First Draft…..Not Completed…..

March 3, 2008 cola87

It Just Doesn’t Fit!!Laughing and joking, my friends and I exit the store and I ask, “Where to next girls?” “Let’s go in there. I saw these cute jeans in the window, “my friend says, leading the way to the next store. “Ok. I could definitely use some new jeans.” I reply. I have just gotten paid and am looking forward to expanding my wardrobe.“Oh, these are so cute. Let me find them in my size.” I search the entire rack and the biggest size they carry, is a 12. I head to the register and ask the cashiers there, what is the biggest size they carry. “Oh, we don’t carry your size. There is a plus sized store on the next level.” With that she turns her back and converses with a customer that can “fit the bill.” I am pissed. I probably have more money in my pocket then the women in this store, but because I don’t fit, I’m not worth the trouble. Frustrated I leave my friends and head to the “plus size” store. More disappointment!! Everything looks like my grandmother should wear it!   I’m ready to go home… Everywhere we look, we are bombarded with new and up-and-coming fashion, but why is every new design hung on a tall, willowy model, when the typical woman marketed is a short, curvy housewife? This body image that the media promotes as “ideal” in all actuality is not healthy. Years ago the “coca-cola bottle” shape was ideal. Now the less curves and more ribs you can count makes you sexy. What kind of message are we sending to the younger generations that view this new image and strive to make themselves fit into it?          Fashion is a major market all over the world, yet every part of the world has their own idea of the “perfect shaped” woman. America’s ideal woman for years has been the centerfolds of Playboy magazine.  Men have viewed them as the sexy, attractive, and desirable. They have been the ultimate fantasy for many. For many women, this is the image that they strive to become, in a way a fantasy of their own.           Young women and men, pore over fashion magazines and look up to the models that are represented their. It is not just the clothing that is being advertised, but the body image as well. What kind of problems does this cause when the picture portrays an unhealthy and unrealistic idea of perfection? It is true over the years that this idea has changed, but is it for the better?An article that addressed this issue was “Thinness and Body Shape of Playboy Centerfolds from 1978- 1998.”   This article really hit home the issue that the image promoted is not the best. The weights and measurements of 240 models were taken and compared to the BMI. The conclusion of the article and I quote “Given the perception of playboy centerfolds as culturally ‘ideal’ women, the notion that 70% of them are underweight, highlights the social pressures of women to be thin and helps explain the high levels of body dissatisfaction and disordered eating among women.”This promotion of an unrealistic image could possibly be one of the main reasons for over weight or apparently overweight people. With 65% of Americans being overweight, most would think that the fashion world would try to promote a healthier image and not one that is just as harmful as being obese. We are shocked when we learn of someone with eating disorders or hear of someone dying because of one, but the media broadcasts that we need to be just as thin.With the rate of eating disorders increasing, the idea and need to promote the fact that it is okay not to be rail thin should be something that is instilled into today’s kids. Instead they are bombarded with the confusing message that “the skinnier the better.” We want our kids to be happy with the person they are, but they can not because they are constantly told by the media, that what they look like will determine who likes them and how others perceive them, not their personalities. Media plays a bigger part in our lives then most people realize. Whether it is television, the newspapers, magazines or the radio, things we see and hear stay with us. At the time we may not see where it matters, but some where shown the line it impacts us. This is true for both men and women. Although statistically the media is harder on women, men do feel its impact.  The need to be stronger and leaner in order to be deemed “sexy” puts pressure on all men.For women, the ideas of perfectly shaped women the media gives men, puts them in a particularly rough position. Men look at these “perfect” models and actresses and the judge “real, everyday” women by these standards. When you do not fit into that mold, you are regarded as unattractive and undesirable. Just like everything in life, you need variety. All women are not built the same and there are so many factors that determine a person’s shape. A lot of women weigh the same amount, but because of how they are proportioned, they will look differently. Personally I know what it is like to grow up in a world that looks at you with distain because you do not look like the people around you. Growing up, I was always the one that was taller than most of the girls and since I developed early, I was also curvier. It was hard. Grown men looked at me, and guys my age avoided me because they were shorter. Girls my age made me an outsider. They talked about me behind my back and in general made my life as a child hell.  The pressure to fit in, to change, and to be “perfect” is a burden. Some people snap under the pressure and look for unhealthy ways to make there body do things and look a way it is not meant to. This is where many eating disorders stem from. Although it is about control for many patients with eating disorders, the underlying cause is the media. There are successful voluptuous women in the media, but they are few and far in between. Many are ridiculed about their weight and they eventually lose the weight. One actress that inspires me is Monique. She has taken the role of spokesperson for the larger curvier woman. Her show “Fat Chance,” shows women that they should love their curves and that they are beautiful and sexy and desirable just the way they are. This is the message that all media should be promoting. I am not saying make everyone gain weight, because that would be just like the people that say society should lose weight. Society needs to see that what they promote has a huge affect on people’s choices.Many studies have been done to find the correlation between media exposure and the messages that are being given to young people and the rise in cases of eating disorders. The results are all similar. Young people are more likely to have or develop an eating disorder because they feel pressured by the media to lose weight or feel that the media is telling them they way they look is wrong. Children as well as adolescents are viewing these shows and magazine articles and then looking at themselves and seeing an unattractive person. Then they are taking drastic measures to fit in and find approval from their peers. Is this what we really want? What happened to the message that we are all different and that we are better off because of our differences. I for one want these things to change. I want my children to grow up in a world, where no matter what size or shape they are, they can go into a mall and shop where ever they want. To not go into a store only to be told “no, we don’t carry that size.” I want it to be okay for my daughter to have curves and my son not to have a six pack, but they are both still seen as attractive.  I want them to love their body as I love mine, and not be ashamed or look down upon because of it. Parents play a key role in the way children view themselves as well. I know for certain had I not had my mother telling me that the way I looked was how God intended me to look and that once I was happy with myself, nothing anybody could do or say would matter. I hope that eventually the world will realize that we can all never look alike, and the idea that we should is ridiculous.Since this is a problem that may people face on a daily basis, I decided to ask a few of my friends their take on the issue.  I spoke with both men and women. From the women, I wanted to know if they personally had every dealt with the rejection of not being able to buy what they wanted or even been with friends that have experienced it. From the men, I wanted to know what body shape they looked for in a woman and what they felt was perfection.           I don not discriminate in the choosing of my friends, so the answers came from people of all different backgrounds and sizes. I began by thinking of my questions. I tried to make them as broad as possible as not to seem as if I lead the interviewees to answer in a particular way. Most of the people I surveyed did not know anything about my research beyond the fact that it was for my paper.           I gave each male and female, ten of each, a survey. I asked them to answer the questions with their true feelings and return them to me. After I received all of the surveys back, I sat down and read through them all. Some of the answers form the males were surprising.           Of those that were dating, they described their girlfriends as curvy or thick or something of that nature. None described their girlfriends as thin. All of the men said that they like women with “meat on their bones.” They did not like thin women, and their idea of a perfect body shape reflected that. Another common thing among the men was the fact that none of them described their mothers as thin, but said they would not change her at all.  It seemed to me that although the see on a daily basis women that are super thin and are told that this is what women should look like, men are forming their own opinion. With such a small survey group any real conclusion can not be drawn. I just found the results promising. It was a source of hope that all men are not in love with the idea of playboy models being the ideal woman. From here, I took a look at the results I received from women. Those that took the survey ranged in clothing sizes from (to be continued*)  The articles and reviews that I have found through my research have agreed in many ways with the issue at hand. Many of my sources have had an actual voice. The writer seemed to be in touch with the audience and I found that refreshing. Though there were quotes from doctors and professionals that deal with this dilemma daily, I did not feel that I was reading something I could not relate to.          Take the article “Fashionistas weigh in on the super-thin.” The article discussed how a panel from the Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA) met with the media to justify and back their age and weight guidelines for models. The guidelines have recently been under scrutiny by many experts of eating disorders. The thought is that the CFDA is too relaxed about the acceptable weight and age for a model.           The article went on to discuss the proportions sizes of models to that of average American women. The fact that stood out was that only 2% of American women are represented in the modeling world. The average women are a size 12-16 and models sizes range from 0-2. Not to mention that these women are also a lot taller than average. Their body weights should be more due to their height. To me this just speaks the fact that the body image represented to young people is not a healthy one.           To add to this fact was an article entitled, “Thinness and Body Shape of Playboy Centerfolds from 1978- 1998. The piece focused on the BMI’s of different Playboy models. Although there may be some imperfection in the findings due to the fact that weights and heights were told to the researcher and they might not have been always true, the findings amazed me. This article really hit home the issue that the image promoted by the media is not a good one. The weights and measurements of 240 models were taken and compared to the BMI. The conclusion of the article and I quote “Given the perception of playboy centerfolds as culturally ‘ideal’ women, the notion that 70% of them are underweight, highlights the social pressures of women to be thin and helps explain the high levels of body dissatisfaction and disordered eating among women.” The promotion of non ideal images can lead to some of the main reasons for over weight or apparently overweight people. I read many pieces of writing and they all helped in some way helped me to develop ideas or to strengthen the ones that I had already formulated in my mind. One that I found to be of particular interest spoke of the way women are rated on the scale of attractiveness. Many women tend to base the way they feel about themselves or how they should look, on what men find attractive. The editorial that broached this subject was “Body Weight, Waist-to-Hip Ratio, Breasts, and Hips: Role in Judgments of Female Attractiveness and Desirability for Relationships. The article talked about how men rate women depending on their body appeareance. A study was conducted where men compare differnent bod images depending on the BMI and determined if the female was attractive and how they would be seen on a relationship basis. Larger women and those with more hips, tend to be viewed as older and less attractive. where  slim, big breasted and small waisted women were attractive and would be considered younger and worthy of a long term realtionship.          This focused on my point that it is not just women being brainwashed. Men too look at larger women and think of them as undesirable. To see that look in a man’s eyes, women then turned to themselves and see the same. This is what leaves women to strive and meet the standards that will make them a suitable partner for the men that they find attractive themselves.           Many of the articles that I have read focused on adults in their research. Though that is the audience that I am focusing on, I began to think about the younger generation and how this image affects them or if it does at all. Surprisingly it does. The article that focused on children adolescents was called, “Media Influence on the Body Image of Children and Adolescents.”This was an article written based on a survey of children both male and female between the ages of 9 and 14. The survey was conducted to see how and if children felt the media affected their idea of themselves, mainly their body image. The over all conclusion was that the children felt that the media was not telling them to gain weight. The information from the article helped, because it built on my point that media can aid in eating disorders, due to the image that they promote.The findings that children as young as 9 and 10 wanted to go on diets because they felt they were too fat were appalling. These children should be out enjoying their childhood, not worrying about whether or not they fit into the “norms” that society has established. I worry for my own future children. I do not want them to come into a world that does not allow them enjoy childhood because they are bombarded with the ideas that they do not fit in. After awhile I started to think, where are we exposed to these body images? Of course we see it in television all the time, but are they the main source. So I began to look at some magazines as well as to see if anyone else had taken this avenue. In an article called, “Diet vs. Shape Content of Popular Male and Female Magazines: A Dose-Response Relationship to Eating Disorders?” I found some very interesting information. The article was written because of a hypothesis that the incidence of eating disorders in men and women could be correlated to “socio-cultural norms” promoting thinness. The findings were remarkable. The basis of the testing consisted of 10 different men and 10 different widely read women’s magazines being read and the number of diet or shape related article were counted. The results were shocking. It seemed like every paged you turned there was an article or a picture, or a promotion of a “thinner you.” No wonder people develop eating disorders. Everywhere they look they are told that they have the wrong image.  When are we going to look at our society and see that we are all different and our differences make us who we are? Sizism, the discrimination and oppression of people of different sizes, is an issue that faces many Americans daily. It’s a type of discrimination that is publicized but not really acknowledge. Learning to accept one’s differences and become happy with one’s self is what life should be about.    

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