Ka Youa Vang

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Media's Body Image and Eating Disorders

• By
• Ka Youa Vang
• Chou Thao
• John Carmody

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Division of Labor

• Ka Youa
• The medias influence on peoples bodies. Helped
  with powerpoint.
• John
• Eating disorders.
• Chou
• Preventions. Helped with powerpoint.

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Introduction

• In our society today, the media plays an
  important and crucial part in our everyday life.
  People cannot escape the media because it is all
  around them providing information, advertisements
  and communication. However, even though the
  media maybe a source of information, it can send
  out messages that have negative affects on
  people. One of the many messages that the media
  conveys to the public is the appearance of body
  image. The media portrays thin and beautiful as
  the ideal body for a woman and athletic and
  muscular as the perfect body for a man thus
  pressuring people into fitting that norm.
  Therefore, we are interested in this topic
  because the media plays a significant role in
  determining how we physically look. Our purpose
  is to inform you of how the media influences your
  body image, to tell you of commonly known eating
  disorders that result from media influence and
  ways of preventing eating disorders.

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Medias Influence

• The media portrays women as needing to be thin
  and beautiful in order to be attractive
• For men, the media portrays being muscular and
  athletic as being the ideal body image
• Surrounds the public with models and good-looking
  TV stars to enforce their view of the perfect
  bodies
• On television, in shows such as Baywatch, females
  will see beautiful women who have big breast and
  tall skinny bodies

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Medias influence continue

• Health, fashion and teen magazines display images
  of fat-free bodies
• Makes people think and feel that if they only
  look a certain way, weigh a certain weight or
  wear certain clothes they will be accepted in
  society
• Media makes it seem that females should look like
  and have the same dimensions as Barbie, and males
  should look like Arnold Schwarzenegger

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Media continue

• The medias view of the ideal bodies for men and
  women are unrealistic
• Body and facial imperfections, such as pimples
  can be erased or changed by the use of a computer
  
• Celebrities receive body makeovers and plastic
  surgery to look as good as they do
• Body features from photos of different people are
  combined to create the "perfect" image.

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Statistics

• Each one of us is exposed to between 400 and 600
  advertisements a day. That's 40-50 million by the
  time we are 60 years old. 
• In 97 of ads, a woman is either portrayed in a
  degrading image  (e.g. "dumb blonde" a sex
  object, a whimpering victim) or in a narrow,
  stereotypical female role (e.g. wife, mother,
  secretary). 
• The average weight of a model is  23 less than
  the weight of an average woman 20 years ago the
  difference was only 8.
• 7 million girls and women in the US suffer from
  eating disorders.
• http//www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/thin

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Eating Disorders

• There are 3 types of eating disorders
• -Anorexia
• -Bulimia
• -Binge Eating

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Eating Disorders

• Anorexia
• -dissatisfied with their body
• -shape
• -size
• -weight
• -sees their self as fat even though they are at
  a normal weight
• -do not notice that they had lost a lot of
  weight
• -refuses to eat for fear of gaining weight

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Cont.

• Bulimia
• -goes through many periods of binging and
  purging
• -eats large amounts of food
• -stuffs self until feel very full
• -relieve stomach by vomiting or purging
• -ex. Exercising to get rid of what food is left
  in the stomach
• -cannot control their eating

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Cont.

• Binge Eating
• -stuff self with food even though not hungry
  (overeating)
• -no control over food eaten
• -no purging (like bulimia)
• All off these can become very severe and
  life-threatening

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Psychological Effects

• Anorexia and Bulimia
• -energy level
• -fatigue
• -dizzy
• -light headed
• -hyperactive
• -mood
• -depression or irritable

• -attitude behavior
• -less tolerable of other
• -low self-esteem
• -keeps feelings to self
• -mental social
• -inability to concentrate
• -loss of memory
• -decreased alertness

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Cont.

• Binge Eating
• -ashamed, guilt, disgust
• -depression
• -panic attack
• -anxiety
• -hopelessness

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Treatment

• Psychological Counseling
• -learn how to be at peace with self and food
• -learn how to eat healthy
• -confront eating disorder
• -confront issues that caused disorder

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Therapy

• Outpatient Therapy
• -for those who are not in a critical stage
• -many people work well with this type
• -includes individual, group, or family therapy
• Inpatient Therapy
• -for those whose life are threatened physically
  and psychologically
• -involves being hospitalized part of the time
• -required to go through outpatient therapy
  afterwards
• -aftercare where addresses their eating disorder

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Prevention

• More education about our body
• -how it functions
• -why our body changes
• -ex. Women bodies get bigger around the hip
• More information on how effects physical and
  psychological wellbeing
• -ex. Signal from stomach to brain about fullness

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Cont.

• Encourage exercise
• -improves self-esteem
• -helps body stay in shape
• Provide helpful tips on how to eat healthy

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Research Method

• Social Conflict Paradigm
• Qualitative Research

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Terminology

• Self-esteem How much a person values herself
  and appreciates her own worth and importance.
• Self-image An individual self-concept. Both a
  belief in self and respect for self.
• Anorexia Nervosa A life-threatening eating
  disorder characterized by self starvation and
  excessive weight lost.
• Bulimia Nervosa A life-threatening eating
  disorder characterized by a secretive cycle of
  binging and purging.
• Binge Eating A newly recognized eating disorder
  characterized by frequent episodes of
  uncontrolled overeating.

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Websites

• http//www.edreferral.com/
• http//www.nationaleatingdisorders.org
• http//www.somethingfishy.org/

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Discussion

• Do you feel that the media has an impact on the
  way you look?
• How do you feel about the medias image of what a
  woman and a man should look like?
• Do you think there should be more education in
  schools about how eating disorders effect your
  body?