Anorexia Research Paper

Anorexia is a growing problem in our society; a mental illness that is glamorized by the media. Children grow up watching cartoons and movies with their favorite characters, they look up to. When they go out they see an advertisement of a small model showing off a name brand item. As they get older they look through magazines with their favorite celebrities on the cover showing off their “bikini bodies”. They open up their phones and laptops to get on social media and see “thinspiration” photos everywhere. Children grow up seeing models and celebrities everywhere they look, people they look up to and grow up to want to be. Little do they know is that these goals are almost impossible to obtain, which is what causes anorexia. Anorexia Nervosa
Not only when you’re watching TV, but on billboards and magazines too. It could be anything from a can of soda to a wedding dress. The models are almost always very skinny. A fashion model usually weighs around 120 pounds when the average healthy weight for a woman is 169 (“Body Image and the Media”). When people talk about dove advertisement they are usually talking about their “plus size” models, but are their models really plus sized? years ago a plus size model was considered to be a size 12-18 now a plus size is 6-14 There are advertisements showing diet pills and diet plans that made people lose large amounts of weight in just a couple months. There are advertisements everywhere on beauty, whether it’s makeup, moisturizers or diet
They have Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, Tumblr and they will just keep growing. Social media might just be the biggest contributor to anorexia. People are posting what is called “thinspiration” photos all over every social media site. A year ago the “thigh gap” was the big “thinspiration” trend now it’s the “ bikini bridge”. A bikini bridge is when a woman lays down and her bikini is suspended between her hip bones(“Social Media’s Potential Influence on Eating Disorders”). Not only this but now there are what are called “ pro-ana” websites. Websites and blogs created to encourage anorexia . These blogs are tips on what they call the “ana lifestyle”. These blogs and websites will post diet plans that only include up to 600 calories a day and some days include fasting. These posts go along with pictures of women showing their hip and collar bones that have small quotes to go with them like “ I don’t want to be remembered as the fat girl”(Pro-ana Lifestyle