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Shannon McCarthy

English composition

Jennifer Robideau

The media is not fully to blame for eating disorders in young women.

In the past few years the media has had a lot of criticism over the way they portray

women. In this paper I will explore the reasons why society believes the media causes eating

disorders and arguments against this – exploring what other factors cause eating disorders. To

narrow the topic, I will specifically look at eating disorders in young women and mostly

focus on the eating disorder anorexia.

Anorexia is short for the disease anorexia nervosa; this is a mental disorder where the

sufferer fears gaining weight and refuses to eat as a way to lose weight and stay thin.

According to The National Association of Anorexia Nervosa and associated disorders

(ANAD) 91% of women in college have tried dieting to control their weight, with 86%

reporting onset of an eating disorder before the age of 20. They continue by saying that 0.5 -

3.7% of women suffer with anorexia nervosa and that 20% of this number will die from the

disease. ANAD also state facts about eating disorders and the media; we are told “the body

type portrayed in advertising as the ideal is possessed naturally by only 5% of American

females.” And that 69% of girls in 5th – 12th grade feel like the media influence their body

image and that 47% of these want to lose weight because of the images they see in the media.

When I first approached this topic I decided to read “The Relationship between Media

Consumption and Eating Disorders” by Kristen Harrison and Joanne Cantor; in this journal

Harrison and Cantor have gathered information that disagrees with my thesis statement; the

media is not to blame fully for eating disorders. One of the examples they use is Garfinkel

and Garner’s; in their book Anorexia Nervosa, they blame the media for eating disorders, as

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the media portrays successful women as thin therefore “Thinness has thus become associated

with self-control and success.” Although I believe what Garfinkel and Garner are saying is

somewhat true, I don’t agree with them completely. I believe the media puts these thoughts in

women’s heads, which leads to body image issues, but it does not create an eating disorder.

An eating disorder is a mental disorder and there are many other factors that contribute to

those diagnosed with one.

A source that I looked at that agrees with my opinion is Howcast “Does the media

cause eating disorders?” video; psychiatrist Allegra Broft talks about how although the media

does contribute to the rise in sufferers, there is proof of eating disorders before the media was

invented; the first recorded anorexia sufferer was Saint Catherine of Siena over 100 years

ago, she continues by saying “So while all of us are seeing these media images, a relatively

small number are developing these eating problems, and so there's obviously many, many

other factors that are sort of contributing to the emergence of these problems.” This

reinforces my point that the media puts the thoughts into our heads, but does not make us act

upon them.

The next step in my research paper was looking at other contributing factors towards

eating disorders; I started my research by visiting nationaleatingdisorders.org and reading

what they believe causes eating disorders; they start by describing how complex eating

disorders are and how there are many combinations that factor into the disease. They split

these into four factors: psychological factors such as not having control of one’s life, a low

self-esteem and high levels of anxiety; interpersonal factors such as troubled relationships,

difficulty expressing emotion and history of bullying; social factors such as cultural

pressures, definitions of beauty and discrimination based on looks; and biological factors

such as unbalanced chemicals that control hunger and genetics.

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National Eating Disorders inform the reader that eating disorders are usually a way of

dealing with one’s feelings and emotions; these extreme forms of dieting give the sufferers a

sense of control in their lives. How does this tie in with my thesis statement, you may ask, if

eating disorders come from an emotional root then we cannot blame the media for them.

Although I don’t believe the media is completely innocent; as I stated in the paragraph above

– National Eating Disorders says that one of the factors in the disease is social factors. The

media can help trigger eating disorders in some people, but they don’t cause them – the

disease is already there, but not yet activated.

New research now suggests that eating disorders are more likely to appear in people

with addictive personalities. The reason for this belief is scientists have found that eating

disorders are a mental disease and the effects in the brain are similar to those who suffer with

alcoholism and drug addiction. On eatingdisorderhope.com I found an article that explains

this in more detail; they state that the brain has “reward centres that are stimulated with

certain behaviours”, these behaviours include love and praise, but the centres can also be

activated by “artificial means” such as food and alcohol. This then turns into addiction when

the reward centre stops responding correctly – the brain blocks out bad emotions when it is

activated and when this stops the brain yearns for the centre to be reactivated. Therefore,

people with eating disorders feel calm when they don’t eat as they have proved they have

control which leads to feelings of praise; this in turn leads to feelings of guilt when the

reward centre is not activated.

The media helps promote a body image that is unrealistic to many women due to

genetics, therefore some women; especially young women due to unbalanced hormones feel

negative feelings towards themselves; this leads to them wanting to change themselves

setting off the reward centre with feelings of praise by deciding to change themselves.

According to the blog mirror-mirror, the average fashion model weighs 120 pounds whilst the

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average American weighs 169 pounds. Another issue with the media is that images are often

photo-shopped to create the “perfect” body image, so even the models don’t look like the

models in the pictures we are subjected to every day.

According to Margret Haerens in her book “Eating Disorders (Global Viewpoints)”

the media is to blame for eating disorders, one of her arguments for this is the rise of eating

disorders in some parts of China – as China is becoming flooding with Western media the

amount of sufferers with eating disorders have risen, causing the Chinese Government to

offer more treatment and the media to raise awareness about the disease. Although I agree

with Haerens that the media should help raise awareness of the issue, I believe that people in

China have always suffered from eating disorders – just like any Western Country, but it is

only now that people are recognising what they are and seeking help to recover from the

disease.

I do believe that the media should be more aware of what they post and the effects

these images are having on young women; instead of posting images of models that are all

the same weight, height and body type, they can use models of all different sizes and shapes

that everyone can relate to. They should use less photo-shopping and allow the public to see

that everyone has imperfections, but that’s what makes them, them.

But this doesn’t mean the media causes eating disorders as Margarita Tartakovsky

says in Psych Central’s blog “the media is to blame for the state of our body image. For our

desire to diet…But media isn’t to blame for eating disorders.”, she uses a quote from Carrie

Arnold supporting her argument “most women diet at some point. Most women don’t have

eating disorders.”

Dieting is a temporary thing and when done correctly is not dangerous, it only

becomes a danger when it becomes an addiction – this leads back to the point I made earlier

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about eating disorders being a mental disease that is caused by unbalanced chemicals in the

brain. A lot of young women try dangerous methods to lose weight; such as restricted eating

and excessive exercise, but due to self-preservation only do this for a few days; it is when the

self-preservation doesn’t kick in, but instead the reward centre, that eating disorders are

formed.

So, yes, the media does cause negative body image in young women and can even

help trigger eating disorders in some, but it is not fully to blame for causing eating disorders.

Eating disorders, such as anorexia nervosa are complex diseases that stem from the mind and

have many contributing factors that vary from person from person, but ultimately eating

disorders are a mental disease, that stems from biological makeup and chemical reactions of

the brain.

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Works Cited

"ANAD." Eating Disorders Statistics. N.p., n.d. Web. 09 Nov. 2015.

"Body Image in the Media." RSS 20. N.p., n.d. Web. 15 Jan. 2016.

"Does the Media Cause Eating Disorders? | Eating Disorders." YouTube. YouTube,

n.d. Web. 09 Nov. 2015.

"Eating Disorders and Addiction: Why We Continue to Engage in Self-Destructive

Behaviors." N.p., 2 Oct. 2012. Web.

"Factors That May Contribute to Eating Disorders | National Eating Disorders

Association." Factors That May Contribute to Eating Disorders | National Eating

Disorders Association. N.p., n.d. Web. 06 Jan. 2016.

Haerens, Margaret. Eating Disorders. Detroit: Greenhaven, 2012. Print.

Harrison, K., and J. Cantor. "The Relationship between Media Consumption and

Eating Disorders." J Communication Journal of Communication 47.1 (1997):

40-67. Web.

Tartakovsky, Margarita. "Why the Media Isn’t to Blame for Eating Disorders."Weightless.

N.p., n.d. Web. 06 Jan. 2016.