EATING DISORDERS: THE MIXED MESSAGES OF OUR MEDIA
Our mass media do more than spread information and promote products; they influence how we feel about ourselves. Magazines, television, and movies tell us that we must look a certain way in order to be accepted. Although more research needs to be done in this area, magazine ads appear most persuasive, perhaps due to their pervasiveness and to the fact that the models used are extremely thin. In fact, some studies suggest that the smaller the models used in a magazine, the more young women favor that magazine.Television adds to this pressure in overt and subtle ways. During the Clinton/Lewinsky scandal, for instance, late-night television jokes about Monica Lewinsky and Linda Tripp made fun of their appearance, as opposed to examining their actions. Commercials are constantly trying to sell people on a particular look, and this can make viewers feel depressed about their current self-image. In one experimental study, ads focusing on appearance were shown to produce an immediate negative effect on die self-image of undergraduate female subjects. At best, the media are giving women mixed messages, telling them to try a rich recipe, for example, and in the same magazine including an article on how to get rid of that “disgusting” cellulite. Ultimately, what women are hearing is that their self-esteem comes from the way they look, while other values that go into each person’s uniqueness take a distant second place. The feminist movement also has suggested that judging females by appearance alone is a means of controlling women in a male-dominated society. Because men feel threatened by women who want equal salaries and competitive jobs, they put women down for their appearance to make them feel less welcome in the workplace and other venues.Social worker Carol Bloom, the author of Eating Problems: A Feminist Psychoanalytic Treatment Model, notes that while women are hardest hit, men and children are being increasingly affected: “The sociological trends are that we need new markets now to exploit. As long as products are being sold that have to do with image, you are going to have people in this very bizarre relationship to their bodies. They are going to try to transform their outer selves so that they can accomplish these culturally sanctioned goals about human identity. Women are the grossest example of this—as long as self-esteem and identity are tied together, women will be trying to get control over their food and their bodies so that they can gain acceptability.”*55\233\8*
