Skinny Jeans and the Weight of My Sins

Anorexia is at the opposite end of the weight spectrum from obesity. Anorexia is a problem now because people are looking at various factors when examining themselves. A few of these factors are: religion and how their beliefs shape the view of how women should look, pictures from the past drawn by famous artists, current singers and how they dress in their music videos, social media, and genetic factors.

In James Ciment's essay, "Obesity and Eating Disorders", he makes two claims about how women picture themselves. The first claim that he makes is that the rise of Christianity in the West has lead women to believe that they need to fast as a form of ritualistic purification. The second claim is that as we lost our asceticism we moved towards having unnaturally clinched waists to try and satisfy the public image of women in fashion.

The first claim about eating disorders deals with women in old times fasting as a form of ritualistic purification. This reason would not be a valid argument because the Bible does not tell us to starve ourselves. The Bible actually says the complete opposite. Proverbs 6:30 "People do not despise a thief who steals to satisfy his hunger when he is starving". This quote from the Bible tells us that in instances of dire hunger, it is alright to do all means necessary to satisfy our desires. Therefore, this theory that anorexia originated because of the amount of the Christian movements, would be false.

The second theory is the one that should be looked at as the most likely to be the cause of anorexia. This claim says that women are becoming skinnier, and skinnier because of how society perceives what "attractive" women look like. Women would cause self-starvation because they feel that if they are not super skinny like the models they see on the television, then other people will not view them as attractive. This theory has some truth to it, but it also has some flaws.

Throughout history the female physique has been criticized. In recent history one of the most attractive females of all time. According to Mens' Health Marilyn Monroe is the third hottest woman of all time. She is not regarded as a thin woman. Marilyn is an example for all women in the matter that they do not have to be the skinniest person on the plant to be considered attractive.

In a painting done by Pablo Picasso, he portrays a woman looking into the mirror. The woman has a sad expression on her face because she feels that she is not the ideal image of a woman. The black hair represents how society views women with blonde hair as being the perfect hair color. Also, the watch on her hand represents how she feels like her life is just wasting away. If you look closely at the picture she does have a skinny waist, but the cloak makes her look larger than she is. This is to portray that even if you are super skinny, chances are you will not always be happy with yourself. The final aspect of this picture that is worth noting is the color of the reflection on her mirror. The color is brown; brown is not considered a pretty color in any regard, therefore, she does not seem to think she is pretty.

 

In this painting down by Goya, men are shown, rather than women. The difference between men and women, when talking aesthetically, is their figure. Men are typically not worried about being skinny, rather, they care more about how fit or muscular they appear. Goya portrays the men to be in front of a crowd, possibly under scrutiny for their appearance. This does not directly apply to Ciment's theories because the men are not starving themselves, but it does have to deal with his claim because they are trying to change their appearance to be in accordance with society.

In an article, "ThinkingBig: The effect of sexually objectifying music videos on bodily self-perceptionin young women", they say that women today are influenced by what they see from popular artists in the music world. Their research found that only women with a low self-esteem were negatively impacted about their appearance compared to the women in the sexually objectifying videos. 

Katy Perry's new song, "Dark Horse", has been in the top 50 ever since it was aired on the radio. She is shown in this video as an Egyptian Queen. People would not be influenced by this video to dress like this, but they could be tempted to try and shape their figure to look like her. Dark Horse would be considered a neutral video because she is clothed at all times, therefore the statistics below on this chart would be related more with this video specifically. On the counter side of Table 2, is the statistics for if the video objectified the women in their videos.

Table 2. Correlations of music video attitudes and self-esteem in the objectifying and neutral music video condition.

	Neutral videos (n = 28)	Objectifying videos (n = 28)
Liking of the videos	.48**	−.49**
Attractiveness models	.09	−.13
Eye-catching models	−.03	−.19
Identification with models	.11	−.43*
Models as a source of inspiration for appearance	−.06	−.48*
Body related thoughts	−.14	−.61**
Social comparison	−.16	−.44*

*

p < .05.

**

p < .01.

In the article, "Negotiatedmedia effects. Peer feedback modifies effects of media’s thin-body ideal onadolescent girls", they talk about how friends and social media can influence a woman's perspective on their own body. This theory is highly plausible because people tend to care about what others think of them. Also, social media can easily show how other people should be viewed in society. Social media influences people's diet because they can easily access new ways and theories to losing weight. Also, anyone can post anything they want on the internet, without having validity to their points. People should not trust all they see in the media for these reasons. 

Dove has launched a campaign to help see how women feel about their own body, and if they perceive themselves as beautiful. In their studies they have found an increase of 2% since 2004. The media, whether intentional or not, does shape how women view themselves. They tend to have skinny models who advertise their product. Women take notice of these actresses and consider if they need to look like that to be considered pretty. It is a disappointing aspect of our society that should be reconsidered. 

In contrast to my belief in my previous obesity blog, I feel that anorexia has more potential to deal with genetics. Again, people can take preventative measures to help their chances of not being super skinny. They can get on diet plans and try to eat well. With anorexia there is a possibility that people's metabolism works so fast, they physically can not keep the weight on. I come from the perspective that it is easier to do things to lose weight, than to gain it. On NCBI, there are a few reasons presented to defend women on the issue of losing too much weight.

Anorexia and weight loss are impactful phenomenons that are sweeping the nation. These issues need to be addressed and taken care of before they severely affect someone's life in a negative way. Women should feel comfortable in their own skin without worrying about if they look like the photoshopped women in the media.