An Overview of Eating Disorders - Dissertation Example

Eating disorders affect many people, with some estimates suggesting that 10 million people in the UK could be affected (Currin et al., 2005). Despite this, the precise cause of the disease has not yet been ascertained. What seems to be evident is that there is a mixture of biological and environmental causes, with genetics setting the scene for an eating disorder and an environmental effect triggering the disorder. One of the most widely-discussed environmental triggers is the media, who are often blamed for their use of skinny models and an expectation of beauty far out of the reach of the norm.

Models have been shown to have body mass indexes (BMIs) far below that of the average woman (Quick & Byrd-Bredbenner, 2011), again compounding this unrealistic ideal of beauty. The way the media presents women has been shown to affect the population's body image, particularly young women.Also interesting is the development of social media, which has helped a pro-anorexia sub-culture to flourish. This culture uses skinny women images and holds them up as an ideal (‘thinspiration’, a portmanteau of thin and inspiration).

Often, forums or websites dedicated to this ideal share tips on promoting disordered eating, starvation, and purging being seen as a positive way to achieve extreme and dramatic weight loss (Gailey, 2009). These new media have further compounded how women are portrayed in the media, perhaps being one of the most important triggers for eating disorders for those with a genetic predisposition to the condition. This research investigates the links between the media and the body image of individuals and how the general population perceives this link.

This will give an insight into how important the media is in influencing people concerning their body image. These new social media's role in promoting an unhealthy body ideal and disordered eating will be examined to show that this is also hurting those suffering from eating disorders.