Research

FINAL PAPER

Have you ever looked at yourself in the mirror, and saw someone starring back at you that you did not necessarily like? Have you ever looked at yourself in the mirror and seemed disgusted by what you saw? Well, you are not alone. Millions of people throughout the United States and the world are not happy with their appearance. But why? Who is to say what makes a person beautiful, or what makes them “pretty”? Who is the deciding factor as to what is in style, what is hip and what everyone is wearing? Women see actresses and models on television and aspire to look just like them. They see the fame, fortune, beauty and attention all of these women receive and what to be able to have that as well. Women in the United States especially, will go to any extreme length to try and achieve what the television portrays and pure beauty. The media and model industries especially, give off the idea that how a person looks defines who she or he is, but in reality, nothing could be further from the truth. Millions of people are literally killing themselves each and everyday just to catch up to the modeling industry standards. The images portrayed by the media and modeling industry leave the public with distorted images of what the body should look like, creating an epidemic of eating disorders in the United States.