Anorexia:
The Trend to Die For
When you see a
five foot 8 inch, 85 pound woman, what do you see? I see bones—a sick,
unhealthy, fragile female who is no longer in control of herself. This delicate
stage is called Anorexia. Your organs are leisurely shutting down one at a
time, while you become mentally impaired as well. The body makes changes for
the worse, and they are very noticeable. If a person is slowly killing themselves
by starvation, why do adolescents want to do this?
The
famous Marilyn Monroe wore a size eight jeans and size twelve dress. She was
known for many reasons; her size being one of them. In the 1920’s-1950, women
wanted to be thick, or curvy, but from the 1960’s to now, a new era has been
formed. Thin is in. Now-a-days the average woman’s magazine is 75% advertisements
on weight loss and becoming skinny (Richardson 14). Based on previous history,
women will never be satisfied with their appearance, so there will never be a
time when women think they are perfect the way they are.
When
patients start asking their doctor how much weight they have to lose to be
classified as anorexic, you know this epidemic is problem. Unfortunately, this
seems to be the case in a massive amount of doctors’ offices across the United
States. The vast majority of these questions are asked by adolescents. Dr.
Richard Kreipe is one of the doctors who have been asked this question. After
helping a young, rich, popular girl overcome anorexia, another young
not-so-popular girl came in asking how much weight she would have to lose to be
considered anorexic. Dr. Kreipe’s theory is “If they (young women) become thin
or get an eating disorder, they will become popular” (Valerie Bauman 3).
Another doctor, Tom Kersting, agrees with Kreipe saying kids only do what other
kids do. Kersting describes girls who want to be anorexic, but portray
different satisfactions with their weight loss, as “Wannarexic” (Bauman 7).
According to the New York Times, to
be diagnosed with anorexia women must miss at least three consecutive menstrual
periods, have a distorted image of their weight or shape, deny serious health
consequences of their low weight, have an intense fear of gaining weight even
when severely underweight, and at least 15%-60% of normal body weight is lost
(New York Times Health Administration).
It is not only the
United States that has problems with the media affecting the mindsets of
adolescent females. Due to a significant increase of eating disorders each
year, Israel has created a law banning underweight models and regulates Photoshop
usage in advertisements and media. This all started with a man named Adi
Barkan, a photographer. A 15 year old girl named Caty met with him to ask what
a model should look like. She was 5’7 and weighed 79 pounds (Minsberg 4).
Barkan realized she needed hospitalization, and she stayed there for 5 months
in recovery. If he would have been ignorant to the thought, she would have died
within a matter of days. Adi was recognized publically for his doings; shortly
after he had 174 messages from anorexics and bulimics (bulimia is when a person
goes on a number of crash diets, then turns to binge eating, eating more than
2,000 calories at one sitting, for pleasure) asking for his help; he met with
all of them (Minsberg 7). Barkan
partnered with a parliament member named Rachel Adato, to make the issue of
anorexia and bulimia known. As they were researching, the figured out that
1,500 Israelian’s get an eating disorder every year, and 10% of them are
teenagers (Minsberg 12). Adato and Barkan worked for two years on the
legislative, and finally they pass the “Photoshop Law”. Although some modeling
agencies claim ‘the models eat; they are just naturally skinny’, there is only
5% of girls who are underweight and actually eat in Israel (Minsberg 15).
Imagine if this were to happen in the United States. Having a law that could
prevent the percentage of anorexics increasing could benefit in more than one
way. One way the law would benefit the U.S. is, having the amount of anorexics
decrease; therefore the economy would increase. The positive growth in the
economy would be caused by people having more money to spend because they would
not have to over spend on their health care. Another way this law could help is,
by not giving the American people an ideal sense of what a woman should look
like.
Trends come and
go, so why harm yourself to a point you may not be able to come back from, just
for a statement? This was never wanted in the past. Women aspired to have an
hourglass figure, with hips and ‘fullness’ to their shape. Many famous women (Marilyn
Monroe, Betty Grable, The Sennett Girls, Jayne Mansfield, Sophia Loren, etc.)
in the 1920’s were simply famous because of their size. Marilyn Monroe had a 37
inch bust, 23 inch waist, and 36 inch hips (Danamo 4). Betty Grable had a 36
inch chest, 23 inch waist, and 35 inch hips (Tadlock 9). Jayne Mansfield had a
46 inch chest, 23 inch waist, and 37 inch hips (Versus 3). Sophia Loren had a
36 inch chest, 24 inch waist, and 38 inch hips (Dames 2). Compare that to a
model today: 32 inch chest, 23 inch waist, 32 inch hips. The size of the waist
has always wanted to be tiny, but the chest and hips have a difference of three
or more inches. According to ABC News, twenty years ago, the average fashion
model weighed 8% less than the average women; today, she weighs 23% less
(Lovett 2). The average American woman is 5’4” and weighs 140 pounds, but the
average American model is 5’11” and weighs 117 pounds (Manasan 4). These
numbers do not add up. There is a difference of seven inches taller, yet 23
pounds lighter. A normal weight bmi (body mass index) is between 18.5 being the
lowest and 24.9 being the highest depending on the person. When you calculate
the average models height and weight, the bmi is 16.3. This is underweight, and
affects everyone. According to Lorraine
Manasan, 42% of 1st-3rd graders want to be
thinner than what they are now. They are around 6 years old to 8 years old. This
is a problem that needs to be fixed.
How bad are the
weight loss advertisements really? With the growing number of obesity, maybe it
is a good idea to make people want a slimmer appearance—for health purposes.
According to The Center for Disease
Control and Prevention, 1 in 3 American children born in 2000 will be
diabetic when they get older. The media is contradicting itself by having cheap
food that may add unwanted weight gain and either showing underweight models,
or photo shopping every picture to make the “perfect women.” Yet, sites like prettythin.com are helping some people
with eating disorders function and get help when needed. Are the pros really
out-weighing the cons?
Anorexia can occur
in anyone, at any time. To some people, it is like they are drowning in an
ocean that never ends, because the satisfaction of perfection does not exist.
There is very little good that can come out of an eating disorder. If the
government takes action in their own hands, the destructive disorders may
significantly decrease. The world might go from “curvy”, to “thin”, to
“everyone being perfect in their own way.”
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