Running head: ANOREXIA: THE ROLE OF MEDIA

Anorexia: The Role of Media Students Name University Affiliation

ANOREXIA: THE ROLE OF MEDIA Anorexia: The Role of Media In order to understand the role of media in anorexia, one must have clear background knowledge of the term anorexia. Hornby, Cowie and Lewis (1974) define anorexia as a prolonged disorder of eating due to loss of appetite. Anorexia is a psychological condition that involves the obsession with reduction of weight without eating (Allen & Delahunty, 2002). Dorland (1982) defines anorexia as a psychological condition, usually seen in young girls and

women, characterized by severe and prolonged inability or self-denial to eat, sometimes followed by self-induced vomiting, extreme emaciation, amenorrhea, and other biological changes. From the above definitions, it can be concluded that anorexia is an eating disorder that is physiological in nature which in turn affects ones physical and mental health. Eating disorders are a problem among adolescents. Adolescence is a physical and psychological developmental stage between childhood and adulthood and commences at the age of 10 to 13 years and stops between 17 and 21 years (Thom, Louw, Van Ede, & Firns, 1998). The adolescent tends to gain a greater percentage of body fat, especially the female adolescent. During this developmental period, the females body shape changes subsequently inducing problems of self-image and obesophobia (Wardlaw, 1999). Anorexia nervosa is the most common eating disorder that occurs in this stage of development. According to Barlow and Durand (1999), anorexia is characterized by extreme self starvation, refusal to keep a healthy body mass index, and a blurred perception of what the body should look in conjunction with mood swings and anxiety disorders. The role media has for eons centered on the ideals of beauty being models, actresses, and beauty pageant contestants who have reduced weight over time. The gold standard that the media tends to portray as the perfect ideal of beauty is in turn reciprocated or tried to be reciprocated by young girls and women. The media continues to be an overreaching influence on young girls and

ANOREXIA: THE ROLE OF MEDIA women across the world. Fiji scientists conducted a naturalistic experiment that provided strong evidence that media played a significant role in body dissatisfaction and eating disorder

symptomatology development (Becker, Berwell, Herzog, Hamburg, & Gilman, 2002). Fiji was a relatively media-nave state with little to no mass-media influence until recently. In this study, the eating attitudes and behaviors of adolescent girls were measured prior to regional television introduction and subsequent prolonged exposure. The results indicated that, after exposure, these young girls showed a significant increase in disordered behaviors and eating attitudes. Young women and adolescent girls with shape and weight preoccupation, perfect beauty internationalization, body dissatisfaction and social beauty comparison tendencies are mostly media influenced, and so are they also likely to indulge in usage of media. Women with anorexia nervosa indulge in heavy media use and describe their consumption of fashion magazines as an addiction. Such an addiction happened when their eating disorders took control of their lives (Spettigue & Henderson, 2004). Qualitative investigation produced conclusive evidence that demonstrated that the relationships forged were consistent with an interactive, and circular model. This same model is used to explain other addictive and compulsive processes (Spettigue & Henderson, 2004). In conclusion, the media around us tends to portray a gold standard of beauty that is in turn tried to be reciprocated by young adolescent girls and women. Young women develop doubt over their body shape and weight once they reach adolescence because the media tend to preach beauty to be associated with being thin. In order to reach the bar set by the media, young women and girls indulge in self starvation, induced vomiting, and other methods as a means to an end to achieve such a body shape. The media continue to play a crucial and influential role in the maintenance of anorexia in young women and girls.

ANOREXIA: THE ROLE OF MEDIA References Allen, R., & Delahunty, A. (Eds). (2002). The Oxford students dictionary. New York, NY: Oxford University Press. Becker, A. E., Burwell, R. A., Herzog, D. B., Hamburg, P., & Gilman, S. (2002). Eating behaviours and attitudes following prolonged exposure to television among ethnic Fijian adolescent girls. British Journal of Psychiatry. 180(6):509514. Barlow, D. H., & Durand, V. M. (1999). Abnormal psychology: an integrative approach (2nd ed.). Pacific Grove: Brooks/Cole Pub. Co. Dorland, W. A. (1982). Dorland's Pocket medical dictionary (23rd ed.). Philadelphia, PA: Saunders. Hornby, A. S., Cowie, A. P., & Lewis, J. W. (1974). Oxford advanced learner's dictionary of current English (3rd ed.). London, UK: Oxford University Press. Spettigue, W., & Henderson, K. A. (2004). Eating disorders and the role of the media.

Retrieved from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2533817/#b27-0130016 Thom, D. P., Louw, A. E., Van Ede, D. M., & Firns, I. (1998). Adolescence. In D. A. Louw, D. M. Van Ede, & A. E. Louw (Eds.), Human development. (3rd ed., pp. 383-468). Pretoria, South Africa. Kagiso. Wardlaw, G. M. (1999). Perspectives in nutrition. (4th ed.). Boston, MA: McGraw-Hill.