Final Paper Rough Draft

Scotts Valley Unified School District               
 4444 Scotts Valley Drive, Suite 5B
Scotts Valley, California, 95066

 To whom it may concern,
                   My name is Michelle Mayfield, I have attended schools within the Scotts Valley Unified School district from grades K-12 and am fairly acquainted with the social proceedings. I wish to bring to your attention an issue of national proportion that is affecting the schools within this district. Not only as a whole but most predominately the adolescent females attending your institutions of learning.

                  Motivation, or desperation no matter what you may call it there is always a driving force pushing us forward towards a goal. Despite the variance of goals amongst people, society itself places a goal for us all. Intertwined into the messages we perceive, embedded into our subconscious this goal we strive for that forever eludes us: perfection. The Merriam-Webster dictionary perfection is, " being entirely without fault or defect" and "corresponding to an ideal standard or abstract concept"(merriam-webster.com). This constant goal whether conscious or subconscious shapes our actions and presentation of our self.  Perfection is defined by society in the images it shows to us, and portrayal of such images as 'normal' and beyond that: social acceptable. Exposure to this starts at a young age but does not fully manifest fully until our developmental years. A crucial, and detrimental example of the effect this has not only of the public as a whole but specifically those in adolescence or freshly out of such is body image. This topic is now gaining awareness due to mental and physical disorders directly correlating to exposure to society's standards of body image. Society today has erected unachievable standards for body image through various types of media resulting in negative body image most prevalently in adolescent females resulting in mental and physical disorders. These various types of media psychologically have dire results on the impressionable mind.

           Exposure to this idealistic body image promoted by the media and stemming from society starts at a younger age them most might think and in the most innocent of forms. When you see a young girl playing with her dolls, perhaps a Barbie doll, most think little of it. But to that small child, Barbie is beautiful and perfect. So why wouldn't she want to look like her? Especially if that means looking like Barbie gets you a dream house, hunky husband and pink VW bug. What these little girls do not realize that no one could ever look like Barbie. Huffington Post released an article addressing the topic back in 2011 stating, "If Barbie were an actual women, she would be 5'9" tall, have a 39" bust, an 18" waist, 33" hips and a size 3 shoe" (Huffingtonpost.com). These impossible measurements are what little girls grow up thinking is 'perfect'. This image of perfection becomes imbedded into their impressionable minds and will continue to stay there for many years to come. The image of perfection does not recede as time goes on, but in fact grows more engrained as they grow older and enter a whole new world of societal expectations.

           The influences of media are everywhere, from the commercials you see on TV to the magazine covers you pass at the grocery store; there is no escaping it. One of the perhaps most prominent sources of this influence is from television shows. Professor and PHD holder Marika Tiggemann of Finders University published a study she conducted that was composed of placing 310 adolescent girls ranging from ages 13-17 in front of a TV screen to watch fifteen commercials with actresses that fit the social norm of perfection, or 15 commercials containing none of these idealistic images. Tiggemann found that,"The result for adolescent girls show that viewing thin ideal commercials led to increased body disatisfaction, and that this effect was partly mediated by the appearance comparison and schema activation processes"(Journal of communications). This study gives evidence to the overwhelming number of adolescent females that suffer from negative body image and or low self esteem due to influences by the media. Repetition is a common mode of learning to allow for information to pass from our short term memory to our longer term memory. By adolescent girls seeing these images of what a 'perfect' woman looks like over and over, everywhere they look, there is such a degree of repetition that it becomes deeply rooted into their minds. Despite this repetition not being a conscious effort the effects are no different. Seeing these images so frequently cements this idea of perfection, translating it into unhealthy expectations towards their own bodies. The unhealthiness of these expectations, and the mental repercussions for not meeting such standards can have detrimental effects on their health.

            Striving for an unrealistic body image often results in health issues due to adolescent females turning to unhealthy means to lose weight once realizing conventional methods wont be enough. These unhealthy methods include Anorexia and Bulimia.  Anorexia, also called Anorexia Nervosa, is described by WebMD, a popular online medical site, as being, "...a potentially life-threatening eating disorder that is characterized by self-starvation and excessive weight loss"(WebMD.com) The other common eating disorder, Bulimia, is described by the same source as being, "an eating disorder that involves bingeing on food followed by purging"(WebMD). Both of these eating disorders can be life threatening causing those afflicted to be malnourished which in turn leads to other health problems that include but are not limited to kidney disease, and heart disease. These disorders are directly correlated to negative body image. These adolescent females strive to attain the body that they see constantly in the media. These tall models with legs that appear to go on forever, wasp thin waists and flawless skin appear to them as being society's version of perfection. If that is what society wants, must they look like such to be considered 'pretty'? According to American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (AACAP) in a study done back in 2008, "In the United States, as many as 10 in 100 young women suffer from an eating disorder"(AACAP.org). This number continues to rise as these idealistic women get thinner and thinner. The AACAP states that this is due to 'distortion of body image' which is due to societal expectations through the influence of the media.

             With so many dire effects due to the media one might think why has nothing been done to stop this? Though this continues at large there are those who wish to combat this by instead of portraying the perfect woman as thin and gangly replacing her with someone who is physically fit and lives a healthy lifestyle. One such supporter of the fit woman is Shape magazine, which is dedicated to encouraging women to be fit and healthy, and through safe means achieve the body they desire. Cover models for this magazine show obvious amounts one muscle mass. Shape Magazine posted on their website back in 2010 stating, "While I don't believe it's possible to look at someone and tell how healthy they are based off their size, I do believe that glorifying images of underfed bodies is harmful"(Shape.com). Shape Magazine is not the only contributor to the efforts of healthy body images many companies now are incorporating plus size models to show that all sizes are beautiful. Where there is progress there are also set backs, many high fashion brands see nothing wrong with the sizes of their models and show no inclination to change. Iconic brand name Chanel, and the famous owner of the label Karl Lagerfeld said while in an interview with England's Channel 4 News that, "The models are skinny, but they're not that skinny"(Huffington Post.com) Where there is progress there are also set backs and this is very much so true when it comes to promoting a healthy body image to adolescent females. For such a goal to be achieved there must be unification of the media and this sadly is very unlikely.  Though with forces campaigning for healthy body image there is still hope for a future of self-loving adolescent females. However there is something that can be done about this on a smaller scale that when coupled with other equating efforts can make a difference. This effort is awareness. By raising awareness about this topic, and bringing it to the attention of the media, and furthermore all of society this could initiate the change that could diminish the large amounts of adolescent females dissatisfied with their body's. 

             These unachievable standards for woman's bodies depicted by the media and backed by societal influences are causing an epidemic of adolescent girls with negative body images which often later develop into mental and or physical disorders. Though efforts are being made by some figures in the media there is still not enough influence at present to give convincing evidence to these girls that a malnourished appearance portrayed in the media isn't the right one. However raising awareness about this issue may be beneficial to speeding the process along. Taking action against unhealthy body images in the media will do more than simply make adolescent girls feel better about themselves it will save lives.

Sincerely,

Michelle