Thinspiration Essay Example

like. This image that is portrayed in the media has been growing constantly to include women that seem to be skinnier and skinnier as time goes on.

Thinness is no longer about the desire to be skinny, but has evolved into a need to be as emaciated as possible. The social, and more specifically, the cultural, contexts that are screaming in this issue need to be heard by not only women, but society in general. With the use of thinspo-inspired studies, essays, blogs, and viral videos I will explain how my research illuminates this context of the film and discuss how the understanding in the film is developed. As part of Kilbourne’s argument in her film, she says that there needs to be a change in the culture’s attitude about food and the way we eat.

Unfortunately, she states, “That’s very difficult to do in a culture that teaches all of us to hate our bodies. ” If one’s body does not fit the mold that society has created, they are not worthy of anything. Kate Harding addresses this issue in her essay “How Do You Fuck a Fat Woman? ” Harding details the way the society has made her feel for not taking part in one of today’s social norms—being skinny. She was told, like many other women in our culture, that being a larger woman is not normal and will ruin your life.

Harding claims that if a woman’s genes predispose them to fatness, then an issue arises because in our society, “fat is repulsive! ”(68). The notion that there is a simple solution for fat women: Diet, as Harding

suggests, is definitely not that simple. To maintain that diet and weight requires restricting calorie intake “to below the World Health Organization’s threshold for starvation and spending way more time exercising than you do hanging out with friends and family,” (Harding 74). All that this requires is to want it badly enough.

Moreover, “you must want it that badly, because fat is Not Hot. To anyone, ever,” (Harding 74). In the “e-Ana and e-Mia” study, the authors report that “13% of the sites included "reverse triggers" or images of overweight people, [and]11% showed photos of food,” (Rebecka Peebles, et al. ). This exact mindset is what leads women to not only desire skinniness, but to demand it, to do anything they possibly can to attain it because being “not normal” is not okay. Kilbourne’s documentary presents images to the audience of what the media is feeding our society.

This includes pictures, commercials, and voice clips demonstrating the difference in the size of women’s bodies over time. As Kilbourne states, “Models keep getting thinner and thinner. ” In fact, if they are not skinny enough, Photoshop is then utilized to make them seem thinner. Pop culture has become obsessed with creating and attaining this “perfect” body image and it has ultimately affected society. Popular blogging website Tumblr. com hosts blogs that are purely dedicated to this new trend called “Thinspo. These blogs share images, tips, and inspiration for women to push themselves to extremes.

They encourage followers to not eat and do what they can, in unhealthy ways, in order to become, and stay, as skinny as possible. On a specific blog, proana-thinspiration.

tumblr. com, tips on fasting, stopping hunger, and hiding your habits were clearly displayed and were seen as a way for women to continue their eating disorders. To keep one inspired and encourage one to continue their fast on the way to ‘perfection,’ one should eat one piece of fruit each morning if hey feel dizzy during the day, “otherwise, don’t eat anything. ”

Hiding one’s habits never seemed easier with the tips this blog gives such as “Never leave Ana [pro-anorexic] sites on your internet, clear the history. ” Any trace that might lead others to know about one’s unhealthy lifestyle must be cleared up and erased. Of the Web sites reviewed in the scholarly study, “74% displayed 3 or more tips,” (Rebecka Peebles, et al. ). Additionally, blogs like proana-thispiration. tumblr. com encourage women to exercise—and often.

Regardless of what one has not eaten during the day, it is a must to do what one can to get any exercise. All of this “encouragement,” is giving women the idea that the media is correct—that they should feel like the only way to attain the perfect ideal body is to do whatever it takes to get it and become like the women seen in advertisements, movies, and all over Hollywood. Additionally, Killbourne emphasizes that because of the way media sends images to women on what they should look like, it has encouraged eating disorders such as anorexia and bulimia.

These diseases become friends and something that women confide in. To these women, it is the only thing that accepts them and loves them. These women give all of their attention to

these diseases. Kilbourne claims “The obsession with thinness is about cutting girls down to size—to aspire to become nothing. ” Laci Green, vlogger and blogger, has a series of informative videos up on Youtube. com. In a few of them, she discusses this trend of Thinspiration. She uses a personal story to appeal to the audience’s pathos.

She discusses her close friends that have struggled with eating disorders and tells about the effect that those disorders had on their lives. In addition, she uses logos appeal when she states “Anorexia has the highest death rate of any mental disorder. ” Green tells her online audience that the cause of anorexia is not just black and white. It is about looking at the whole picture. A few things that could cause an eating disorder are if someone is a people-pleaser, they have controlling parents, or have a sibling that has struggled with an eating disorder.

Green addresses why women are the ones, opposed to men, with a higher rate of eating disorders. She states “we are taught that most of our value lies not what we do, but in how we look. This expectation is reinforced by aggressive conditioning that women undergo every single day. ” This every day conditioning is repeated with movies, advertisements, television, and magazines. She highlights the vulnerability that is created through all these media outlets.

As the “e-Ana and e-Mia” study concluded from their research, “It is clear from our analysis that pro-eating disorder Web sites are available and dynamic communities with ever-changing, user-contributed content,” (Rebecka Peebles, et al. ). Green was attempting to bring attention to this

rising fad in order to make people aware that society has created a mold that most women will not fit into, yet try whatever it takes to get it. This unrealistic goal is doing more harm than help. Society has a way of constructing the way our culture operates.

Over time it has changed the way women are viewed, and more specifically the way women view themselves. With the help of recent technology, women are constantly surrounded with the ideal image that society and our culture have created. More times than not, it becomes an obsession that reaches an unhealthy end result. Kilbourne’s purpose in Killing Me Softly 4 is to bring into light the effect that media has on women in hopes for a change in the views of our society and culture towards women. Similarly, Kate Harding and Laci Green illuminate and develop Kilbourne’s argument.

They want to bring attention to this problem that surrounds women every day. The notion that skinny is normal and anything that deviates from that is not normal should be rejected. The scholarly study brought statistics into the picture to show how prevalent this issue is. Thinspiration should not by any means be an inspiration and an encouragement to women. It causes vulnerability in otherwise strong and independent women. It is unhealthy and has become an obsession in our culture. These views need to be redirected into a positive light to allow for all body types to be accepted and loved in today’s society and culture.