Rachel Adams
English 11
12:30pm- 1:45pm
1 February 2010
If you have ever turned on the television, watched a movie, read a magazine, saw a billboard, or even surfed the Internet, you probably know what it feels like to be pressured by the media. The media spends millions of dollars each year to get the perfect actors/actresses and supermodels. A passage from an essay, entitled “Beauty…and the Beast of Advertising” by Jean E. Kilbourne, explains this. This leads to eating disorders and how advertising and the media is to blame.
In her passage, Kilbourne describes how even fourth-grade girls feeling too fat, and feeling the need to diet and over-exercise. The media produces an image of how the average teen and even young adults should look like. This image always reflects a perfect supermodel. She also refers to grade-school girls trying to look like the people they look up to. These people are usually models, movie stars, or singers. This sends the wrong message, as in reality, there is no such thing as perfect. As Kilbourne describes, “When Glamour magazine surveyed its readers in 1984, 75 percent felt too heavy and only 15 percent felt right. Nearly half of those who were actually underweight reported feeling too fat and wanted to diet” (Kilbourne, Beauty...and the Beast of Advertising). This message also conveys that being beautiful equals happiness, which in fact that is not always the case. This is not a healthy way of thinking.
I agree with Kilbourne that the media is to blame for lack of confidence in people and that they do not feel good enough to fit in this society. I think that young girls or even adults should not have to worry about their bodies as long as it is not affecting health. They should be happy with his or herself and realize that we are all different in our own way.
I also agree with Kilbourne that the media is causing eating disorder in young girls, teens and even adults. That amazes me. They are so obsessed on being “beautiful” and thin that they do not realize what harm they are causing to their bodies! For example, I have friends that have resorted to eating disorders because they had to lose weight for a certain sport. This friend in particular was in gymnastics. She had to be in a certain weight class. She suffered from anorexia nervosa and eventually had to be hospitalized and then go through rehabilitation. There are so many more effective and healthier ways to lose weight. This is extremely dangerous, and in a lot of cases can cause death.
In Jean E. Kilbourne’s passage from her essay, “Beauty…and the Beast of Advertising” She describes how the media can cause eating disorders even in grade-school girls. The media produces an image of how the average person should look like. This is very stressful, because not everybody is designed to look like a model, and we should not have to. They can become so obsessive with their looks, that it can cause eating disorders and in some cases, even death.
