Advertising and Anorexia American Media

Advertising and Anorexia

American Media Images Influence Unhealthy Eating Habits in Order to Stay Skinny

Everyone has a little obsession with beauty. It is natural for human beings to want to look and feel attracted, because society often rewards those that fit its concept of what is attractive. Yet, sometimes, images can take it too far and subliminally portray a message that demands young American to fall in line with that ideal. One of these concepts is the issue of being skinny, which is glamorized consistently in media images. Covert and overt messages are tied to images glamorizing skinny, which is then often internalized by young teens that will turn to unhealthy habits, like eating disorders like anorexia, in order to reach that ideal weight look. The images of skinny connected with fashionable and in style are blasted all over American advertising, and influence readers to work hard to strive and reach this exaggerated concept of perfection in regards to their weight.

Visual references to being skinny become influences of anorexia in teens and young adults, and they are everywhere. The October 2012 issue of Teen Vogue is not exactly the most blatantly obvious in regards to how the visual images on its cover contribute to underlying trends of rising anorexia levels. In fact, the image presents a picture of a face, Victoria Justice to be exact. As a Nickelodeon actress and singer, she is very connected to a younger fan demographic. Thus, her essential fan base is one of the most vulnerable groups of women in terms of how visual reinforces and influences anorexia levels nationwide. The magazine is catering to a young and incredibly vulnerable demographic. Thus, it is incredibly damaging when the primary message presented in the text of the magazine cover are so geared towards showing women how they are not good enough or need to improve themselves in order to be acceptable in mainstream society. The dominant message the image is sending to the readers is that they are nowhere near perfect, yet society expects this perfection of each individual. Just as the text reads, there is an enormous "pressure to look perfect." Women must strive for this sense of perfection, which is often unattainable. Although the image is largely of Justice's head and upper torso, there is still a clear trend that she is following, the skinny trend. Justice is featured in a beautiful gold top, showing off her "major style." The reader can just barely see the shape of Justice's waits, and it is definitely much smaller than the size of an average American woman. This makes many young female teens associate the concept of being skinny with being stylish, another potentially dangerous combination in regards to how images can influence anorexia in the American population of young adults. When teens are growing up, they want to follow what's in style, the latest fads and trends. When looking at women, "the vast majority of females wish to weight less and have a smaller body shape" (Kirsh, 2010, p 126). These trends consistently connect being skinny with being fashionable. Sample sizes f the latest designer fads often come only in smaller sizes, and the celebrities who wear these latest fashions are also always shown being super skinny from head to toe. Justice looks fit and toned, with no visual signs of being overweight. As such, she is once again linking the notion of skinny to fashionable. Everyone in "Young Hollywood," as the magazine refers to the younger celebrities as skinny and this then reinforces a need for young girls to also be skinny, at all costs. When young women are looking to their favorite stars and singers they want to replicate that look, and often many take on unhealthy habits in order to get that skinny that fast.

Victoria Justice is not the first child star to embed these types of messages into images. No, many child actresses have felt the pressure to be skinny, and have thus internalized the societal demand and reproduce it for their own fans to follow. Take for example the case of former Nickelodeon actress Amanda Bynes. According to one recent post on the Huffington Post's Celebrity page, the actress has continuously admitted to her fans on Twitter that she has struggled with keeping up the ideal weight that is demanded of her by Hollywood. The page itself has images of her as a teen and as an adult, all glamorizing her skinny waistline and small features. Despite the fact that she is 5'8," Bynes recently tweeted that she was still trying to loose weight, with a target goal of 100 lbs (Huffington Post, 2013). This is extremely underweight for a woman of her height. The actress has even admitted to having trouble fighting an eating disorder over the years. When young teens look at her success and correlate it with her use of unhealthy dietary choices, they may think that anorexia is a good choice for getting skinny enough to be the next big star, like Bynes. In this, when celebrities seem to go along with the demands for thinness, the influence only gets stronger.