Dying to Be Thin

Prince Edward the Duke of Windsor abdicated the throne to marry the divorced Bessie Wallis Simpson (The Duchess of Windsor.). The Duchess deeply resented being denied of the Royal Title and frequent referred to Queen Elizabeth as "Cake" and "Cookie" alluding to he fondness for food and robust figure. Edward showered Wallis with money and jewels, and in February 1935, and again later in the year, he holidayed with her in Europe Now, women all over the world abdicated their health and self esteem trying to seek and impossible ideal.

What makes Wallis the pivotal point in history? Wallis was named of the Year by Time Magazine in 1936. It was the first time the magazine had a Woman rather than a Man of the Year. Wallis was perceived to be a woman of "limitless ambition," seeking wealth an position. Throughout history royalty had set the ideal for fashion. The Duchess began to set the ideal for thinness. But, this ideal was impossible for 99 percent of females. You see, Wallis had a condition called "androgen insensitivity syndrome.," And would never respond to the female hormones that give other women curves and a higher percentage of body fat. What you don't hear in the most quoted statement by The Duchess of Windsor is that she was to frail to function after the death of her husband in 1972. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duchess_of_Windsor)

"Twiggy" the world first super model, famed for he waif, boyish looks, become the idol of million of young women in the 1960"s. Twiggy (Lesley Hornby) cut her long mousy locks and dyed her hair blond to extenuate her boyish appeal. (you can't be thin enough or blonde enough.) Twiggy was the anti-woman, her starved frame had no breasts. Women burned their bras and favored the button down shirts as a mark of independence. Prior to the 1960's youth had a modest concept of sexuality, which had holdovers from the Victorian and Renaissance concept of the female ideal. As, with any repressed behavior that is unleashed, and partnered with the pill giving women a new sexual freedom, the pendulum swung 180 degrees. The media began to sell boyish sexual image as equality and the ideal. "Do you own thing" was the theme of the Mod Fashion movement that was marked by the mini skirt the symbol of women's new availability.

Women went into the workforce with the message of equality. They were now equal. (Yes equally they now suffer lung cancer heart disease an while making 71% percent on the dollar to a man, and still going home and doing the house work. How did they cope with this new glamorized life? Shopping!)

This was the "Baby Boomers" coming of age. Love, Sex and Psychedelic Rock was in the air and in design. Youth was glamorized (probably because the were the only ones who could wear these loud outlandish fashions.) and the Barbie doll was born. ( If Barbie was a real person her proportions would force her to craw on all fours.) . Many deny this "toy" modeled after a German hooker doll impacts the self-image of women. But, why is breast augmentation becoming the number one High School graduation gift request by girls? An what's more, why are the parents willing to go along with it? Why not simply feed their size two daughter a sandwich?

Sex sells and according to Gallup & Robinson that in more than 50 years of testing advertising effectiveness, it has found the use of the erotic to be a significantly above-average technique in communicating with the marketplace (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sex_sells.)

The use of sex in advertising can be highly overt or extremely subtle: from relatively explicit displays of sexual acts, down to the use of basic cosmetics and surgery to enhance attractive features. The more subtle end of this spectrum has penetrated all types of media including newscasts (Note the numbers of news people now wearing colored contacts. Most of all not the absence of "fat" newscasters. Despite the epidemic of obesity "fat People" are invisible in the media. ), even fast foods. (Burger King as are filled with sex we see size two braless females dancing around. The consumer of the product is not used to advertise the product. ) The use is not limited to visual media, one of the criteria in selecting DJ's and announcers is the "sexiness" of their voice.

So if sex sells, what is wrong with using this image in the media? The women in the magazines represent .03 percent of the population The problem begins with holding up an ideal that less than one percent of the population can achieve, then augmenting it digitally, so that zero percent of the population can now meet the ideal. Yes, that's right , Virginia, even Angelina Jolie, can not measure up to her own digitally augmented image.

"For example one study found that a 3 minute exposure to thin-ideal models from the fashion magazine resulted in increased depression, shame, guilt, stress, insecurity and body dissatisfaction." (Stice and Shaw 1994.) So this feeds consumerism. "For instance, exposure to televised thin images results in more pronounced body dissatisfaction." (Heinberg & Thompson, 1995) Elevated body dissatisfaction makes it more likely that an individual will resort to restricting diet, and unhealthy weight control efforts, such as laxative abuse, in and effort to conform to the current thin ideal. Furthermore, elevated negative affect my foster binge eating, because it is commonly believed that eating provides comfort and distraction from negative emotions. In support of these theoretical assertions, research has found that perceived pressure from family, peers and media predicts subsequent increases in body dissatisfaction. (Cattarin & Thompson, 1994; Field, Camargo, Taylor, Berkey, Roberts & Colditz, 2001, Stice, 2001; Stice & Whitenton, 2002.)

"Throughout our lives, the stories we hear, the images we see, and the ways we are socialized create our perception of the world and of ourselves. These ideas are reinforced by society and the media, which pressure people to conform. The media portray slim women and muscular men as the ideal in health and beauty. These "ideals" are unrealistic: If Barbie was a real person, she'd have to crawl on all fours due to her unreal proportions." (http://www.hws.wsu.edu/EDPP/BI_EDPP/BodyImage.html)

Very few people can make it through their day without being bombarded messages from the media. We are subject to increased media messages daily. The media messages come to us over the radio, television, DVD's, PC's, VHS, music videos, billboards, magazines, cell phones, e-mails, junk mail, snail mail, the internet, blogs, though every product you use, even your cereal box. Day in day out we are bombarded by images and sounds.

The average person watches over 22 hours of television a week; 5,000 ads for something "fat free," or diet supplements being pitch by digitally augmented models with surgically augments breasts. What they are not getting is a message that breast tissue is fat tissue and very few can maintain a size 2 frame and a C cup bra. But, it does drive the market for Wonder bra, cosmetics and cosmetic surgery. Ever wonder why the Wal-Mart shelves are lined A and B cup bras? Simple, there is more mark up on diet products is much higher than the mark up on clothing. When the average size 14-16 woman feels bad that nothing will fit, she will purchase more impulse items, which ironically includes lipstick, chocolate and pizza. The store buyers are largely male, but that's another issue to be covered later.

People say the aren't impacted by commercials and no one pays attention, everyone tunes them out, right? Companies pay billions in research to reach your subconscious. Messages delivered with more lies. No, this program was not brought to you by Proctor and Gamble. Proctor and Gamble a humongous sum so they could have a captive audience and has done 50 years of research to study what will increase sales. The who purpose of advertisement is to make you feel bad so you will engage in consumerism. You must keep the Jones, and wear the right size heal on your shoe, have the thinnest PC on the block and drive the newest car. Other wise you are looked down upon.

Okay, then there is the mixed message. Newsweek Magazine has publish articles on the dangers of anorexia. But on the front cover they place pictures of chiseled abs to sell more copies. Which message has more impact? These mixed message are of particular danger to adolescents who have yet to grasp complete abstract thinking. You daughter may read an article about Celine Dion being too think, but when She sees the glamour, which image is going to have more effect?

The line between using sex to sell consumerism and porn is blurring. You can find it difficult to distinguish between soft core porn and Cosmopolitan Magazine. Young men indoctrinated into their sexually with fantasies of augmented images may find it increasingly difficult to find arousal with a real women. Then children become the closest approximation of this unreal Ideal. Alarmingly, as the amount of pornography increase so does domestic violence. Pornography eroticizes the domination and humiliation and coercion of women, reinforces sexual and cultural attitudes that are complicit in rape and sexual harassment and it contribute to the male-centered objectification of women. Women then compare themselves and begin to objectify themselves. The number one cause of death In pregnant women is murder by their spouse. Most of these cannot cope with the loss of control over the women's body image.

When repeated often enough be begin to believe what we hear. It doesn't matter if the information is false, it's what gets pasted in our memory banks. "Just the facts, ma'am" is a often used misquotation from Dragnet. What Sergeant Friday actually said was: "All we want is the facts ma'am." Another example is "Power corrupts; absolute power corrupts absolutely,." was attributed to British Lord Acton. What Lord Acton actually wrote was: "Power tends to corrupt; absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men." Lastly, James T. Kirk did not say "Beam me up, Scotty."What he actually said was "Energize", "Beam me aboard," "Beam us up home," or "Two to beam up," but "Beam me up, Scotty" was never said during the run of the original Star Trek. Over time when the misinformation is quoted that is what we start to believe. (http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/List_of_misquotations.)

We are told that thin and healthy are synonymous. Fat is bad. Fat is evil. So, little girls in the second grade decline ice cream so they won't become fat. We tell them it's what is on the inside that counts, and it really may be. Thin people can have high levels of fat inside. ""Being thin doesn't automatically mean you're not fat," said Dr. Jimmy Bell, a professor of molecular imaging at Imperial College, London. Since 1994, Bell and his team have scanned nearly 800 people with MRI machines to create "fat maps" showing where people store fat.

According to the data, people who maintain their weight through diet rather than exercise are likely to have major deposits of internal fat, even if they are otherwise slim. "The whole concept of being fat needs to be redefined," said Bell, whose research is funded by Britain's Medical Research Council." (http://abcnews.go.com/Health/wireStory?id=3161171)

People are seduced to falsely assuming that because they're not overweight, they're healthy. "Of the women scanned by Bell and his colleagues, as many as 45 percent of those with normal BMI scores (20 to 25) actually had excessive levels of internal fat. Among men, the percentage was nearly 60 percent.

Still, most experts believe that being of normal weight is an indicator of good health, and that BMI is a reliable measurement. "BMI won't give you the exact indication of where fat is, but it's a useful clinical tool," said Dr. Toni Steer, a nutritionist at Britain's Medical Research Council" (http://abcnews.go.com/Health/wireStory?id=3161171)

Experts have long known that fat, active people can be healthier than their skinny, inactive counterparts. We have been brain washed to equate fitness with the ideal body. "Normal-weight persons who are sedentary and unfit are at much higher risk for mortality than obese persons who are active and fit," said Dr. Steven Blair, an obesity expert at the University of South Carolina.

For example, despite their ripples of fat, super-sized Sumo wrestlers probably have a better metabolic profile than some of their slim, sedentary spectators, Bell said. That's because the wrestlers' fat is primarily stored under the skin, not streaking throughout their vital organs and muscles.

Studies show that weight concerns increase the risk that teens will smoke. Concern about weight and the drive to be thin increase the risk a girl will become a daily smoker by the time she's 18 or 19 years old, according to a new study sponsored by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI). Weight concerns increased the risk for both black and white girls.

National surveys show that teenage smoking, especially among whites, is on the rise, with the biggest increase being among high school seniors. More than 3,000 young persons start smoking each day, according to Federal estimates. Current predictions are that, in the United States, more than 5 million of today's young smokers will go on to die of a tobacco-related."illness.(http://parentingteens.about.com/cs/teenssmoking/a/smoking2.htm?terms=california+hospital+medical+center)

Weight gain is the number one reason adult women give for not giving up tobacco. They are literally dying to be thin. "For years, a public health drumbeat has argued we're eating ourselves into early graves, risking cancer, heart disease and other ills. Skinny mice live longer, we're told. Losing even a few pounds will improve your health.

Yet a counter rhythm also has been gaining volume, as studies of large groups of people document that moderately chunky folks aren't actually dropping dead as anticipated. They're outliving the normal sized.Even the federal Centers for Disease Control has flip-flopped, sharply lowering its estimates of obesity-related deaths over the past three years.

Now federal officials are downplaying the death risk angle and instead telling people that their daily lives and health care costs will improve if they weigh less. Those who study obesity, and those who study obesity researchers, suspect two things are going on.

First, the relationship between weight and health is much more nuance and personal than can be explained with a simple weight chart or a single study Blood pressure, cholesterol, blood sugar, family health history and even waist circumference play a role.

And second, we have such a cultural horror of fat that we're predisposed to believe even a little is bad for us.

"We see our data through cultural lenses, and the cultural lens that most of us wear in contemporary American society is one in which thin is better," said Abigail Saguy, a UCLA sociology professor who is writing a book on medical and political debates about weight."

(http://media.www.dailyvidette.com/media/storage/paper420/news/2007/11/08/News/A.Few.Extra.Pounds.May.Make.You.Live.Longer-3086960.shtml)

Thin and healthy are not synonymous. Let's look at the prospect of starving for attention. Failure to resemble fashion models, who weigh considerably less than the average female, causes insecurity in many young women. This insecurity is then fueled by young men and the music industry and entertainment who use insecurity to manipulate them. The obsession with being thin plays a role in triggering eating disorders.

Anorexia is self-induced weight loss caused by avoiding fattening foods and may involve taking excessive exercise.. "There is a strong, almost overwhelming fear of putting on weight, with sufferers preoccupied with the shape or size of their bodies Detrimentally thin, anorexia sufferers continue to pursue an extremely low ideal weight considerably lower than the body weight healthy for their height. Adverse effects of this disorder include hormonal disturbances and, usually, women with anorexia nervosa stop having periods. Severe cases of anorexia may result in osteoporosis (fragile bones) and damage to the heart, liver, kidneys and brain as a result of long spells without adequate intake of food. Anorexia can impede growth in the young and cause difficulties in concentration. People with anorexia nervosa may also experience mental health problems such as depression and increased risk of suicide. Anorexics who do not receive treatment may become chronically ill or even die." (http://www.mysistahs.org/health/bodyimage/bodyimage.htm)

Bulimia is often the progressive form of Anorexia that includes using laxatives or diuretics or inducing vomiting. This disorder produces mineral imbalances and problems with the immune system.. Loss of minerals produces premature aging. .Those who induce vomiting suffer extreme dental problems, (Hey that's attractive, right? Bone loss make you loose your teeth.)

Yes we may all want to look like Desperate Housewife's but we need to remember that the stars have personal trainers and spend hours exercising each day (What did we say previously about excessive exercise?)

"With their perfect skin, hair, and flawless bodies, celebrities often make us green with envy. Well not any more because some paparazzi photos show that even gorgeous celebrities like Paris Hilton get orange-peel skin on their thighs and bottoms.

Treatments like liposuction and mesotherapy (which uses drugs) are either expensive or may produce only temporary improvement. Sadly, even doctors warn that liposuction is not an effective treatment for cellulite because it is designed to remove deep fat not cellulite which is close to the skin." (http://ezinearticles.com/?Paris-Hilton-Has-Cellulite&id=709771).

There is a new group of people who are dying to be thin. Those who go under the knife. There has been a tenfold increase in Barbaric and Gastric Bypass surgery in the past ten years. Forty percent of these individuals will develop complications. These complication range from infection,, leaks, hernias, problems with too much insulin, respiratory problems, vitamin and mineral insufficiency, constipation, bowel obstruction, and venous thromboembolism.

There is also new evidence that a large portion of these individuals will gain the weight back. Doctors often wash the hands and cite that these individual a "weak" and that they fail to adheres to the 2-3 small high protein meal regiment. Well, heck if they could, they may not have need the surgery in the first place.

Many others will require extensive cosmetic surgery to remove the fold of skin that result when the weight is lost that fast. Others, will live with dementia as a result of the mineral deficiency that results.

Maybe we should stop looking at obesity as a disease and look at the causes of it. There is a myth that obesity is the result of over indulgent sloth behavior where a glutinous person over eats. There are individuals who over eat, and many have been labeled with psychological disorders. Most obesity is not a result of over eating, more often is the result of hormone disorders (metabolic syndrome, hypothyroidism, thyroid disease). Obesity occurs in underdeveloped countries where starvation is prevalent. .

"Consistent with our culture's pervasive attitude that weight is under volitional control (Bennett, 1984) a significant correlation was found between feeling fat and dieting, and feeling fat and binge eating. Felling fat may prompt a woman to reduce her food intake to loose weight, and/or repeated unsuccessful weight loss may increase the likelihood of feeling fat.' (Boskind-White, 1983; Marcus, Wing & Lamparski, 1985; Polivy & Herman, 1985; Rodin et al, 1985: Wardle, 1980.). Restricting calories makes the body conserve because it thinks it is being starved. When there is no movement on the scale, the woman perceives herself as a failure, feels fatter and is more likely to indulge in emotional of binge eating, usually done in isolation and increase the feelings of shame. It not the eating it's what eating them "When I feel lonely, I console myself with food." "The perceived hunger is filtered through the disinheriting, and someone whose eating is not controlled by a biological rhythm or set structure, but by erratic external stimuli." (Strunk and Messick, 1985)

A few weeks ago you if you turned on the news you couldn't help hearing about Hip Hop Star Kanye West's mother. A prominent Beverly Hills cosmetic surgeon had turned down Donda West for surgery citing a preexisting medical condition. She died after complications from breast reduction and tummy tuck. She had previously been declined for the surgery because a heart condition made her a high risk. But she found another doctor to perform the surgery.

Liposuction is rapidly become the most common elective surgery.

Those who have watch Extreme Makeovers do not always truly evaluate the risk. It is important to realize that no surgery is risk free. Some of the complications from liposuction include blot clots, infections, bleeding, skin ulcerations, perforated organs, nerve injury, and death. . Surgery always includes risks. All surgery is body invasive and comes with the risk of death.

We can watch the biggest looser where individuals are bullied, belittled, shamed into exercising hours a day (Rewards for anorexic behavior?). Know that may of those with metabolic syndrome who return to fairly normal eating and exercise will gain the weight back. Every individual with a weight problems should first have a complete work up with an endocrinologist. It is important to note that weight loss of more than 3 pounds a week will result in other health problems such as gallstones.

In conclusion the "data indicates that women who feel fat report experience more external (and internal) pressures to be thin, thus confirming the hypothesis that current socio-cultural pressures toward thinness may be creating problems for many women. Whether these perceptions are veridical or not, they are associated with eating related difficulties including binge eating and may motivate eating disordered behaviors. (Garner et al, 1984) Weight preoccupied women appeared similar to women with anorexia nervosa on measures of body dissatisfaction, bulimic behaviors, and perfectionism. /the research indicates that weight preoccupied women show other aspects of disordered eating including frequent dieting, intense hunger urges and emotional-induced disinheriting of food Intake." (Striegel-Moore, McAvay, Rodin, 1986)

Feeling fat is not that of simply of being overweight, but is filtered through strong social pressure towards thinness. This feeling is distorted by Scio-cultural values. Women who frequently engage in comparisons between their bodies and the bodies of other women are most like to fail not only in the weight related domains, but other areas as well. Women who feel fat revolve their life around eating, weight and appearance. The seeking of external stimulus perpetuates the weight and body image dimorphic behavior making it difficult to break out of the behavior.

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