Negative Body Image during Teenage - Essay Example

Chernik uses a convincing approach to describe how deadly eating disorders arise from innocent diet and life decisions and goals, only to result in anorexia that requires months of intervention from hospitals and outpatient psychotherapy to get back to the old self. However, anorexia is preventable by the avoiding consumer culture described by Jhally, and unconditionally embracing self and learning to honor and love our bodies (579).

Siren J. Riley ‘The Black Beauty Myth (2002)’
Riley acknowledges that negative body image, like that experienced by Chernik during their teenage, is common among girls and young women, especially White, as they continually become dissatisfied with their bodies. However, the black woman is not so much into weight loss but into independence, intelligence, and self-confidence implying that weight loss is only a priority when there is a need to lose it after which one can get back to old lifestyles. I am angered by Riley’s approach to living that focuses more on identifying the body she wanted to be in and working out to get just it and then doing nothing to sustain it, thus encouraging bulimia nervosa. Like the anorexia Nervosa patient, the blacks suffering from bulimia only react to weight loss calls when obese and seek positive body image (230).

Rosalind Coward's ‘The Body Beautiful
Like Chernik and Riley, Coward argues that feminism today emphasizes life-threatening slimness that sees the young and old conflict with their bodies as they search for fashionable slimness through the elimination of problem areas (345). Considering Coward’s argument, I am inspired to think that whether one ends up being anorexic or non-bulimic, the goal is to get rid of excessive fat in the body, especially around the stomach, bosoms, and legs (346). The implication is that women negatively connote the perfect well-rounded female body in search of sexually immature adolescent figures.

S. Bear Bergman ‘When Will You Be Having the Surgery’
Though married, Bergman wants to lose weight and attain the perfect female body style and would be gland if it would involve surgery to get that desired body. Unlike Chernik and Riley, she would only have surgery to permanently fix her weight at 245 pounds leaving her big and bulky (53) and not extremely slim like Coward describes. I am inspired by Bergman’s list of things that she would take surgery to obtain. However, the items are not an obsession and she can only attain them if she was certain the changes they would bring to her would bring her the glory she deserves and be in her usual own style.

Sut Jhally ‘Image-Based Culture: Advertising and Popular Culture
Jhally refers to the consumer culture as responsible for the emphasis on image described by Chernik, Riley, Bergman, and Coward, especially through advertisements that draw people towards things as means of satisfaction (252). With advertisements, image-oriented influence spreads to unlimited boundaries that and is subject to misunderstandings that confuse what is portrayed with true reflections. As consumer culture emphasizes image, humans have to learn to draw lines between substance or reality, and surface to avoid being entangled in the increasing sense of disorientation. Read More