Cultural Pressure to Be Thin free essay sample

There are many factors that are causing people young and old to get caught up in the new health and fitness craze. One of these factors affect almost everyone in the media. Celebrities are setting the standard for the new thin trend. In Hollywood the pressures for actresses to get and stay thin is the source of a shocking and alarming trend. Females, especially celebrities, have become tinier and skinnier then ever. The look of being â€Å"skinny† has changed from being simply health conscious to a dangerous obsession. This sudden obsession with thinness hasn’t always been around as said by Sandy Szwarc, â€Å" At no time in history have women been so pressured to be thin† (Dying to). This new fad started in the late 90’s out of nowhere. In the past, big full bodied women were considered beautiful while in these days, the public is influenced by the media and Strive to become as thin and fit as possible. We will write a custom essay sample on Cultural Pressure to Be Thin or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page Calista Flockhart and Lara Flynn Boyle were the first of many celebrities to take thinness obsession to the new extreme. This new fixation has set the bar higher than ever, and in turn, created a dark side of â€Å"fitness†. Our culture is swept up in a web of peculiar and distorted beliefs about beauty, health, eating and appetite. We have elevated the pursuit of lean, fat-free body into a new religion. People are beginning To live their lives around being as thin and fit as physically possible. They eat, breathe and sleep This new fitness crazes and follows all the rules as if they were 10 commandments. There is no clear reason why the media is promoting this extreme slenderness other than many other than many people deathly afraid of becoming fat that they would do anything to avoid it. Advertisements are promoting unhealthy weight loss and crazy gimmicks such as diet pills. Despite almost universal criticism following weight-loss programs and an epidemic of dangerous eating disorders. This unrelenting pressure to be thin is driven by diet, fashion, cosmetics, fitness and pharmaceutical industries. The fashion industry affects everyone. When one walks into a clothing store, the nice clothes are found in smaller sizes. Different stores are for larger women and men to find clothes to fit Their bodies types. Fashion is not just about the clothes you wear these days is about the naked body itself. The size of clothing has shrunk with the discovery of miniskirts and skimpy tank tops. Not much of the body is covered up these days, making it almost impossible to hide the flaws of the human body. This causes people to strive for the perfect body never becoming satisfied with themselves. This results in the overly skinny body image problems that plague society today. Your friend’s family and strangers all affect how you view yourself and can also affect your weight. Szwarc states that â€Å"Fat prejudice, formed by 8 years of age, is the strongest prejudice found among children, who then shun their overweight peers†. This just shows that friends and strangers can affect people at a very young age. The standards for being an acceptable weight have become unreasonable, even for young children who are active all the time. Even elementary school age girls, fear looking fat more than losing their parents, getting cancer or dying in a nuclear war . It’s sad to think that appearance is starting to become first priority in not just adult’s lives but also children’s. Everyday people are bombarded with advertisements and pressure from society to obtain this new unhealthy look. But what many people don’t understand is that being under weight is just as harmful and unhealthy as being overweight. Diet industries are taken advantage of the public’s sudden skinny craze. Our money is going to continue to be wasted on dangerous diets and fitness gimmicks. We the consumers are the only ones who can change this fat a phobic lifestyle back into healthy lifestyles that were once lived before.