IDC 4U1: Journal Entry Question #1
The voices of youth are vital to the field of journalism. As young journalists, you have an important role in "representing" the diverse attitudes, opinions, and beliefs of your generation. Visit Young Peoples' Press, read one of the featured articles and write an entry about it.
Why does thin have to be in?
This article, written by Kaylin Taggart, is essentially about how hard it is for women to have positive body images when society is constantly telling them that they have to be thin.
In the article, Taggart tells the story of a young woman named Tierney Wallace. Wallace, a freshman at Broome Community College, struggled with an eating disorder a few years ago. She forced herself to live on a diet wherein she was allowed to consume a maximum of 400 calories per day.
While she was on this thoroughly unhealthy diet, she began to lose weight. She was frequently receiving compliments from others, making it difficult for her to seek help; she feared that doctors would force her to eat and all the attention she had been getting for her thin figure would disappear.
Eventually, she became very frail and started to lose muscle mass, due to the fact that her metabolism had virtually shut down. She finally decided to seek treatment for her illness and made a successful recovery, with the help of family and friends.
Tierney Wallace, like many other woman, wanted to live up to society’s current – and unrealistic – standards of beauty. According to Taggart, “she looked at other people and saw them as beautiful, attractive and skinny. She looked in the mirror and saw ugly and fat.”
This article, written by Kaylin Taggart, is essentially about how hard it is for women to have positive body images when society is constantly telling them that they have to be thin.
In the article, Taggart tells the story of a young woman named Tierney Wallace. Wallace, a freshman at Broome Community College, struggled with an eating disorder a few years ago. She forced herself to live on a diet wherein she was allowed to consume a maximum of 400 calories per day.
While she was on this thoroughly unhealthy diet, she began to lose weight. She was frequently receiving compliments from others, making it difficult for her to seek help; she feared that doctors would force her to eat and all the attention she had been getting for her thin figure would disappear.
Eventually, she became very frail and started to lose muscle mass, due to the fact that her metabolism had virtually shut down. She finally decided to seek treatment for her illness and made a successful recovery, with the help of family and friends.
Tierney Wallace, like many other woman, wanted to live up to society’s current – and unrealistic – standards of beauty. According to Taggart, “she looked at other people and saw them as beautiful, attractive and skinny. She looked in the mirror and saw ugly and fat.”
Mainstream media is, of course, the reason every woman wants to be thin. We are constantly inundated with images of bony fashion models and slender celebs. Every other add features a tiny, scantilly-clad female showcasing some product or other. Even perfectly healthy girls have tried to lose the extra five or ten pounds to look better in their clothing – clothing that fit just fine in the first place. Who else is to blame, really, for the fact that one out of every hundred teenage girls has anorexia? Though I can’t say for sure, I’m almost certain that eating disorders weren’t as big a problem back when Marilyn Monroe’s figure was society’s ideal.
With regards to this subject, I think that the opinions of youth and adults don’t vary too greatly. I think that most people, whether they’re 18 or 42, are aware of the fact that society dictates what is beautiful and that, right now, society says that thin is in.
1 comment:
hey diana.. i tottally agree with this, especailly when you said that we prolly wouldnt be having any problems if Marilyn Monroe's figure was what was excepted by society today.. good stuff hommie!
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