"We want what we can't have."

Interacting with the T.V in general- whether it is playing video games or watching television shows- decreases time spent doing physical activity and is often coupled with unhealthy eating. The majority of food brands marketed to children sell unhealthy food products that are very tempting and enticing because they portray a fun lifestyle, and are often cross-marketed with a new movie or toy. Just as manipulative as these commercials are the images of models and t.v stars who send a contradictory message: be thin but eat fatty foods. From an early age children watch beautiful/handsome thin reporters, and celebrities on television- who define success. These same channels show television stars who resemble this same body type but eat a very poor and unhealthy diet and rarely exercise. Children and adolescents with normal to larger bodies are virtually invisible in the media.

Media projects the icon of the ideal body type of a woman as “barbie without the chiropracticly challenged feet,” according to the film Body Image: Let’s get real. I can remember going to the Body Shop with my mom when I was younger and seeing the poster of a doll essentially opposite to Barbie called Ruby. The poster was for a new campaign by Body Shop for self esteem. Under the picture of the doll was the quote: "There are three billion women in the world who don't look like supermodels and only eight who do". In is ironic because on one spectrum media is encouraging obesity and on the other end it is encouraging serious eating disorders.

The article While French eye thinness, America’s obesity expands- really hits home with the idea that paying attention only to negative body image from models ignores the real problem: obesity. But ignoring eating disorders as a result of media is also not an option, especially because this image also contributes to violence and silencing of women- Killing Us Softly 3: advertising’s images of women. In my grossly simplified model there are two outlooks to this unrealistic body image portrayed by the media: {I am worthless if I don’t look just like this thin model or star so I should go starve myself}, or {I will never look like this thin star so why even bother, that happy meal looks good}. One may lead to starvation, the other to obesity. The point is that both lifestyles are unhealthy, and there needs to be a serious change in the media’s body image- involving more realistic healthy looking models, and television stars living a healthy lifestyle. Because currently media is selling a body image that is completely out of sync with the food products its food brands keep chugging out and the lifestyles portrayed in television shows.

• Clark, Levina, and Marika Tiggemann. “Sociocultural Influences and Body Image in 9- to 12-Year-Old Girls: The Role of Appearance Schemas.” Journal of Clinical Child & Adolescent Psychology. 36 (2007): 76-86.