Globalization of Eating Disorders

As is stand in front of the mirror I look back at myself and all I see are imperfections. But I am not the only one on this planet that does this. Everyone looks in the mirror hoping that it will lie to them and tell them that they look like someone else. Who is to say what is beautiful? What makes that girl over their more attractive than the one sitting next to her? In The Globalization of Eating Disorders Susan Bordo explains the fact that the media is the culprit.
Susan Bordo begins with the fact that body image problems are no longer the usual stereotypical person anymore. The white suburban girl that we normally picture with the body image issues is now changing race, class, and cultural lines. She reiterates this fact with the portrayal of a Tenisha Williamson, a black twenty three year old that suffers from anorexia. Bordo explains in detail the changes coming in each culture. She begins with Fiji, a remote island chain that did not have access to television until 1995. Up until the time of the first broadcast of western television there were no reported cases of eating disorders and after the station began broadcasting at least 62% of girls reported dieting to control their weight. Bordo also states that this also happened in Africa beginning with the winning of the miss world competition. She says that images are not “just pictures” as the t.v. and magazine editors want to believe. But that they speak to young people not only about how to be beautiful but how to be what the dominant culture wants and values. Bordo also states that it is no longer our parents and elders that teach us how to be but images that teach us how to see. They sculpt us into seeing beauty as they see it and not how it should be seen. Susan Bordo explains that even in a conservative culture such as Japan and China things change. She says that it is very clear that body image insecurity can be imported exported and marketed just like all other consumer goods.
I agree completely with Susan Bordo’s article on body image problems. She was very effective in stating that body image problems are not what they use to be. That it is everywhere now. I can see that in my everyday life. I find it funny however how we as a people are so easily affected by the media in our everyday lives. They tell us how to eat, sleep, and dress. It almost controls our lives and yet we don’t notice its influence until it is pointed out to us. The first time I read this article I really took a second and thought about how I think of what is beautiful in my life. Then I thought of how I came to that conclusion that those things are beautiful. I can see that I choose the clothing that I wear because I saw it in a magazine somewhere. I wear my hair the way that I do because of some actor that I saw had the same hairstyle. I probably picked the friends I hang out with, the girls I date, and everything else I do with my life because of what the media or other people have told me to. Is that what the world has come to? Is that what I have become?