The Cosmetic Surgery Debate

Is cosmetic surgery just a way to "fix" our flaws?

A 2004 study shows that over 11.9 million cosmetic procedures were performed in that year alone. This is nearly a forty-four percent increase since 2003.

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The debate about plastic surgery has been a controversy ever since it's been around; everyone feels differently about the subject. Some people feel its simply a way to express oneself, like makeup or body modification (tattoos, piercings, etc.), and some people feel as if it's unhealthy and a gateway to a never-ending addiction to "fixing" oneself, also know as perfectionism. Some love it and some feel that it should have never been invented, but to be quite honest, it's not such a horrible thing, especially in today's society. The only problem is that it has been taken too far, like with things such as breast implants and tummy tucks.

Some people are born with abnormalities that truly make them self-conscious, and cosmetic surgery helps those people with coming out of themselves and being confident. But today, things have gone too far. It's become a normal thing to "adjust" your body in ways it shouldn't be "adjusted". Things have gotten far out of hand in terms of plastic surgery, and studies have proven links between body dysmorphic disorder (BDD) and plastic surgery. Numerous studies show that seven to thirteen cosmetic surgery patients have been diagnosed with a form of BDD.

Bulimia Nervosa has been the most common eating disorder among links cosmetic surgery because of a desire to "alter" their appearance until they reach a widely unattainable goal.

A recent study at the University Hospitals Leuven in Belgium distributed surveys on BDD to 266 patients seeking rhinoplasty over a sixteen month period; twenty percent of the patients had previously undergone the procedure. The study suggests that thirty-three percent of the patients had symptoms of BDD, which rose to a high forty-three percent of patients who were seeking the procedure for purely aesthetic reasons.

Over-the-top cosmetic procedures can not only lead to an eating disorder such as Bulimia, but they can also be quite dangerous in terms of medical health.

Surgery, no matter what the type, is always a dangerous procedure. There may be risks with things like anesthesia, necrosis and nerve damage. Let alone those dangers, there is also a risk of a procedure being unsuccessful or a patient being unsatisfied. Cosmetic procedures, on average, are expensive, painful and time-consuming, and when one goes through all of that just to be dissatisfied because of an unsuccessful procedure, it takes a big psychological toll.

"Popular" Middle School Girls

In this Geico commercial, a man is followed around by three "popular" middle school girls for a means of dieting in order to save money.

This advertisement portrays numerous negative ideas; it's supposed to be funny, but instead, it's actually pretty sad. The character of the man is displaying an idea of losing weight at all costs, which is bad, but what makes it horrible is how the young girls are involved and displayed.

The commercial simply gives a bad reputation to middle school girls. The young girls are helping the man with starvation by bothering him about the "gross" food. These are the main characteristics of Anorexia Nervosa. So, is this commercial really portraying teenage girls that are "popular" as Anorexics?

The last thing that needs to happen is for girls to see this and think about being "popular" and associating it with ideas like these. Popular is a good thing to young girls, and there's nothing wrong with that, but the message here is that in the "popular group," food is shameful and you will get criticized for eating. 

Young people grow up surrounded by influences that food is "gross" and shameful. It's the media who taught them that and it's the media that's giving them a bad reputation. 

Who Is The Biggest Loser?

There is a difference between motivation and shaming, which is something that the people behind The Biggest Loser don't understand.

The problem with The Biggest Loser is that it displays the exact opposite of motivation. The NBC program promotes the idea the that equals healthy, which is not true, and this is just the beginning of the show's display of unhealthy promotion.

"The Biggest Loser is another unrealistic 'reality' show," said Dr. Laura Machado of Sacramento in a recent Doctors of Weight Loss post. "The fact that people who suffer from obesity can lose large amounts of weight rapidly is nothing new. We evaluate every day who have achieved massive weight loss in the past, often on multiple occasions, only to regain the weight. Their propensity to be overweight is inherent and only permanently addressed with the anatomical changes that surgery offers. In medicine, we practice evidence-based treatments. Medicine has nothing to do with television ratings."

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Rachel Frederickson, the recent Biggest Loser "winner," returned from the show weighing only 105 pounds after losing 155 pounds during the show. Frederickson had lost sixty percent of her body weight in a matter of less than a five month period and according to the Center of Disease Control and Prevention, at a BMI of 17.5, she is now considered underweight.

"When I was watching the show, at first I didn't think she was one of the contestants to be honest, said celebrity nutritionist Christine Avanti. "She looked thin, especially from the waist up."

And what kind of message is this sending? That it's easy to lose that drastic amount of weight in such a short period of time to become as much as underweight?

A Montclair-based psychotherapist who specializes in eating disorders, Beth McGovern expresses her concern for the message that Frederickson's weight loss could be sending to the people.

"It clearly is going to trigger them to think, 'OK, she can do that. I should be able to do that,' " said McGovern. "It presents a bad message to young women to see someone who looks somewhat malnourished... Being rewarded."

Another former contestant of the show agrees.

Season three contestant, Kai Hibbard, who lost 118 pounds was adamant about the fact that the the program is hurting it's contestants and promoting unhealthy body image.

"I have people come up to me and talk to me and ask me why they can't lose twelve pounds in a week when I did. It didn't happen. It's TV... a week is not a week in TV," said Hibbard. "I left with a very poor mental body image. I found myself loathing what I looked like the more weight that I dropped because of the pressure on me."

Hibbard told CBS' The Early Show that after the show, six other former contestants had said something similar. She also admitted that she had suffered from an eating disorder after leaving the show.

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Disturbingly, the antics don't stop here. We're adding children into the mix! The TV program with the purpose of starving and humiliating overweight people in a contest of 'whoever ends up the skinniest' is beginning to add children. In fact, some of it's new contestants as young as only thirteen years old.

Last season, the show added three overweight children -- Lindsay, Sunny and Biingo. In The Biggest Loser's promotions, it may seem as if it's a good thing -- as if it will teach the kids how to eat healthy and exercise -- but you don't see the ugly.

What this does to kids is not only humiliates them... on national television, but it teaches to compete. This competition is comparing the way they look, and the one that looks the best -- or is the skinniest, I should say -- wins. This is showing children everywhere that the skinniest is the best, and for that, they get a grand prize of a bunch of money. The moral here: life is a competition based on looks, the skinniest looks the best, and gets a bunch of money. And how is this good for children?

The list goes on, so it's not difficult to say that it's means like these that are diminishing society's approach toward positive body image. Of course, good eating and exercise -- health -- is important, but slowly but surely, society is losing the real meaning of health. Instead of promoting healthy, this TV program is only a pathway of manipulation to promote diet products and obtain weight loss, even if it's not in a healthy way. It's obviously damaging to not only contestants, but viewers everywhere.

What Is Beauty?

Beauty is something that is defined by personal views; it may be different from person to person. So why is the media turning it into something with standards? Why does some kind of ideal have to be met when it comes to beauty?

The problem today is that we, as a community, have become overly opinionated when it comes to this simple term. All of a sudden there is an actual set definition of what beauty should look like. Who set this definition and why should they be able to set it?

"Beauty is in the eye of the beholder."
Indeed it originally was, and should be, but it has turned into something different, something evil. It has turned into something unhealthy, which is actually quite sad. People, young girls and boys, adult men, older women, adolescents, people of every shape and form are beginning to conform to the idea that there is a set standard for beauty. This set standard is called perfection, which leads people into thinking that if they try hard enough, they can reach this ideal. This is called perfectionism, and it's truly hurting society.

We have become a society run by the set ideals of the media. Why? It's difficult to answer, but it's not hard to say that it's crippling. These standards are only getting higher and if we don't do something to slow it down, who knows what the future of beauty will be. It's certain that we need to come together and take back beauty; we need to stand up to these high ideals and overcome these incredible standards.

Beauty is in everything.. everyone. Laughter, smiles, happiness, joy, atmosphere; you can find it anywhere. Beauty is everywhere, you just have to open your eyes.

Ralph Lauren: A Prime Example

Former model for Ralph Lauren, Filippa Hamilton, explains her relationship with the designer company. After eight years with Lauren, Hamilton was "terminated" from her services based on her weight.

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"They said I couldn't fit in their clothes anymore," she tells TODAY's Ann Curry. The letter to her agent from Lauren simply said, "We're terminating your services because you don't fit into the sample clothes that you need to wear."

"They fired me because they said I was overweight and couldn't fit into their clothes anymore," she said.

"I was working with them since I was fifteen years old, so I considered them my second family. I was very hurt about this."


Astonishingly, Filippa is a gorgeous 5-foot-10, 120 pound healthy woman, who was manipulated in her photos and fired when because she wasn't unhealthily underweight.

Filippa Hamilton in a recent Ralph Lauren ad.
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"I saw my face on this extremely skinny girl -- which is not me, she told New York Daily News, "It's very sad, I think, that Ralph Lauren would do something like that."

"It makes me think that Ralph Lauren wants to have this kind of image -- and it's not healthy, it's not right."

Ralph Lauren admitted to the manipulation of these images. They released a statement arguing that she was released "as a result of her inability to meet the obligations under her contract with us.

A body image expert, Leslie Goldman, told NBC News, "The thought of this model being too fat is laughable. When you see her, she is extremely tall and extremely thin. She has the perfect model's body, but apparently not perfect enough."

"The image is a gross distortion of how she really looks and which we fear will be extremely damaging to her," Geoffrey Menin, Hamilton's lawyer, told NBC News. "They photoshopped her in a way that, for me, is grotesque and makes her look like a cartoon. The trouble is that it's damaging to her. Who wants to hire somebody that looks like that?"

Many people were thoroughly disturbed by the revolting actions displayed by Ralph Lauren, and many had something to say. The editor-in-chief of Cosmopolitan, Kate White, also agreed that the misrepresentations are ridiculous and quickly depleting, referring to it as a "vicious cycle."

"It really starts with the sample clothes. They've downsized. They're now like a two or a four. In some degree it relates to the Kate [Kate Moss] era. Before then, supermodels like Cindy Crawford and Christie Brinkley -- they were really curvy. But they got skinnier and skinnier. The clothes got smaller. So it creates this cycle where you have to fit in the clothes to get the job, and then the models get smaller and that's who we have to use in the fashion stores."

"I think women have to protest," White continued, "and back it up, because sometimes women say they want real girls in stories, but often those stories don't rate as well, and if you put a heavy celebrity on the cover, it may not sell as well. Women have to complain and then back it up with their actions -- with their pocketbooks."

The fact is obvious that Ralph Lauren displays the dysfunctional actions that can directly impact society and bring on distorted body image.

"And it's not a good example. When you see this picture young women will look at this and think it's normal, and it's not," Filippa said. "I think they owe American women an apology, a big apology. I'm very proud of what I look like and I think a role model should look healthy.

Identity SHORT FILM (Award Winning Inspirational Short)

Diet Dangers: Why Dieting Is Harmful

Dieting has become an accepted "solution" to body dissatisfaction. Each year, an estimated forty-five million Americans go on a diet and spend over thirty-three billion dollars on diet products like weight loss pills and supplements.(1) What people refuse to realize is that it is not only ineffective, but there are numerous harmful effects it can have on the body.

We are constantly bombarded by hundreds of advertisements and unattainable body images daily. We are influenced into the idea behind what we see, which is the main culprit behind diets. This chain reaction of cause and effect is continuously growing and becoming more and more dangerous.

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"Dieting represents a physically unhealthy focus on reshaping the body as a way of conforming with societal norms and expectations."(2)

Dieting is not just a simple defined trend; it's a serious problem that many people don't realize.

The effects of dieting are hugely concerning. Dieters are at an inclusive risk of things like menstrual irregularity (in females), secondary Amenorrhea, Osteopenia, Osteoperosis, heart disease and/or, sadly, death. Fifteen studies published between 1983 and 1993 show that weight loss increases the risk of premature death by over 260 percent.(3)

Diets are dangerous and useless, but somehow, their trend has continued to grow, now growing into younger and younger generations. Dieting has become especially popular among adolescence, transmitting irrational and unattainable ideas and causing health issues in children of earlier and earlier youth.

Teenage dieting is the usual antecedent to Anorexia and Bulimia five-fold  to eighteen-fold increased risk of developing an eating disorder.(4)

A cross-sectional study found that thirty-six percent of normal weight girls were dieting, compared with fifty percent of overweight girls and fifty-five percent of obese girls.

Diets are not only completely unhealthy and remarkably dangerous, but they are rather ineffective -- perhaps the opposite. In fact, ninety-five percent of diets will fail and most will regain their weight in one to five years.(5)

"Dietary restraint may create biological and psychological feelings of deprivation that lead to greater reactivity to food cues, cravings, counterregulation, disinhibition, periodic overeating, and weight gain," said Hala Madanat, Ph.D., co-author of two articles reviewing 361 published studies. "Biologically, it is often associated with unhealthy changes in body composition, hormonal changes, reduced bone density, menstrual disturbances, and lower resting energy expenditure. Dietary restraint is further associated with numerous measures of negative effect, diminished cognitive functioning, body dissatisfaction, overvaluation of weight and shape, and eating disorders."

References
1) http://www.livestrong.com/
2) Striegel-Moore et. al. 1986; Brownell, 1991
3) http://newlifeforhealth.blogspot.com
4) Patton GC, Johnson-Sabine E, Woolk Mann AH, Wakeling A, 1990
5) http://www.montenido.com/

An Invisible Issue

The Media's Effects on Males

Men are different than women in many ways, one being that internal conflicts are retained as internal conflicts, meaning issue among men are not a expressed as they are among women.

Traditionally, most of the concerns about the media and body image have revolved around girls, but more and more, researchers and health professionals are turning their attention to boys as well. A growing body of research indicates that although boys are less likely to talk about their insecurities, they too experience anxiety about their bodies, (Norman, M. 2011)

Although body image is viewed as more of a 'feminine issue', it affects everyone. Just like the cultural standards today for women revolve around people like supermodels and Hollywood actresses, the same goes for men. Whereas these standards are a sort of definition of masculinity, therefore a source of frustration.

It may not be obvious, but body image concerns in males are unbelievably high, and increasing day by day.

"Evidence suggests that more men are experiencing body image dissatisfaction than was previously thought," said Helen Fawekler, a PhD psychology student at the University of Mebourne. "There is an increasing recognition that men can suffer from these problems."

2009 Issue of Men's Health
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The main culprit behind these problems is the media. We see things like GIJoe and "Jersey Shore", and we're exposed to men with a common body image. This image has been a standard for years, and as time goes on, the standard becomes higher and higher due to more of these body images in the media.

"The media promotes a certain idealized image of what it means to be a male," said Elaine Hosie, a registered psychologist and director of counseling working with adolescent males. "In regard to the body image debate, the media plays a large role in the idealization of what it is to grow from a child to an adolescent, to an adult male."

Additionally, it's not only the body image of other men that causes insecurities, but surprisingly, women's body image can have the same effect. In a 2008 study, young men were more self conscious after reading "lad magazines" featuring photos of sexualized, scantily-clad women, based on the belief that girls would expect similar idealized physiques from men as well, (Aubrey, J.S. and Taylor, L.D. 2009).

With the media full of these "perfect" body images, which are ultimately unattainable, everyone is affected in different ways. Sadly, younger boys are enormously affected. In 2005, a University of West England study showed that the media influence had the largest influence on whether middle school boys were dissatisfied with their bodies.

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Body Dysmorphic Disorder rates are skyrocketing, and the extensive unattainable standards in the media are directly to blame.

"We have found that a very large percentage of men, as many as eighty-five percent, are dissatisfied in terms of weight; around half want to lose weight and half want to gain weight. They are looking for the "ideal" -- minimal body fat and a large amount of muscle," said Fawkner.

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It is widely assumed that eating disorders are diseases that only affect women, but this is not true at all. In fact, Body Dysmorphic Disorder is quite common in males. Another study by the University of West England found that fifty million (four out of five) men have body image issues, but much fewer admit it.

A common disorder due to a distorted body image among men is Bigorexia, a muscle dismorphia, essentially the opposite of Anorexia, which is the desire or need to increase size or muscle mass. And the sad part is that only about ten percent of people who get help for body dymorphia or eating disorders are men.

"It is true that the overall evaluation of a person's physical appearance is still more a part of how women are evaluated than men. There are more stringent standards for female beauty," said Stacey Tantleff Dunn, an associate professor of clinical psychology at the University of Central Florida. "But I think that the standards for men are equally hard to obtain in terms of muscularity, leanness and youth."

The Evolution of Body Image in America

Through the years, body image has been a wide-spread issue in America. As technology continues to evolve, social media expands, which greatly fuels depletion of body positivity.

The ideals for body image have become less and less attainable. As a society, we are losing the comprehension of healthy, average and essentially, reasonable. With pressure in the media such as persuasive advertisements, extremely thin runway models and "flawless" photoshopped images, body image has become an obsession, which is growing rapidly. This issue has reached substantial highs, resulting in sky rocketing negative body images. Disturbingly, eating disorders and issues associated have increased by over four-hundred percent since only 1970.

Marilyn Monroe, 1949
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Going back to the early 1900's, the most contemporary records of the "ideal look" were those of a natural essence, (and by natural, I don't mean neutral colored makeup), before social media had been recognized. The times during the initiation of mass media consisted of a similar concept concerning appearance. We look back to people like Marilyn Monroe, an idolized image of beauty at the time, and the difference in ideals compared to today are quite obvious. Currently, Marilyn may even be referred to as "overweight," but in truth, she was not. She was at a healthy weight. During this point in time, the ideal for body image was healthy. Marilyn now represents an embraced form of beauty and health, an admired combination.

Shortly after Marilyn's height of prevalence, society took a sharp turn in terms of appearance ideals. The 1960's introduced a new image of "beauty." Lesley Lawson, also known as "Twiggy," a popular supermodel at the time, had begun as all the rage in the fashion world, compassing into "the real world". Twiggy is recorded as a bold change in history because she began an immense trend. At 5'6" and only 112 pounds, Twiggy's popularity made an enormous topic of gossip for many because it was the first time an underweight model set the body image standard, and from then on, it's been the normal criteria, especially for fashion models.

Lesley Lawson (Twiggy)
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These norms continue to decrease in... normality. Just twenty years ago, the average model weighed eight percent less than the average woman. Now, the average model weighs almost twenty-three percent less than the average woman. This is nearly a fifteen percent decrease in only twenty years. At this rate, how thin will models be in forty years from now? In our society today, models are a substantial piece of the body image standard, so what does the future look like for the rest of us? ...for our children? Standards are high enough for children now, will they continue to get even worse?

According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, between 1999 and 2006, there was an 119 percent increase in the number of children under the age of twelve years old hospitalized due to eating disorders and related issues.

This is how fast these ideals are drowning American society. It's nearly become an obsession.

"Our image of the perfect body size -- very size driven -- does not align with what is a healthy body -- more habit driven -- one that is active, eats healthy and keeps risk factors at bay," says Dr. Sherry Pagoto, licensed clinical psychologist. "We have become very hung up on size and I think research suggests that it's just more complicated than that."

Victoria's Dirty Secret

RIP Self-Esteem?

The initial purpose of the Victoria's Secret Angels was to create models for women who embraces their sexuality and feel comfortable in their own skin; but the outcome was close to the exact opposite. The purpose was supposed to be a correlation of real-world women, but how can they represent the real-world when these models, in reality, are far from it?

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"It's all about creating the illusion of this amazing body on the runway," Selita Banks, a Victoria's Secret model, tells New York Daily News. "People don't realize that there are about twenty layers of makeup on my butt alone."

The Victoria's Secret fashion show is an annual event dreaded by most females due to the manner in which it not only displays women, but the numerous displays of unattainable physical features which are valued by society. It's hard not to have an immediate drop in self-esteem while watching this fashion show, which over 9.3 million viewers tuned into.

This subject may seem beautiful, but when it comes to the real effects on people, it's not that pretty. One VS fashion show alone can cause numerous detrimental effects.

In a featured Body Image Journal, US academic Joan Chrisler analyzes 977 tweets sent during the airing of the 2011 Victoria's Secret fashion show. The results were astonishing.

About one in ten tweets were negative expressions of self-comparison with comments about body image, eating disorders, weight, desires for food and alcohol, and, sadly, mentions of urges of self-harm.

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Chisler's search and analysis uncovered tweets such as, "time to starve because VS fashion show is the 10th!" and "nothing can make me feel so inferior as a woman than looking at pictures of VS models." It gets even worse Additional tweets like, "time to slit my wrists" and "Just wondering how many girls are committing suicide after watching the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show," were also discovered.

These tweets are just the beginning of the hundreds more. The motive behind the Victoria's Secret fashion show is questionable simply because of the fact that it continues to occur. After all of these effects -- like comments about self-starvation, feelings of intense inferiority and self-harm -- it's obvious that the shows may be totally destroying the self-esteem of people everywhere; and the benefits?

The Victoria's Secret supermodels visually fit the standards of society, therefore, they may be thought of as "perfect." So, the inevitable question lies, "Why can't I be perfect?"

The issue with this is that they're not "perfect." Withstanding the fact that there is no such thing as perfect, these models do not exactly define "natural" appearance-wise. Victoria's Secret Angels spend hours on end in the hair and makeup chairs while the pictures they pose for are heavily Photoshopped.

A Victoria's Secret model, Cameron Russell, admitted her guilt about her career.

"I'm not promoting anything totally unhealthy because I'm not unhealthy. But I am promoting an ideal that's not attainable, and for that I have to feel guilty. I have to assume some blame for that," Russell told Nightline.

Pressure: What Men Want

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Women: it's difficult to say that, over the years, we haven't been put through a lot, because we have. We've come a long way, but we do still have some battles to fight. A big problem today that women are dealing with is objectification, mostly from men. Almost every female was, or will be objectified at least once in their lifetime, and it does affect us.

Men act and women appear. Men look at women. Women watch themselves being looked at. This determines not only most relations between men and women but also the relation of women to themselves. The surveyor of woman in herself is male: the surveyed female. Thus she turns herself into an object -- and most particularly an object of vision: a sight, (John Berger, Ways of Seeing, 1977).

Men make it known -- what they want -- even if it is disrespectful. Maybe its just the way they are, or maybe they have developed the idea that this kind of disrespect is OK.

Maybe it's that, over the years, women have almost accepted their expectations to act and look a certain way, despite internal struggles; and this is probably not even a conscious act. After a while, it's normal for us, as human beings, to adapt to things after they've been a certain way for so long.

Ever since the beginning of human civilization history, an enormous amount of pressure has been put on women. Today, a common implicit obligation on women is set by the male desire. Many women feel that without the features that men so emphatically desire, they're not good enough or they will not be noticed at all.

Is the make desire to blame? Are men a piece of the puzzle for the mass distortion of female body image?

Men and women are both a subject to the media and conformism's impacts on body image, but for women, appearance may be critical much more than men due to the disproportionate roles of "power" that have ruled gender rolls for thousands of years.

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"Every day, ordinary women are being reduced to their sexual body parts," said study author Sarah Gervais, a psychologist at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln. "This isn't just something that supermodels or porn stars have to deal with."

Multiple studies have proven the negative effects of the objectification on women. These studies have proven that being objectified and sexualized may lead to many other issues such as body shame, eating disorders and poor mood. But today, the majority of men don't see these quality components of women, they see the outside, which is just an "object," but, is the media to blame for this behavior today?

"The media is probably a prime suspect," Garvais said. "Women's bodies and their body parts are used to sell all sorts of products, but we are now for everyday, ordinary women, processing them in a similar way."

In a way, it's almost inevitable that men will treat women a certain way when this objectification is all over the media.

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What Beauty Pageants Are Teaching Young Girls

Beauty pageants focus on one thing: beauty -- outer beauty. So, why are these competitions dangerous to young girl's self-esteem?

A beauty pageant is a competition of beauty, judging females as young as eight months old based on solely their outer beauty. By beginning these unnatural trends at such a young age, these girls will inevitably gain a distorted body image by growing up with a biased definition of "beautiful."

Beauty pageants are wrong because of many reason, the main reason being the values that they teach young females. Beauty pageants not only objectify women by basing self-worth on physical appearances, but by judging a competition of beauty, these pageants are teaching young girls that success is based on "beauty" of physical attributes.

Toddlers In Tiaras
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The recent beauty pageant reality show, Toddlers In Tiaras, is a basic representation of the extremes that are put on... toddlers?
Self-esteem deprivation is beginning at that age, and it's so accepted that there's a hit reality TV show about it?

Self-esteem is also an enormous negative factor of beauty pageants. Think about it: a young girl has just lost a competition based on her beauty. How would that make you feel?

According to a recent University of Minnesota, Minneapolis study, "a significant association between childhood beauty pageant participation and increased body dissatisfaction, difficulty trusting interpersonal relationships and greater impulsive behavior indicate a trend toward increased feelings of ineffectiveness," (Wondelich, Ackard and Henderson).

Facts don't lie, the obvious truth is that these competitions of outer beauty can -- and most often do -- cause mental instabilities in its participants. In fact, studies show that more than eighty percent of ten year old girls are afraid of being fat.

"Being a little Barbie doll say that your body has to be a certain way and your hair has to be a certain way. In girls particularly, this can unleash a whole complex of destructive self-experiences that can lead to eating disorders and all kinds of body distortions in terms of body image," say psychologist William Pinsof. In other words, these young females dress up with loads of makeup and hours behind their hair, looking like Barbie dolls, which, in terms, can lead to numerous body image distortions throughout those girls' lives.

Another disturbing factor concerning beauty pageant is that the rules are basically nonexistent. According to Attorney General of the Department of Justice in California, "there is no law that prescribes how a pageant must be managed, the rules are set by each contest promoter." These contests are not only a judgement of beauty, but they are run with no law-binding rules! So, anyone has the ability to publicly judge a girl as young as eight months old simply because they are promoting the event?

Additionally, the people making decisions for the children are, most of the time, not even their doing: it's their parents.

Despite the detrimental effects on young females, beauty pageants are still one of the fastest growing industries in the United States. So, why is it so widely accepted? What's next?

Advertisements: A Commercialized Society?

Every day, we are exposed to almost 500 advertisements. By the time we hit seventeen years old, we had already seen about 250,000 commercial messages. Business advertisements prey on people with low self esteem. Advertisements for products such as weight loss pills, fat-free foods, exercise videos and equipment, skin products, makeup and fashion magazines want society to believe that its ideal to be "perfect" by "adding" or "fixing" something. The things is, there is no such thing as perfect.

In a recent study, sixty-eight participants in a sample of Stanford undergraduate and graduate students felt worse about their appearance after looking through women's magazines. By this, we can clearly note the amount of pressure these advertisements place on body image.

Model with the average sized mannequin

Diet business advertisers, for example, make forty to one-hundred billion dollars per year in revenue by selling temporary weight loss products (Cummings, 2005). Forms of persuasion such as a certain form of advertisement -- the before and after ad -- have shown proven negative effects about obesity and body image.

"While highlighting dramatic weight loss, before and after images ignore the reality of dieting and encourage the notion that losing weight is easy," says Andrew B. Geier, lead author and graduate student of Penn. State's department of psychology. "When someone believes that weight is easily controlled, it reinforces the negative stereotypes that obese people are inherently lazy due to a lack of disciple."

Weight loss industries give out an idea that without their product, basically, you're "fat", and therefore, not good enough for these high ideals. Similarly, with promotions of products such as rejuvenating treatments and cosmetic "enhancers" advertise the same idea; basically, "our product is necessary to be beautiful."

These advertisements are only looking out for the well-being of their profit, and steadily continue to decrease the amount of self-esteem in their target markets, only emphasizing the modern unattainable ideals of beauty.

"Maybe she's born with it, maybe its Maybelline."

The obvious decrease in values for original beauty can be seen in this Maybelline logo. Fifty-six percent of television commercials that are aimed to female viewers use beauty as a product appeal, including Maybelline.

"The media markets desire. And by reproducing ideals that are absurdly out of line with what real bodies really do look like," says Paul Hamburg, an assistant professor or psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. "The media perpetuates market for frustration and disappointment. Its customers will never disappear."

Today, we live in a commercialized society, which is only obtaining more and more unrealistic and unattainable values for body image. A majority of the advertisements we see every day portray messages of beauty and physical appearance, and studies show that these advertisements can have detrimental effects. 

"If women woke up and decided they really liked their bodies, just how many industries would go out of business." -Dr. Gail Dines

Women, Rise Up!

How the Media Failed Women in 2013

www.therepresentationproject.org

The Dangerous New Weight Loss Trend

The Thigh Gap

I was excited to have the opportunity to express the dry facts of this topic. I've always found this trend as an idea of ignorance, seeing as the physical attribute has nothing to do with weight or fat, but yet it has become a motivation of weight loss and a sort of "inspiration for young females, despite its possible incredibly dangerous circumstances.

The new controversy among teenagers known as the "thigh gap" has reached a dangerous high of popularity. The thigh gap has become an obsession among online social media encouraging young females to be so thin as to develop an often unattainable visual gap between their legs.

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"Thinspiration", the disturbing current trend on social networks such as Tumblr, Instagram and Pinterest, promotes thinness to youth in an unhealthy way.

The new trend stemming off of "thinspiration" is the widely known "thigh gap", encouraging young girls to go to unhealthy extremes in pursuit of this defined space between their thighs. These pressures have skyrocketed to the point to where it has been almost a defining feature--whether a female has a "thigh gap" or not. But what most young girls don't know is that it can be physically impossible to obtain this feature, depending on many physical attributes.

A thigh gap is a quite unalterable feature for many people, because of many factors, a majority of which being associated with genetics. 

Many people were simply born with the attribute, or born with an inability to obtain it, and this is neither a good or bad thing; it just means that you either have a space between your legs or you don't. This attribute has nothing to do with if you're fat or skinny, or ugly or pretty; its just a simple attribute. What many people don't know is that the "thigh gap" is not something you can just get. It has to do with many genetic factors such as body type, pelvic structure and tendon length.

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Everyone's body is different, but there are different types. The human body is divided into three main physiques based on propensity for fat gain, muscle growth or gain and frame. The mesomorph is known to have an athletic body type, generally described as "medium" built. Mesomorphs generally have an efficient metabolism and responds quickly to exercise and muscle growth. Endomorphs has soft and curvy physique and a sluggish metabolism, which means they gain weight easily and have to work hard to lose it. Some of the sexiest actresses and models are endomorphs such as Beyoncé, Shakira and Jennifer Lopez. Ectomorphs display opposite characteristics from endomorphs. Ectomorphs are slim boned, long-limbed with very little body fat and muscle. Supermodels, ballerinas and basketball players are most commonly ectomorphs.

As you can see from the picture, the only body type with the ability to healthily obtain a "thigh gap is an ectopmorph due to their characteristics. But even with those characteristics, it doesn't necessarily mean that its healthily possible to obtain this attribute.

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"There are absolutely differences in pelvics structures -- and more specifically in femoral neck angulation -- that can predispose someone to having more of a thigh gap than others," say Dean Somerset, exercise physiologist, strength coach and creator of Post Rehab Essentials (cited in jensinkler.com). "Essentially, the wider the pelvis and the closer the femoral neck angle is to ninety degrees, the greater the spacing between the thighs will be, irrespective to leg length, body fat, muscle mass, and so on."

So basically, two women can have identical leg lengths, thigh circumferences and body fat percentages, but that does not in any way guarantee that one, both or neither of them will have a thigh gap.

Along with pelvic size, tendon length is also a characteristic which depicts the thigh gap.

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"Another feature is the positioning of the belly [the thickest part] of the adductor muscles [o the inner thigh] in relation to the tendon. Some people are born with the thicker part of the adductor muscles in a high relative position on their thigh than others, which would limit the amount of spacing in between the thighs," says Somerset. "If someone is born with a longer tendon length to her adductors, she will show a gap much easier than someone with a shorter tendon length, completely irrespective of fitness, body composition or workout history."

With all of these characteristics, it may be obvious that it can be near impossible for one to obtain a "thigh gap", but still, it is widely controversial among young social media participants, who make up most of the younger generation. Should this be an accepted topic? Why has nothing been done to stop it?

The media has embraced it. 

"The intrusion and presence of social media in our lives really does make is very difficult," said Nancy Albus, chief executive officer at Castlewood Treatment Center, a suburban St. Louis facility that focuses on eating disorders.

"The important distinction about thigh gap is that is gives you an actual visual to achieve, this visual comparison of how your body does or doesn't stack up."

Sources: jensinkler.com, newinsightsllc.com, dailymail.co.uk

Photoshop: Altering Images, Altering Minds

The dramatic transformation of Sally Gifford Piper after her image underwent Photoshop

Photography is--or is supposed to be--unlike any painting or drawing. The original idea of photography was thought to be a "mirror image." This idea is the beauty of photography; it tells the truth, and nothing bu the truth. Unfortunately, that concept is being slowly disintegrated.

We now see media through photoshopped glass, but we are told--or are supposed to assume--that it is reality. What are we supposed to think when we see someone with absolutley no flaws or blemishes whatsoever if we assume its real? The immediate self-comparison is almost unavoidable, and as time goes on, the issue seems to just get worse.

A Dartmouth professor of computer science, Henry Ford, specializes in digital forensics and photo manipulation. When Ford was asked about his thoughts on the issue, he quickly affirmed the truth.

"The more and more we use this editing, the higher and higher the bar goes," Henry told ABC news in August of 2009. " They're creating things that are physically impossible."

Julia Roberts Lancome advertisement
which was banned in the UK for
absence of disclaimers for being
heavily airbrushed.

Physically impossible they are, and as technology continues to grow and advance, Photoshop will keep erasing the truth little by little. Currently, almost every image we see has been manipulated in some shape or form. Just last year, photoshopping has reached an all-time high. The undeniable fact is that photoshopping has gone completely overboard; even industry professionals agree. Ken Harris, a professional photo editor could not agree more.

"Every picture has been worked some twenty to thirty rounds of going back and fourth between the editor and the client and the agencies. [The images] are perfected to death," Harris explained.

These industries aim to make unattainable beauty look normal. The community is a subject to these lies and is almost always in near unavoidable self-comparison. We are a society determined to fix our never-ending list of flaws.

What will happen in years to come? What idea is this giving to younger generations?

Dr. McAneny of the AMA (American Medical Association) was inquired about her ideas on the subject.

"We need to stop exposing impressionable children and teenagers to advertisements portraying models with body types only attainable with the help of photo editing software," she responded.

Impressionable children and teenagers are impacted by the madness and its obvious; their imitations are proof.

Studies show that today, twenty-eight percent of girls are editing their own photos before posting them to social media. How do these girls feel about themselves in real life when most of the photos of themselves are edited to mere perfection.

Faith Hill, Redbook magazine
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Almost every day, we are a subject to photo manipulation's negative impacts. A picture is worth a thousand words? That may be true, but those words have become enormous lies. Aren't photos supposed to tell the truth? Has photo editing gone too far?