered throughout television, magazines, social media, and even clothing (that's for you Danny). However, a start would be to teach girls that the real models they should aspire to be are women like Malala, Ellen Macarthur, Sheryl Sandberg, Emmeline Pankhurst, Mary Wollstonecraft, Joan of Arc, Josephine Baker, and Maya Aneglou (how many of those women do you know). We need to reshape society's constricting and burdening image of women that is preventing our generation from advancing because we are too busy worshipping Kim Kardashian as the messiah of today's age. view our website that focuses on body image and awareness for eating disorders, "Transparent Mirrors"
5 Comments
As part of a Korean culture in which women are placed on a superficial pedestal of standards, I could definitely relate to how prevalent the degradation of our self esteem is in our global community.
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From Their First Breaths
7/7/2016 05:24:20 pm
Thank you for the feedback. Make sure to check out our body image club "Transparent Mirrors" http://transparentmirrors.weebly.com
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Jonah Aglubat
7/28/2016 04:54:52 pm
As someone with 3 sisters, I am constantly seeing them chase after the image that people such as Alexis Ren and the Kardashians create and am constantly hearing and seeing them criticize themselves on how they look and what they must do to be as "perfect" as someone they see on instagram.
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Carson Bartholomew
7/28/2016 10:13:26 pm
This is god damn amazing. Body image problems are a complete result of the over emphasized "perfect" body, "perfect" face, and "perfect" women/men. It is soul crushing to realize that 59% of girls under 11 feel like their bodies aren't up to the over-glorified standards they see on TV. Our society is so controlled by mirrors that we focus so much on what we think is the "perfect" reflection. This blog and many of your others bring light to the pain women have to go through.today. No one could leave your site without becoming an educated and stronger person.
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