I found it interesting how the video, ‘Advertising’s Image
of Women: Killing Us Softly’, can be related to adolescents developing eating
disorders. In the video it shows how the media is pressuring girls to be thin
and beautiful from a very young age. This really starts to affect a girl’s self-esteem
when she begins to go through puberty. I believe this is why adolescents are at
greater risk for developing anorexia nervosa, and bulimia nervosa. Especially
for girls, who make up 90% of the eating disorder population. It makes since
you hardly ever see advertisements marketing to the male population.
The reason I picked this topic this week is because I
watched a friend go through this in middle school, and it still is affecting
her into adult hood. She was bulimic at first. I remember the first time I seen
her throw up. We were on the bus at a volleyball game and one of the girls
pointed out she was going to walk behind the tree and vomit. Most of the girls
laughed and I was in shock and didn't know what to do; I guess no one understood how to help her. She continued to this for a
couple years, and then she became anorexic. She became so thin she started
losing her hair. It was not in-till several years of counseling and the desire
to have a child that she let up on her starvation. Even after she had a child
she went back to her old ways. The thing I don’t understand is that people that
knew her condition was complementing her on her weight loss. I feel that there
should be education and how to help your peers out in situations like that.
Even today I don’t know what I could say to help her.
I also enjoyed this film very much, what I find most interesting is that even though there has been a lot more attention brought to the public regarding eating disorders, the advertising companies still go full force when representing woman as being even thinner than in the past. Being thin as a young girl has always been a struggle, but one would think that there would be more, or different approaches to educating kids during the puberty age, when girls are most vulnerable. Even though there has been more attention to the subject, we have a long way to go in the way we talk to our kids about it and we can’t just talk to the girls because the boys play a huge part in this whole thing with peer pressure. I also agree with you that we need to be educating people that need more information on how to help someone with this disorder, rather than just ignoring it. I bet if you knew how to be more proactive as a teen with this person you talk about, it could have made more of a difference.
ReplyDeletethat's so very sad those diseases are very hard for the person to deal with and it's even worse when they have their peers making fun of them I feel so bad for people with these diseases.
ReplyDeleteI really liked that video but at the same time I couldn't believe that the media alone would go to such extremes to fix a photo of a model because they assumed that she was to fat. This is upsetting to me because I have a daughter that is seven and she will be growing up in this society that thin is better and I don't believe so. I believe that god made us all different and unique so we should all be accepted by everyone.
ReplyDeleteI had a friend, when I was in my 20's, that was anorexic, and I remember her eating a piece of beef jerkey and telling me that was all she's had to eat in three days! I was always trying to get her to realize how much she was going to damage her health if she continued starving herself, but it didn't seem to matter to her.
ReplyDeleteI think the main thing that needs to happen is that the media, as a whole, needs to stop portraying and idolizing these ultra skinny models and celebrities. I think this would have a huge impact on our society, and the prevalence of anorexia nervosa and bulimia would dramatically decrease, and the well-being of girls/women would increase!