What is beauty? Beauty as defined by Websters Dictionary is "The quality that gives pleasure to the mind or the senses." Having beauty or being beautiful is something that peoples throughout the world have tried to achieve for years. Unfortunately in America, being beautiful means having the perfect body, and this has turned into an obsession that has been perpetuated by the media and societal pressures.
People who disagree with the fact that Americans are obsessed with their self image will quickly point out that wanting to look beautiful is healthy and good for one's self esteem. The fashion industry, the group most often targeted for America's image problems, says that society and parents should bear the biggest responsibility (SMH 2). Jane Hufnagl, a fashion industry expert says, "It is the family's obligation to make sure that the child understands that the body God gave them is it, and they should be happy with it" (SMH 3). The fashion industry even goes as far to claim that their models are not to thin, and that often time camera angles and special lenses give the false appearance that models are skinnier than they actually are.
The first issue that must be addressed when looking at America's obsession with image, must be the issue of weight. According to author Jill S. Zimmerman, "The idea of slim as beautiful has been promoted since World War II" (37). This coincides with the increased presence of the television in American living rooms. .
The need to be slimmer has become paramount for many young women looking to achieve that mythical beauty standard. In fact, some women's need to be thinner has reached almost epidemic proportions with more than seven million women and girls suffering from some form of eating disorder (Zimmerman 39).
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To understand the severity of the problem, we must first understand the eating disorders themselves. The most common of eating disorders is Anorexia Nervosa.