Preview

Ana Carolina Reston Essay

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
605 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Ana Carolina Reston Essay
Perfection is the ultimate human desire- to be without flaw and to be the most ideal to survive through the world’s expectations and humanity’s role in civilization. Modern society upholds and promotes the idea of materialistic wealth, power, and social status as the ultimate goal to achieve in life, and that one would not be truly happy unless they accumulate all of these, yet a member of royalty who had married into such opulence and glamour like Diana, Princess of Wales who lived a life that “ended up being far from a fairy tale” as “her struggles culminated with her marriage to Prince Charles crumbling in the 1990s and her death in 1997” would say otherwise (Greenman). Society is so entrenched into imprinting these contradicting messages …show more content…
Over time, it is devastating to witness so many unhappy people around the world who have given up their hobbies and interests all for the empty givings of material wealth and materialism- only to find out it has made them miserable instead. Moreover, the desire to achieve perfection can be fatal and life threatening, with this in mind is the tragic death of Brazilian model Ana Carolina Reston, in which her years of being called “fat” and “overweight” led to her dying from complications of anorexia and her dreams of appearing on every fashion magazine cover, coming true for the wrong reasons- her death on the runway (Phillips). Even early in one’s childhood, it has become a constant mantra in our daily lives to become what everyone wants us to become, and that failure to do so is a complete tragedy. Complications can last for one’s entire lifetime, and can leave damaging scars as physical, mental, emotional, and psychological disorders- depression, anxiety, anorexia, bulimia nervosa, to name a few, as people attempt to distort themselves to someone they do not

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Satisfactory Essays

    The first thing Jill says in this article is attacking the media for what they are doing. She is fed up with emaciated models pushing the readers to be thin, sexy and silent; However now the girls a fighting back. With the use of the visual of the founder of the new trend and there cover girl it shows that you don’t need the perfect thin body and hot clothes to make you beautiful. This shows that these magazines are ‘glossy’ with only information about how to get ‘thin and sexy’. But with Jill praising the new publication trend which shows realistic images of young women is targeting women to think that they don’t need to only look at super models in the media, but of people who they can relate to. This persuades the reader that media now is only thinking of super models is how they will sell it, but another ‘real’ women magazine is going fine. Also you don’t need to think you need to be thin to be beautiful, all you need to be is a real girl.…

    • 583 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    The idea of perfection has been planted in our heads that we have to be slim and slender to be noticed. It’s almost as if we are brainwashed into believing if were not thin, then were not beautiful, even though beauty has always come from within. From this idea of perfection, we use all our energy to become flawless and it isn’t possible. We gain back our energy from food and we cover up our disappointment by eating and so, if anything, the media creates us as a monster. For every body in this world, twenty-four hours, just isn’t enough to work, eat, sleep and become that one person we’ve always longed to…

    • 705 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Some tragically developing eating disorders, such as Mary-Kate Olsen and her battle with anorexia and bulimia (Tauber, Smolowe). While this is heartbreaking for the celebrity, it can be equally as devastating to those that idealize them. Some people will see these stories and conclude that starving themselves or binging and purging is the only way to achieve the figures that they find desirable, or are told to find desirable. In truth, in doing this they are only hurting themselves not just physically, but psychologically. Celebrities set the bar of physical beauty so high that even they can have trouble reaching it, much less the average, everyday…

    • 1191 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Between the hunger and the muscle pain from the constant workouts? I can’t tell you how much I hurt.” Her self-denials of her body’s basic needs of rest and food are seen as “power” by herself and society when in actuality it is harmful to her health. She is willing to make the hazardous tradeoff between health for physical ideals. Also, if the youths of today are brought up lead to believe that physical perfection is the key to the good life then low self esteem and harmful behavior may ensue upon not being able to meet the unrealistic criteria. Bordo quotes a woman’s first hand experience with anorexia, “Sometimes my body looks so bloated, I don’t want to get dressed. I like the way it looks for exactly two days each month.” It’s truly saddening to hear any person perceive themselves in such a negative light that they hardly feel okay in their own skin. Whereas Bordo ties this self disgust to “anxieties about internal processes out of control” and rejection of oppressing gender standards for women, it is ultimately a harmful self image. It is psychologically damaging and no happiness can come from such a negative…

    • 633 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Uglies Novel Essay Grade 9

    • 2062 Words
    • 9 Pages

    “A perfection of means, and confusion of aims seems to be our main problem” (Einstein). As humans, we try to achieve perfection, and fail often. We know how to achieve what we want, but when it comes to what we want to achieve, we get very confused. We have been told by sci-fi authors repeatedly that striving for perfection will be the downfall of the human race. In Uglies by Scott Westerfeld, the government strives to achieve perfection by sculpting their own illustration of idealism. In any society, individuals judge others’ physical appearance relative to their personal thoughts. The diversity of peoples’ opinions come from individual thoughts untouched by others, but in Uglies, the government believes in perfection being total equality. They believe that uniformity leads to equality in beauty as well as true equality, because beauty biases decisions giving others unfair advantages. Therefore, they strip people’s identities in society for peace and equality within body and mind. The Uglies illustrates that perfection is unattainable in society, body and mind.(we could also use this thesis(The Uglies illustrates that perfection is unattainable when uniformity of society, body and mind is the goal).…

    • 2062 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    In an article written by Colleen Thompson and Dr. Lauren Muhlheim, it is emphasized that more than just a few individuals in society struggle with the same issue of not being able to fit the ‘ideal figure’: “In North America, men and women are given the message at a very young age that in order to be happy and successful, they must be thin and fit... Thousands of teenage girls are starving themselves trying to attain what the fashion industry considers to be the “ideal” figure.” An individual person with an eating disorder could be singled out and their specific case could be thought has a person problem but with applied sociological imagination, society would realize that it's the obsession for the fair skin and thin body, creating a widespread public issue, that has indirectly affected thousands of boys and girls in the United States alone. Cultural structures such as the media are not the only structures in society that have an influence on what constitutes the idea body size and figure. The sociological approach to what can be considered as the “ideal figure” is respected because it can explain how social and cultural values affect the individual's attitudes towards eating. Furthermore, a sociological approach is useful for understanding eating behavior because it can explain why eating disorders appear in…

    • 475 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Oedipus Tragic Flaw Essay

    • 452 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Is there such a thing as perfection or is it merely as fleeting hope? A tragic flaw by…

    • 452 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Picture the most beautiful teen model you have ever seen. Picture this someone as tall, super skinny, flawless skin and a very outgoing personality. Now picture Ella Jeffery. She is the exact opposite. Ella lacks confidence in everything she does. Maybe it is down to the fact that she is constantly tormented at school or because she is not exactly supermodel material as she suffers from both obesity and acne. As a result of the bullying Ella chooses to comfort eat. While she sits slouched down on the living room sofa browsing through a fashion magazine, she fantasises over the skinny models that are splattered over the of the glossy pages. Ella begins to sob and yet again she resorts to another packet of fatty, cheese and onion crisps. So what effects do the fashion industry have on eating disorders?…

    • 1134 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    The media plays a crucial role in shaping the idea’s and values our society holds. As we are constantly bombarded with images of ‘idealistically’ thin celebrities, it becomes evident that those who do not fit this normality are excluded from social acceptance and pressured into losing weight and fitting in. A recent article in the Sydney Morning Herald stated that; “while there was sympathy for underweight models because of possible eating disorders, those with overweight body shapes were blamed for not doing something to lose weight” (Gray, 2010). It is evident here that although there is some negativity surrounded with being ‘underweight’, super-thin models and celebrities continue to be represented as acceptable throughout the media, whereas those classified as ‘obese’ are rejected from mainstream society and blamed for not taking the initiative to lose weight. As we concentrate more on what is considered to be ‘physically attractive’, we lose sight of the various biological, genetic, and…

    • 1299 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Toddlers And Tiaras

    • 469 Words
    • 2 Pages

    the author informs us that “Psychologists and psychiatrists largely agree that pageants, such as “Toddlers and Tiaras,” reinforce negative female body image issues that result in eating disorders such as anorexia and bulimia. As evidence of this they mental health experts point out the trend towards the onset of eating disorders at much younger ages than ever before” (Schwartz). Being part of a beauty pageant the producers emphasize the “Barbie doll” image of what children need to look like in order to win. It is not possible for a human being to look like a Barbie it’s too overemphasized. For beauty pageant girl’s looks are number…

    • 469 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    A big issue that has risen over the last few years have included the images of “skinny” models. These images, in many cases, show models that appear to be skeleton thin with bones protruding in their faces and on their bodies. Magazine covers often show celebrities and models who are size 0 or 2 and leave behind an impression that in order to be a model, celebrity, or even beautiful that you have to be the size of the models in the advertisements. Over the years there has been stories published about what a model had to do in order to be the size that the designers wanted them to be and sometimes this led to anorexia, bulimia, and drug use in order to stay the size that they…

    • 912 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    According to Prah, there is a complicated combination of biological, psychological and social factors that cause eating disorders, and our culture continues to endorse thinness (3). Over time there has been a shift in the way that society views being thin. Starting at the end of the Middle Ages, “women who fasted were thought to possess evil spirits and were accused of being witches bent upon destroying the Catholic Church” (12). Next, in the 17th and 18th centuries, when women were too thin, they were thought of as being “victims of poor health” (12). Then in the 1940s and the 1950s, the full figured woman became the ideal (13). When Twiggy, a famous model who stood 5’9” and weighed 90 pounds, was growing up in the 1950s, she hated her body. She wanted to “look like Brenda Lee, very curvy and round” (Abagond), because that was the optimal body. But today, our society not only approves of being thin, but idealizes it. Before Twiggy, “the average fashion model weighed just 8 percent less than the average American woman, but today fashion models are thinner than 98 percent of American women” (13). The exposure starts at an early age; children are being exposed to the “thin ideal” with dolls such as Barbie, who “would stand 5’9” and weigh a mere 110 pounds” if she were a real person (13). This early introduction makes a big impact because as girls’ bodies develop, they become worried about the places that they are gaining weight where they didn’t have fat before (14). A sickening figure depicts that more than 50 percent of 9 and 10-year-olds say that “they feel better about themselves when they’re dieting” (33), and research found that girls who were as young as 7 years old thought that the thinner women in drawings were more popular and happier (34). These…

    • 2426 Words
    • 10 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Better Essays

    Eating Disorders

    • 2036 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Rodenbough, Libby. "The Fashion Industry Promotes Eating Disorders." The Culture of Beauty. Detroit: Greenhaven Press, 28 Mar. 2011. Web. 31 Mar. 2014.…

    • 2036 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Perfection. It's more than just a universal truth. We believe in it. We crave it. We strive for it. It’s safe to say we basically breathe for it. But tell me, what is perfection? Each and every individual asked that question would have a greatly altered definition of their perception of perfection, ranging from personal appearance to success. It is a mere fact that depending on who you are, where you grew up, and what you're capable of, you are presented with different expectations on how you should live your life. You will always be expected to be the very best; to be perfect. It is quite understandable, even from an average person’s perspective, that along with being a well-known individual, certain expectations from the general public exist.…

    • 1638 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Maggie Helwig’s short essay Hunger explores the idea of negative body imaging and how media within today’s society promotes an unhealthy view of one’s body through the use of models and celebrities. Helwig argues that if the world would learn how to approach women with issues before they have reached the point of potentially harming themselves than eating disorders would not be as common as they are. She has provided the reader with an overall convincing argument involving women and body image through the use of an intelligent voice, first-hand experiences, and information on the focus of industries.…

    • 317 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays