Socio-cultural Issues and Eating Disorders

Socio-cultural Issues and Eating Disorders Name Institution Socio-cultural Issues and Eating Disorders The media has played a major role in promoting the western popular culture which has in turn affected body image positivity. This paper entails a media analysis and a subsequent examination of the relationship between the western culture and eating disorders, more so due to the high pressure to pursue the perfect body image. Media Analysis The first part of this section analyzes the Popchip print advertisement featuring Katy Perry, an American female celebrity. The advertisement shows popchips as healthier potato chips option that is neither cooked nor fried. The advertisement features statements such as “spare me the guilt chip” (Skeels, 2012), which is a way of saying that popchips, unlike other potato chips, would not make consumers feel guilty after eating them. In a way, this use of humor first shows that there is a negative attitude associated with eating potato chips, in this case, guilt. Second, it sends the message that this is not the case with popchips because they will not lead to weight gain, hence no need for a guilt trip. Another statement that really captures the attention of consumers is “ love. without the handles”. Under this statement falls the caption “ I curl popchips straight to my lips. good thing they don’t go straight to my hips” (Skeels, 2012). This specific caption is persuading to consumers because first, it features a female celebrity who has the “ideal” body image promoted by the media. Second, the female celebrity notes that despite eating those popchips, she does not add weight, which is quite desirable because people want to enjoy eating without worrying about gaining weight. As such, consumers are given the motivation to eat popchips because according to Katy Perry, they are healthy and do not cause weight gain. In addition, the design of this print advertisement is quite captivating. Popping colors are used and Katy wears clothes that reveal her attractive physique. Her facial expressions also reveal the joy she feels after consuming the popchips. Thus, it dispels any guilt that could be associated with consuming popchips. This print advertisement puts a lot of consideration into what is well-known; that eating certain types of food will result in weight gain. To dispell this idea, the advertisement uses humor and an attractive public figure. This second part analyzes Beyonce's music video titled “ Pretty Hurts”. The video features Beyonce and other models competing in beauty pageants and the struggles they all face, especially in terms of body image, in order to fit in. Beyonce’s character is first rejected to participate in the beauty pageant because she does not have the ideal weight and waistline (Beyonce, 2014). These are all parts of what makes the “perfect” body image and Beyonce’s character embarks on a journey in pursuit of the ideal body so that she can become a participant as well. First, she starts taking pills so that she can lose some of her weight. Following the scene of taking pills are some lyrics in the video that mentions “sugar-free” and “Vogue says thinner is better” (Beyonce, 2014). This reveals the pressure that is there for people to consume certain types of food and to lose weight as much as possible. The video also shows Beyonce engaging in excessive exercises and in some scenes, she is seen inducing vomiting in the bathroom to throw up her stomach’s contents. This all points to a possible eating disorder, which has resulted from the need to have a certain body image. Another character in the video is also seen soaking cotton wool in juice and then eating it, a practice that is used by people to make them feel full without having to consume food. This scene depicts how the need to have the ideal body image imposes a negative attitude towards food. In short, the video reveals that eating food is associated with weight gain, and weight gain is associated with an undesirable body image. However, this body image is socially constructed and it is up to society to encourage positive body image by refraining from prescribing to just one “ideal” body image. Western Culture and Eating Disorders Culture influences many aspects of life, one of them being body image and eating attitudes. In fact, cultural beliefs of how an ideal woman, or man, should look like have greatly enhanced the development of eating disorders. What's worse is that even individuals with normal weight are developing eating disorders in pursuit of an ideal body image, thanks to western popular culture. As posited by Sharan and Sundar (2015) western cultural representation of “fat-phobia” affects how many people, more so women, think of themselves and their bodies. Due to those cultural representations, eating foods for pleasure, especially those high in calories, is usually accompanied by the feeling of guilt for many people. Yet, this guilt comes from the knowledge that consuming foods with high calories will not lead to the body image that has been advertised through western popular culture as ideal. To deal with this guilt, some people may opt for practices such as induced vomiting and laxative use to push out food as soon as the guilt kicks in. Others may opt to reduce their food consumption to the bare minimum. This has resulted in the development of eating disorders such as bulimia and anorexia, respectively. The weste...