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Distorted Media Mirror

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Distorted Media Mirror
The Distorted Media Mirror Look through any magazine in the front of a store, any billboard on the street or any commercial on TV and the image remains the same. It 's the unrealistic, un-average people making the ideals of perfection unreachable for 95% of society (Berg 32). Throughout time, women have physically tried to alter their bodies looking for perfection. The saying "it hurts to beautiful" is the reality media encourages in our culture. Body image has been an issue throughout history. Since the foot bindings of the 10th century China, the tight corsets of the 19th century, the cinched waists of the 20 's to the broad shoulders and slender bodies of the 60 's. Women have been forced to become unnatural beauties. Each era has its own price for beauty. Are woman of the 21st century ready to give up their lives, happiness, health and success for beauty? Or, has our culture become so absorbed in media ideals, that if we aren 't top model, our lives aren 't even worth living?
Body image is the concept that includes the thoughts, feelings, and attitudes related to one 's own body. Body image and eating disturbances occur when those perceptions and attitudes become distorted or agitated and include eating-disordered behaviors. For example, disturbed body image feelings include being dissatisfied with one 's body, disturbed body image perceptions include overestimating one 's body size, disturbed body image thoughts include chronic thoughts about weight loss and weight gain, and disturbed body image and eating actions include exercising excessively, binging and purging, and fasting to lose weight (Botta).
This negative body perception begins at a young age. Through the media, we are fed facts about how we need to live by the standards in our society or we will face a life of depression, failure and overall an unhealthy life. Starting at childhood, the media 's message makes its way into our impressionable minds. In



Cited: "Beauty and Body Image in the Media." Media Issues. 2005. Media Awareness Network. 14 Dec. 2005 . Berg, Frances M. Women Afraid to eat. Hettinger: Healthy Weight Network, 2000. "Body Image Reality Check." 2005. Kidzworld Media. 23 Dec. 2005 . Botta, Renee A. "Social comparison and body image: attractiveness comparisons to models and peers among adolescent girls and boys - Statistical Data Included." Look Smart: Find Articles. Nov. 2001. 16 Dec. 2005 . Fox, Kate. "Mirror, mirror." research findings on body image. 1997. Social Issues Research Centre. 13 Jan. 2006 . Grauerholz, Liz. "Experts say fairy tales not so happy ever after." Purdue News. 11 Nov. 2003. 16 Dec. 2005 . Malkin, Amy R. "Women and weight: gendered messages on magazine covers." Look smart: find articles. April 1999. 15 Dec. 2005 . "Media Influence and Eating disorders." The Problem. 2005. Rader Programs. 14 Dec. 2005 . McWhorter, Abigail. "An Impossible Fit." Media Influence. 2004. 26 Dec. 2005 . Waliszewski , Bob . "The Power of the Media." Media Influence. 2001. 26 Dec. 2005 .

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