Anorexia nervosa is a serious eating disorder symptomized of a low weight, fear of gaining weight, a strong desire to be thin, and restriction of the intake of food. It has been quite of a big issue in the past few years. It has literally invaded our lives, with media always hosting models and promoting this lifestyle; magazines with anorexic girls on the cover, TV shows with women that only fit into the XS size, and Instagram profiles of skinny girls with millions of followers. It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that it has embedded in our culture.
Some terrifying facts about anorexia are that between 0.5–1% of American women suffer from this serious, potentially life-threatening disorder and that approximately 90-95% of anorexia sufferers are girls and women.
In a society ‘dictated’ by non-censored media, it is expected that public figures with anorexia will be easily boosted. Social media, such as Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, and Instagram are dominated if not run by narcissistic people, who often suffer from anorexia, promoting it to the world unwittingly. In any case the world of beauty applauds and supports this lifestyle.
A recent example is Mary Kate Olsen, a 30-year-old fashion designer, businesswoman, and former actress, who undoubtedly has a large effect on how people see fashion. In a recent interview she was asked about her eating disorder and she neither admitted, nor denied what she is going through, making it even more obvious.
Kate Moss, another figure of great influence in the minds of young girls and women, has quoted that “Nothing tastes as good as skinny feels”. When such words come from the mouth of a supermodel, an idol, the ‘most iconic model of all times’, it is certain that a lot of people will be affected by that.
Anorexia nervosa is extremely serious. Girls and women who suffer from it never feel themselves skinny enough, thinking there is always more. But is there, though? They try to persuade themselves that their first bite makes them full, and suddenly there comes a day, when food has to become their medicine.
anth102spring2016 
I agree with your post, and especially like what you said about how for many women food has become their medicine. It is scary to think that so many young girls look up to women such as the Olsen sisters and Kate Moss and think that their beauty is ideal. It is concerning that in order to achieve that “standard” of beauty girls eventually starve themselves because they feel that the only way to look pretty is to look like these anorexic models. And it is sad that social media has played a huge role in boosting their fame because of their figures.
LikeLike
Spare me the flaming but I believe that people who diet like this are rather lacking intelligence. Dieting is not the best way to lose weight in general. People think its close to impossible to look like models but from my experience, its a lot easier than on may think. Instead of not eating, a person should eat the right things and exercise. That’s all it takes to get a model body, the only hard part is having the discipline to stick to it.
LikeLike