Anorexia: The Role of Media (Essay Sample)

Anorexia: The Role of Media
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ABSTRACT
Anorexia is an eating disorder whereby people have an abnormal low body weight and a distorted perception of gaining weight. Anorexia is a very serious mental condition since people partake in extreme efforts to try and control their body weight and hence significantly interfere with their lives. This includes severely restricting the amount of food take, vomiting after eating or using diuretics in order to control calorie intake and they also excessively train (Sacker, I. M. Zimmer, M, 1987). Health specialists term anorexia as an effort to cope with your emotional problems through unhealthy means (Richard, L. & Lavine, M. D, 2004), this is because people with anorexia normally try and equate their thinness with self-worth. Media plays a very vital role in profiling anorexia which has had a very high impact on the general public, more so teenagers. Media has beautified the idea that thinness is the way to go and that people tend to be healthier and happier if indeed they are thin.
Today in any media platform one opens, is it magazines, journals, television or even social media he or she is often met with enticing messages on the value of being thin and also undesirable messages about fatness (York, C. 2013). They emphasize on the importance of general appearance and glorify any slender ideal (Creation tips, 2015). This creates the perception that being fat is a crime and becoming thin is the key to success. There are also television shows dedicated to loss of body weight. When such messages reach to children especially teenager it feeds up their minds in that they become overly interested in their body weight, as a result they stop eating properly all in the name of watching their weight.
The role that media plays in providing social context in anorexia are so evident, this can be reflected even on the staff they hire. Seldom do you find a news anchors, actors and actresses or models that are fat. Most of them if not all are thin and if not, judging by their history they have lost weight. These people are normally referred to as the ‘ideals of beauty ‘and the ‘custodians of glamour’ are so much praised in the media. This creates the notion that loss of body weight is so much important which majorly contribute to disordered eating and also body dissatisfaction to most teenagers.
Media indeed has sporadically fueled the spread of anorexia. This is through the programs they air and personality they host. Social media has neither been left behind, they have also had a hand in the spread of this disease through the kind of message they spread (Cohen $ Blaszczynski, 2015). This henceforth requires a modest view on body weight, whether a person is fat or not should not be emphasized as such. There should be more emphasis in maintaining a healthy body than keeping it thin (Taylor, H. L. 2008). This of course should be done in utter moderation to ensure the development of self body satisfaction and admiration.
In conclusion media being an important asset to our lives it should play a role in prevention treatment and ev...