The Biggest Loser Are They Really - 1586 Words

Fae Rose Kobernik Mrs. Phillip English 3 H 6 January 2014 (but actually 17 December 2014) The Biggest Loser: Are They Really? In a world where â€Å"graphic t-shirts with the words â€Å"eat less† [are sold]† (Mulliniks) in popular stores marketed for teenagers, where â€Å"children as young as 5 years old have been treated in hospitals for anorexia† (Touhy), and where studies have found â€Å"that the fashion industry is a significant influence on a woman s identity† (Monitor s Editorial Board). It is clear that we live in a society that corresponds it’s definition of beauty to the definitions of weight, body type, and body image. This problem of beauty and body is magnified through the medias excessive use of altered images that depict a false sense of†¦show more content†¦In some cases this is from genetic or unknown reasons but in many cases it has to do with the pressure our society and specifically our media puts on woman. Therefore women who aren t as exposed to mainstream media are less likely to develop an eating disord er. A study done in â€Å"a region of Fiji where only one case of an eating disorder had been reported, [and there was] no exposure to westernized television until 1995† (Mulliniks) produced shocking results. â€Å"Within three years of television being introduced to the region, the amount of girls who induced vomiting to control their weight increased by 11 percent and the amount of girls scoring highly on a test for eating disorder risks increased by 16 percent† (Mulliniks). These results show a link in media and eating disorders. Only after being exposed to media for 3 years did a regions eating disorder stats go up by 11 percent, a region that prior to the introduction of television and mainstream media had only â€Å"one reported case of an eating disorder† (Mulliniks). â€Å"Additionally, [this study showed that] girls who watched TV three or more nights a week were 50 percent more likely to describe themselves as being ‘too fat’ (Mulliniks) . This result from the study bridges the problem of body image to mainstream media because the numbers show that the girls who are more exposed to the mainstream media, are also the girls who are more likely to have a negative image of their