I spent my time reading articles on the blog spot called Rookie. One of the blogs in particular caught my eye. "The Year of My Eating Disorder" was an article that discussed the tragedy of a sixth grade girl. She had become anorexic but, because she was incredibly strong, was able to overcome her emotionally and physically painful, dangerous, and disabling eating disorder. I was completely heartbroken that someone at such a young age could be so incredibly disgusted with themselves that they would put their body through something like that.
Before we started talking about the effects of media on the current population in America, I didn't realize, to the full extent at least, how strongly the younger generation was swayed by what they saw on the TV like Keeping Up With the Kardashians or read in magazines like Seventeen. I think it's because the only attention these younger distressed kids get is what they're on episodes on reality TV shows talking about how they've been affected by skinny, airbrushed models or when they're on the news pronounced dead because they've been bullied so badly about their weight that they've decided to end their lives.
This article only fully proved my belief that "body image" stereotypes have negatively altered women's decisions on how they feel about themselves. It backed up every piece or research out there that says that the media pressures society into believing certain things because someones favorite celebrity said so or because an advertisement made a women portray that skinny is sexy.
OPRF has close to 4,000 students, so probably close to 2,000 females. It's hard to think that out of all of those girls, there are only a few who stand up to stereotypes and dress and act the way that they truly believe is beautiful. It's sad to know that a lot of the time, a good majority of the rest of the girls at school make fun of them or look at them with a snotty attitude because they aren't meeting pop-culture stereotypes. Although not everyone falls under that category, there are few to no girls that can honestly admit that when they see another girl extremely overweight or dressing in something a little too concealing that they don't at least, for a split second, judge them or wonder who picked their wardrobe. You would think that with 2,000 women, we could all join forces and change stereotypes.
This aerticle makes you realize how just a few popular advertisements or TV shows or lyrics to a song can have a life-altering negative affect on a good portion of the female population, starting at distressing young ages.
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