Too Much Pressure to be Perfect
The media depicts girls as stick-thin, super-thin but these standards are negatively affecting girls in. It’s estimated one in five women have an eating disorder and 50 percent of girls 11-13 view themselves as “overweight”.
The pressure to be “perfect” starts younger than we would like to believe. Cases of eating disorders have been reported in children as young as six. But it doesn’t all come from media but childhood toys, Barbie dolls particularly. People are aware that Barbie is not proportionate to actual women but how far from “normal” is Barbie? The average height of women is 5’ 4”, Barbie is 6’ 0”. The average weight of a woman is 145 pounds and average dress size is 11-14(3). Barbie is 101 pounds and a size four . Average waist 29-31 inches , Barbie has a waist of 19 inches. This isn’t reassuring for girls who don’t fit the “standard”.
But it doesn’t stop there, 47 percent of girls in 5th-12th grade said they wanted to lose weight because of magazine pictures. But most models don’t look like that. Pictures in magazines are edited, photo shopped and airbrushed to create that “perfect” image. “Perfection” isn’t obtainable.
About eight million Americans are suffering from an eating disorder.. Seven million of these are women. In a study at the University of Missouri Columbia showed that women of all sizes felt worse about themselves after seeing thin models.. This standard causes low self esteem which can lead to eating disorders. The way we portray women could be killing them.
Some people think that it’s a cry for attention, and it should be ignored, but starving yourself to death, is that really for attention? Eating disorders are a serious issue that kill millions. They have the highest mortality rate of any mental illness. Five to ten percent of anorexics die with 10 years, 18-20 percent within 20 years. Only 30-40 percent fully recover. It’s time that they are taken seriously. But just recognizing it as an issue won’t do the people affected any good. We need to stop it before it happens.
So what should we do? We need to make all girls know that they are beautiful.New York City is doing so by putting up posters that portray girls of all sizes and ethnicities, saying that they are beautiful.The company Dove is using real women with real bodies in their commercials and advertisements. Other companies and business should follow this direction. By implementing programs that help girls know that they are beautiful as long as they are healthy we can stop this epidemic from killing so many.