Beginning of Essay
Eleven million women in the United States suffer from eating disorders- either self-induced semi-starvation (anorexia nervosa) or a cycle of bingeing and purging with laxatives, self-induced vomiting, or excessive exercise (bulimia nervosa) (Dunn, 1992). Many eati ....

Middle of Essay
.... dissatisfaction. From these distinctions, it will be shown that the media has a large impact on women’s body image and that the cultural ideal of a thin body is detrimental to the American female’s body perception that often results in poor eating pathologies. Body image can be defined as an individual’s subjective concept of his or her physical appearance. Body image involves both a perceptual and attitudinal element. The self-perceptual component consists of what an individual sees or thinks in body size, shape, and appearance. A disturbance in the perceptual element of body image is generally reflected in a distorted perception of body si ....