Research Paper On America's Obsession With Thinness

America’s Obsession with Thinness: Problems with women in colleges Recent statistics provided by Natural Health magazine found that: 44% of women who are of average or below average weight think that they are actually overweight. For many reasons, Americans people have gradually begun to idealize extreme thinness. They were afraid that being fat would lead to them being unwanted and unloved. This obsession grew rapidly, and is now a part of their lives. Obsession with thinness targets many people; especially women in colleges because their lives in college are different from the ones in high school, and are very complicated. Many women think that being overweight equals to being ugly, unintelligent and unattractive.
An average 5 '9 model 's weight is somewhere around 105-115 lbs. Of course, they are really beautiful. But their images are usually the only one we see in media every day, so we think that all women should look like them. We strongly believe that beauty is associated with being successful nowadays. Women compete with each other to be thin. Thus, media plays a strong role in reinforcing the thin ideal for women. Secondly, not only do the media and society tell us how we should look, our families and friends do as well. Women in colleges are very sensitive and easily influenced. Family members, especially parents, may be an early and influential source of pressure to be thin. Females usually receive negative feedback from their parents. Therefore, they feel more criticized, less accepted, less close to their parents and develop eating disorders. It is stated in a study that “Mothers of daughters with eating disorders exhibited more eating disturbances themselves and also wanted their daughters to lose more weight in contrast to mothers of daughters without an eating disorder. This finding suggests that the family 's attitudes towards eating are passed on to the child. Whether intended or not, daughters are aware of the drive for
It can lead to some bad effects. Firstly, eating disorders are very harmful for our health. When we are in college, we are full of energy. We are willing to do everything to be beautiful so that we are in the center of attention in our school and everyone can admire us. We are affected by whatever people say and we do not care if it is necessary to go on a diet or not. We just try to satisfy all of them, although we are actually already good enough. In "The Spread of the Cult of Thinness: Preteen Girls, Adolescents, Straight Men, Gays, Lesbians, and Ethnic Women", Hessie-Biber says: "More than 50% of the underweight adolescents in one study described themselves as extremely fearful of being fat, and said that they did not apply their basic nutritional awareness to their eating habits" (771). When women are on a diet, they usually restrict food and skip meals. It gradually becomes their habit, and leads to difficulties in working and studying with that regimen because they lack nutrients. If they are already weak, it will be more dangerous. More notably, healthy does not mean skinny. An article titled "What is healthy eating? What is a good diet?" suggests that "Eating means consuming the right quantities of foods from all food groups in order to lead a healthy life. Nutritionists say there are five main food groups - whole grains, fruit and vegetables, protein,