Eating Disorders

An eating disorder, to me, can be defined as eating or avoid eating which negatively affects a persons physical health as well as their mental health. It’s any kind of psychological disorder that is characterized by abnormal eating habits. The media, the fashion industry, and the countless diet industries have greatly affected our notions of beauty as well as contributing to the rise in eating disorders. I believe this is because women are abused with images of size zero bodies with the fatless stomach, perfect facial features and flawless skin; the type of body that no one possess. In advertisements that these industries put out, the models are sickly thin and we, society, see that as perfection, thus the women of our culture strive to emulate that size zero body and would do anything to reach it.
I think that if, as a society, we took a deeper look into eating disorders, it would most definitely help prevent it for future generations. By knowing more complex definitions, common themes, and even family background analysis of eating disorders, it would give people better concrete information about the people more suseptible as well as helping protect young girls who are fighting the sterotypical body type of their tween role-models as well as the superstars they see in advertisements.
When it comes to society’s preoccupation and diet addiction, I believe that it has definitely become somewhat of a sacred ritual. So many women follow a diet regemen religously that is comeparable to being a ritual. Some go through routines each day to make sure that they done stray off course of their “diet plan”. Others keep a food and exercise diary to keep count of calories and how long they exercise each day. Personally, I find that to be a little bit obsessive, but can understand why women do this. It goes back to the advertisements that the media and fashion industry put out. The women who are following such regemens are trying to epitomize that perfect body type that the models in the advertisements have and, in a way, they have been brainwashed to believe that if they participate in certain diet plans or workout plans they will reach their goal of having that perfect physical appearance.
Going along with that last point, the capitalist and abundant economic climate of today’s society contributes greatly to the disorders related to food, obesity and the preoccupation with appearance. This is due to the simple fact that people in our culture are ready and willing to spend more money on their physical appearance. They are willing to spend that money due to the abundant economic climate our culture has. Cosmetic surgeries have become increasingly popular in the last decade, and more and more people are willing to suffer through surgeries and their after effects to have a flawless body type. To go along with the costly surgeries, women are aslo shelling out money for tanning memberships, teeth whitening, personal trainers, ect. It if wasn’t for the capitalist economy we happily live under, I believe that many of these freedoms of changing your body wouldn’t be availiable to the average working woman/person.
With that being said, I believe that society does show a ray of hope in reintegrating because we go through phases of what is popular. Maybe these size zero models will go out of style and bigger plus size (normal sized) women and men will be displayed in the advertisements publicized by the media and fashion industries. But if this isnt the case, we could try harder in accepting our bodies as they are and being happy with the way God intended us to look.