The authors Javaid, Marium, and Iftikhar Ahmad in their book “Adolescent Girls Are Hurt More By The Body Mass Than Thin-Ideal Media Images Of Females” explain how presenting unachievable …show more content…
In todays generation, having the height of 5’10 and the weight of only at 120 pounds is considered to be the highly desired female body image; however, the average American women is only 5’4” and 169 pounds. Furthermore, the height and weight that is considered to be average in American males is being around 5’9” and 190 pound whereas the men in the fashion industry are skinnier than the average male resulting in being 6’1” and 160 pounds ("Perfect Body Image"). Because individuals are constantly reminded of the body image the media sets through magazines, T.V. shows, and advertisements, men and women can begin to feel low self-esteem and dissatisfied about their bodies because it does not look comparable to the stick thin or masculine bodies models and actors have. Individuals who have shown to have low self-esteem and dissatisfaction with their body image are at high risk for developing eating disorders. Over the past seventy years the National Eating Disorder Association (NEDA) reports that all eating disorders have dramatically increased across the board. Statistics has shown that from 1988 to 1993 bulimia in females, between the ages 10 and 39, has tripled. These eating disorders include: Anorexia and Bulimia. The meaning of Anorexia is to become obsessed with becoming or staying thin and having extreme fears of gaining weight; as a result to maintain being thin, people will become fixated in counting calories, watching what they eat, using diet and laxative pills, and exercising excessively. Bulimia on the other side is identified as consuming a large amount of food at once and then vomiting afterwards. Both of the eating disorders can cause health problems such as stomach and heart problems, lack of nutrition, and dehydration. However there are also males who have been affected by the media and developed psychological problems that are termed “muscle dysmorphia”. Muscle dysmorphia is also known as