In today's society, models and actors/actresses are praised and envied for their slim waists, skinny thighs, and toned bodies. Many people see these models and actors in multiple forms of media and they compare their bodies to the bodies that they see in these forms of media. These people will then do anything to get the body that the media considers as "ideal". This includes developing an eating disorder, even if it could put their bodies and lives into serious danger. I have personally witnessed how the media can affect someone's image of themselves and can tell, even though researchers from the other side of the argument claim genetics is the only cause of eating disorders, that the media definitely has an influence on someone developing anorexia or bulimia. The media, such as televisions, internet, and magazines, needs to realize that the advertisements they put out can cause people to develop an eating disorder and we, as buyers, need to take a stand against these types of false advertisements. Eating disorders are being spread like a virus as a result of the media and it needs to be stopped.
I personally have had two very close people in my life suffer from eating disorders, such as anorexia and bulimia, and I had to watch them harm themselves without being able to stop them. They would not listen to anyone when they were told the harm they were doing to their bodies and the serious consequences that the eating disorder could cause them to have for the rest of their lives. Luckily, after time, both of them got help and saw therapists to help them try to realize that what they were doing was not healthy and also help them to realize what a healthy person should actually look like. When one of these people had become healthy and would talk about the disorder that she had, I asked her why she had started starving herself and making herself sick so she could lose weight.