how the Media affects women's Health
What is Binge-Eating Disorder?
Binge-eating disorder (BED) can be categorized as a severe eating disorder which consists of episodes of large consumption of food to the point of discomfort, a sense of not being in control throughout the process of binge eating, and feeling guilty or shameful after an episode. People who have BED, do not attempt to counter the binge eating by purging or other measures but do tend to aim for diets to attain for their guilt.
What is Obesity?
Obesity is a disorder involving excessive body fat that increases the risk of health problems. The media plays a factor is this occurrence because of the various unhealthy food advertisements such as McDonald's, Wendy's, Burger King, etc. Obesity is not only achieved by advertisements of unhealthy food, but also by binge-eating which occurs to many people without them knowing. being obese can cause many health issues such as heart attack or heart failure, arteriosclerosis (blood vessel damage), high blood pressure, kidney failure, and many other diseases.
What is Bulimia?
Bulimia, also referred to as Bulimia Nervosa, is an emotional disorder which involves people to have a distortion in their body image often as a result of binge-eating. This leads to a feeling of guilt and a necessity to lose weight causing one to induce purging, fasting, vomiting, excessive exercise, etc. Bulimia is a result of self evaluation and depression due to the warped perception they have on their body.
The Issue With Media
Society has set the standards to what is attractive and acceptable which is causing many health-related issues especially in young girls. You can see how young teenage girls are now looking to be as if they are in their 20s; this being because society setting an image of what is considered desirable and “normal”. More and more women feel the need to fit into the standards of society. Society needs to be aware of the negative effects that comes with media especially when exposed to it more than others. Women feel pressured into becoming the desired image people expect from them. For example, people believe if you don’t have a small waist to hip ratio, are fit, and do not have long legs, or “thick” features, you are not attractive. The more exposed young women are to media and the “norm” for body types, the more health conditions and eating disorders are developed such as bulimia, obesity, depression, and binge-eating.