Moving pictures animate in the eyes of the many young children who grew up watching television. Many of whom captivated by the fairytales depicted in the animation styles of many media companies such as Pixar Animated Studios, Sony Pictures Animation, Or the remarkable Walt Disney Studio Animation.
They watch the heroes in their glory, portrayed with muscular, thin abled bodies as they defeat the usually obese hideous villains. All, of course with the support of their love interest, the conventionally attractive damsel in distress.
Even dating back to the beginning of the 1920s many of easily influenced children witnessed as villains in countless animated movies and shows were portrayed as obese and glutinous while the hero, usually a male, was portrayed as thin and able bodied. While not all animated films fall into this category, it does not bury the influence it had on society as we know it today as it enforces the idea that good shall be portrayed as thin while bad shall be portrayed as fat or obese. The way society understands concepts is the foundation of existing media that portrays diverse groups of people. This has led to the idea that fatness is an inherently bad feature, causing there to be unfair assumptions on ones character such as the claims that overweight people are glutinous or lazy.
Some examples of overweight or obese characters who are depicted as villainous include: Queen of Hearts (Alice in Wonderland), Ursula (The Little Mermaid), and Governor Ratcliffe (Pocahontas). The negative traits these characters are associated with, include but are not limited to: greed, gluttony, selfishness, wrath, loudness, entitlement, and cruelty. Children are fed and taught these types of negative associations and stereotypes by the media they consume that hold the bad representations.
Opposite of that, Media representation of what society deems attractive can also affect and influence the youth. With the appearance not only of female heroines on the screens of many children animated movies portraying images of small waists and a thin figure but also with the appearance of Women that are airbrushed on the cover of magazines to hide flaws. This aids in encouraging the vulnerable youth to be unsatisfied with their life, flaws, body and shape. This often leads to low self-esteem issues which can later form into an eating disorder due to the media creating unhealthy or even unrealistic image of beauty.
Horrifically, it has been witnessed through varies trends the encouragement of various eating disorders in the media. Many hashtags have been recorded to be in various social media such as the infamous #thinspo or #thinspiration which is a hashtag that depicted many pictures of thin actors, models, celebrities, or influencers with captions that glorify eating disorders. Those posts are shared with the cruel intent of inspiring people to get thinner with unhealthy means that easily lead to obsession causing various eating disorders such as bulimia and anorexia.
Thinspiration blogs has sadly been dating back from as far as 2001 with yahoo deleting over a hundred websites that violated their policies as they were deemed pro-anorexia.
In the warped online world held by digital media, pro-anorexia is seen only as a lifestyle instead of a mental health condition, which in-turn, calls for the need of a diet consistent with the means of their lifestyle.
Commercials from the 90s found that there has been diets encouraging women to swallow tapeworm pills which not only can create blockage of bile ducts, but can also grow unsafe physical symptoms that are associated with eating disorders and it also encourages behaviors such as over-exercising, restrictive eating, and purging.
Studies have found that 35% of dieting becomes obsessive and 20% to 25% of those diets turn into eating disorders. And with the bad representation of plus sized people in the media, the pro-anorexia community, and the overall link between digital media and eating disorders; Its easy to get mixed up into the obsessive cycle of unhealthy diets, excessive workouts, and an overall toxic mindset.
As the writer of this article, I encourage you to diet safely and to treat your body with love. Please seek help and advice from these following hotline if suffering with mental issues in the United Arab Emirates: (8004673)
Read more:
Unraveling the connection between digital media and eating disorders. - Teen Ink
