Conscious Thought

All schools should educate our children on what exactly is body image.  They should be made to look in a mirror and told that there is only one of them, and they should never compare themselves to a different body.  Of course, it sounds funny and some students may be reluctant, but they will remember for they were looking at themselves.  Seeing your own face in the mirror and accepting yourself, instead staring into a computer screen looking at other’s can be very powerful stuff.   Even as adults we should all try this at least once.  Each individual wants to be a part of something else, but mostly always forgets themselves.  They are wrapped up in advertisements and images and stories.  

The media is not going to change, it will only grow even more so.  The media does educate, inform and entertain, but it leaves an impressionable mark on its audience also. Especially when censorship is at it’s all time low.  It’s not the media that has to change; it is our perception of the media.  We need to become more accepting of our differences.  Not be so hard on ourselves because we don’t meet the status quo.  That status can be, too fat, too thin, too bald, too smart, too whatever.  We can help the ones that are already suffering with distorted thoughts of their own body image.  All we need to do is open our eyes, and help those around us be the people they were meant to be.  Themselves...

Even more so

What’s wrong with that hypothetical story?  The story ended on a positive light for our dear Sophia.  Others are younger and they suffer much longer.  The damage they do to their little bodies is irreversible, at times resulting in death.  What about those that don’t receive the attention they require, and no one notices until it is too late?  Or those that cannot afford health care and their families watch them die right in front of them?  Watching a child die of an eating disorder must be very painful.  You must know of someone around the age of 12.  Just imagine if it were them…

We are all so wrapped up in watching and experiencing the media that we forget to look at one another.  To actually see the person we are sitting next to.  The 1960’s brought about a change in how stories and people were viewed.  It showed us images that we had never seen before.  It allowed us to see what was occurring in the world.  After the 60’s, people’s priorities changed.  They went from sitting down for family dinner to gathering around their television sets. 

The media has grown since then.  There are times the media displays disturbing images.  Those images that once they are seen will be etched in our minds forever.  For instance, John F Kennedy’s assignation, Bud Dwyer’s televised suicide, Princess Diana’s death, and 9/11.   

In this decade, we are attached more so to the media than any other time.  All types of information is scattered daily upon our great Earth.  Little children are impressionable.  They listen to and witness everything.  They see shows and advertisements all about body image, and how our society feels they should be like. 

A Hypothetical Story

Sophia is an average all American girl.  She is Italian and her family gets together quite frequently for celebrations.  They have huge feasts for accomplishments and milestones.  She watches her mother cook and serve the dishes to her family.  She sees how much food makes those she loves happy.  She gets honor roll and is rewarded for her accomplishment with a dish of freshly homemade manicotti.  Her favorite Italian dish by far!  She is happy and comfortable with herself and her body image.  She watches quite a bit of television with her friends and family.  She is content, smart and very well rounded.

 Upon reaching her thirteenth birthday she notices that she is somehow different than those portrayed on the television.  She is slightly overweight, and unable to fit into her clothes like she did when she was younger.  Her peers begin to notice her heavy disposition and she is mocked and ridiculed for being different.  She struggles with diet after diet to control her weight.  She just wants to be like everyone else.  She longs for acceptance.  She becomes friends with Anna, who is popular and skinny and a part of their school’s cheerleading team.  Sophia wants to learn all about her and soon finds herself idolizing Anna.

Anna encourages Sophia to join the school’s cheerleading squad.  She tries out for the team and she is accepted.  She drops weight by exercising, but she is not happy about her appearance.  Until one day at the mall, when Sophia’s life changes forever.  Sophia was eating a salad at the food court and sticking to her regimen for weight loss, but Anna was engorging herself with fast food and a milkshake.  Sophia questioned her, “How do you stay so thin, when you eat like that?”  Anna became very quiet and asked Sophia not to tell anyone what she was going to tell her.  Anna told her she was fasting and then occasionally she would make herself throw up.  This way she could eat what she wanted and not feel guilty about it.  This idea felt so very strange and harmful to Sophia.  She couldn’t understand how one could make herself throw up and be so happy and pleasant about it.  At this time, Sophia was a healthy weight for a girl her age.  Though she would look in the mirror and still see the chubby girl that would be made fun of at school.  After their meals, Sophia follows Anna into the bathroom.  The one bathroom made for families, the one that is private for baby changing.  She witnesses Anna throwing up, hovered above the toilet.  All the food she just ate coming up in buckets.  Anna stands up washes up and is ready to continue their shopping trip.  Sophia is stunned and amazed at the will of this girl.  She is much stronger than Sophia had given her credit.

After she returns home she notices that her weight has fluctuated 4 pounds, and she ate salad!  She is frustrated and breaks down in tears.  She turns on the television and reads her teen magazine to keep her mind off it.  On TV she sees all these girls that are perfect in her eyes.  As she flips through her magazine she is amazed to see all the girls her age that are flawless.  They have no weight issues, and they look happy.  Just like Anna…

She decides to take matters into her own hands; she will follow her friend’s footsteps.  She cannot bring herself to throwing up, but she goes days without eating.  She drops 6 pounds in a week.  She is starving though, until one day.  Her family has a huge celebration for her father’s birthday, and she binges on just about everything.  While everyone is out in the yard celebrating her father, she sneaks away to the downstairs bathroom.  She psyches herself up by telling herself the food she just ate was disgusting.  She tells herself over and over that she is fat and the food is what makes her fat.  She finally takes her finger and gags herself with it.  Sophia regurgitates all of her meal till she is throwing up bile.  She feels as if she is on an adrenaline rush.  She cleans herself up and returns to her family outside in the yard.  Her grandmother comes to her and tells her how beautiful she has become, and that she is looking thinner these days.  Sophia is elated and proud of herself.  And so, the cycle begins.

Days turn into weeks, and weeks turn into months.  Anna and Sophia begin by making it a game of which one could reach 110 pounds before the other.  Sophia’s family applauds her for losing weight, but they don’t realize how she is doing it.    Sophia realizes that throwing up just isn’t making the cut anymore, so she turns to the internet for answers.  She finds countless of websites and girls using diet pills and laxatives to lose weight, so she decides she will too.  She is shaky and unstable at times, and she can’t focus on subjects in school like she used to.  She is happy and accepted by her peers though, and she feels she is achieving the look of those portrayed in the media.  She continues on with her downward spiral.

Her family begins to notice her grades dropping below average, and how thin she has become.  She begins to wear baggy clothes as to distract her families concerns.  Anna has reached the 110 pounds before Sophia and this drives Sophia over the edge.  She begins to binge and purge after each meal she allows herself to eat, and she is also taking diet pills mixed with laxatives to control her hunger pains and flush out her system.  Sophia at this time is 5’4 and 115 pounds.  If her family could notice the bones of her spine starting to emerge from her skin on her back they would be alarmed, but her body is covered in heavy clothing and their child looks happy.

One day Anna doesn’t come to school.  There are rumors that she had been hospitalized and that her organs were failing.  Sophia is worried and goes directly to Anna’s house after school.  Her parents welcome Sophia in and question her if she knew about what Anna had been doing to herself.  They advise Sophia that they had found Anna in the bathroom covered in her own vomit with a bottle of ipecac by her side.  They had never noticed how truly thin their daughter was until that moment they found her.  They tell Sophia that Anna is in a coma, and that her kidneys are failing her body and that it is uncertain if she will survive.  Anna’s parents said they went through Anna’s room when they had returned from admitting their daughter to the hospital. They found jars of vomit hidden in her closet.  Anna had been trying to hide and count how many times she binged and purged.  Anna’s parents went on to say that there were pictures of models from magazines all over her walls in her room.  They had found her journal and saw the risks that she had been taking with her own life for months and months.  Sophia watched in horror as her friend’s parents wept openly for their daughter.  She didn’t want this to happen to her family.  She rushed home because she wanted to be held by her family more than ever.

Upon returning home, Sophia changed into an outfit she had not worn since she was that average American girl of 140 pounds.  It swam on her 105 pound body, and she confronted her family with it on.  All her bones protruding out of her skin, her tan skin now pale with malnutrition.  She confesses to her family of her bad choices and of her friend who is now fighting for her life.  They embrace her, crying and telling her she is loved.  She is admitted to a treatment facility where she learns all over again how to eat healthy. 

She later learns that Anna passed away.  She wonders about all the other girls that don’t have it in them to go to their parents like she has and ask for help.  She wonders why the media continuously shows girls that are super thin versus girls that are healthy and average.  She still struggles with food, but she no longer wishes diets to control her.  She is sad from the loss of her friend, but she is thankful for the lesson she has learned.

Teens encouraged by the media

Children grow into teens and they are then exposed to their own television shows that relate to what is happening within their bodies.  Already they have this idea implanted in their head who they want to be and those images that create their reality.   Teens are shown in magazines pictures of girls that are supposed to be just like them.  Within the media, 99% of all photographs have been retouched or altered in some way.    Leading teenagers to think that this is the normal body image and that they should strive to be like this.  A majority of teen magazines will always have the latest diet craze that will make you lose weight fast.  If you are ever up after midnight you should check out all the infomercials that can help you shed those pounds, flush your system and give you the body you always dreamed about. 

During the time of transformation for a teenager, their minds are delicate.  Peers in schools can be heartless if you are overweight, though not many are ridiculed for being thin.  Teenagers share with each other what they have learned through the media on what’s hot and what’s not.  They are shown what clothes are in and which ones don’t pass for social acceptance.  The most popular clothing lines tailor to those teens that are thin.  A majority of plus size clothing can only be ordered online, or at Plus size stores.  If you were overweight and a teenager, would you want to be caught by your peers walking into the plus size store at the local mall?  Most clothing lines, like H & M, have discontinued their plus size clothing line.  The media puts out messages that you should be skinny and pretty and this is what will make you popular.  Many teens are faced with this dilemma daily.  For some, they feel as if there is no hope for them and they just long for social acceptance.  They withdrawal from family and friends and take matters into their own hands. 

The Barbie doll

There are mass advertisements for toys that produce idealization.  For example, the Barbie doll.  Since 1959, Barbie has worn all the right clothes, and has been the person that millions of girls want to be like.  If Barbie were real she would be 6’0 tall and weigh 100 pounds.  Barbie wouldn’t be able to stand up on her own because the frame of her body would not sustain her.  Her measurements would make her so unbalanced, and she would look disgustingly thin and no one would want a doll like that.  Children would find her repulsive, not beautiful.  Mattel states on their website that Barbie is not scaled to human measurements.  How many children know this though?

Encouraging Children

Children and teens are exposed to the media first hand, most of them on a daily basis.  The media shows children so many conflicting images.  Have you ever watched cartoons during the afternoon?  A child will watch a cartoon for thirty minutes and in that time see advertisements for fast food chains and diet pills.  The number of 30 second commercials seen within a year for an average child is 20,000!  Even within the cartoon the media depicts their label of what is expected as the perfect body.  Some cartoons show children that are thin as being a part of the “in” crowd and those that are overweight are projected as the one that stumbles and falls.  According to the A.C. Nielsen Co., the average American watches more than 4 hours of TV each day (or 28 hours/week, or 2 months of nonstop TV-watching per year). In a 65-year life, that person will have spent 9 years glued to the tube.  Per year, the American average youth spends 900 hours in school, and 1500 hours in front of the television.  Are you watching television with them?  If not, do you know what they are seeing and how their little minds are interpreting it?

Plugged In

 We are plugged into the media every day and without even knowing it some become followers of the labels the media reveals to us.  People with eating disorders are growing in numbers.  It may not make headline news every day, but it’s a story nonetheless.   Both women and men are being affected and they are taking drastic measures to have that perfect body.  Their eating disorders leading them down a destructive path.  Leaving their family, friends, and loved ones to watch them literally fade away for the price of being what the media labels as perfect.  Children are also being affected by eating disorders. 

Can you imagine a ten year old terrified of being fat?  So terrified that this child will refuse to eat, starving their little body of all the nutrients they need to sustain their life.  As many as a million men and 10 million women suffer with some type of eating disorder in the United States, and this is just the cases that are reported.   According to a recent report in the December issue of PEDIATRICS, Official Journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics, hospitalizations for children with eating disorders under age 12 increased by a shocking 119% for the years 1999 to 2006.  Eating disorders have doubled since the 1960’s.  According to the Eating Disorders Coalition, anorexia is the 3^rd most common chronic illness among adolescents. 

Dieting has become accepted as a regular part of our society.  Our society’s emphasis on body image and glorification of thinness promotes dangerous dieting behaviors.  Children are exposed to this type of media, even more than we realize.