Body Image and the Media

you had the chance to change one thing about your body, would you?

you compare your body to celebrities or models?

you have ever counted calories

Raise your hand if….

Female “Perfect Body”

Male “Perfect Body”

How an individual views their self-image

Individuals judge their attractiveness based on their views of their body image

What is body image?

Thinking or talking about the flaws in your body

Spending a lot of time in front of a mirror, obsessing about specific body parts.

Weighing yourself frequently Obsessing about calorie intake

Signs of distorted body image

Anorexia-a disorder that makes people refuse to eat because they feel they’re too fat

Bulimia- binge eating then purging their food

Anorexia and Bulimia

Among children in grades 1 - 3, 42% want to be thinner Among children 8 - 10 years old, 50% are dissatisfied with their body size Among 10 year olds, 81% are afraid of becoming fat Among 9 - 11 year olds, 46% are on diets "sometimes" or "very often" 82% of those 9 - 11 year old's families are also on diets "sometimes" or "very often" Among 11 - 13 year old girls, more than 50% believe they are overweight Among 6th graders, 70% claim their concerns over their weight, size and shape began in

3rd - 5th grade Among 13 year olds, 80% have tried to lose weight Among 9 - 15 year old girls, 50% exercise to lose weight Among 9 - 15 year old girls, 50% restrict their calories to lose weight Among 9 - 15 year old girls, 5% steal laxatives or diet pills from their parents to lose weight More than 10% of teenage girls report binge eating at least once a week More than 3% of teenage boys report binge eating at least once a week 44% of US women are on a diet 29% of US men are on a diet 35% of people on a diet develop some sort of pathology around food 20 - 25% of that 35% eventually develop a full-blown eating disorder 80% of US women do not like how they look $109mil is spent in the US every day on diet and weight loss products

Statistics

Diet commercials

Having extremely thin people advertise a product

The focus is to to “lose weight” when it should be ton “become healthy”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ei6JvK0W60I

The media stresses on the need to be thin by…

The average American woman is 5'4” tall and weighs 140 pounds. The average American model is 5'11” tall and weighs 117 pounds

Think about it…