Underweight Era: Are women getting too thin?
Uploaded by short + black on Jul 17, 2007
Underweight Era: Are women getting too thin?
During recent years, teenage girls have been put into the media spot light regarding their physical appearance. One main issue that has hit many magazines is for young girls to concentrate on how much one ought to weigh and what should be considered as a ‘normal’ weight for teenagers between the ages of 13 to 18. Who is responsible for the weight loss? Is it the media, parents and peer pressure or is it the generation we live in?
“Young women are bombarded by ideas of beauty,” states Susan Sawyer, Centre for Adolescent health, Dolly magazine, August 2006. Dieting to the extreme amongst teenagers nowadays is considered to be normal as it is seen on television shows such as the ‘Biggest loser.’ To make the matter more complicated, many teenagers look up to stars such as Paris Hilton and Nicole Ritchie. These two stars in the eyes of many are shown to be fashion icons as they are skinny and have the ‘perfect’ body image.
The article represents teenagers as self obsessive and isolated from what they should be enjoying rather than worrying about their weight. “Girls obsessed with weight are not fun to be around.”
This article indicates that the media has some impact on how adolescents think and act about their weight and body image. ‘In the US they’ve turned competitive dieting into a reality show.’ This article provides evidence that girls are dissatisfied with their bodies due to reality television shows which promote weight loss and plastic surgery as a normal and everyday way of life.
This article does not use humour to ridicule the issue of dieting or other forms of weight loss. Without the use of humour, the message comes across to the reader as a serious matter that should be dealt with in a proper manner.
The heading of the article, ‘Competitive dieting – who’s the thinnest of them all,’ makes dieting sound like a game that is played amongst primary school children. The word ‘thinnest’ is put up in big writing and in a different font colour to attract the reader.
The values, attitudes, and beliefs underpinning this article emphasize the fact that our society is accustomed to losing weight and willing to do anything to fit into different social status groups. “… They see girls in magazines and on TV who have ‘perfect’ bodies and...