Formal paper #2 rough draft

                                                            Formal paper {draft}

            In middle schools, high schools, and in every neighborhood around the country there are young teens, as well as young adult women, that have one or two things that they would change about their bodies. I have also watched my two sisters’ struggle with losing weight or being “thinner” this also includes me. I remember in high school the girls who were thin were out going and succeeded in school as well as in sports. The reason that I am writing you this letter Sam is to hopefully help you through this body issue that I know almost every woman, or girl has. In every neighborhood around the country young girls such as yourself are looking in the mirror and comparing themselves with what they see in music videos, TV shows, their favorite singers, and in the movies that they watch. How can we compete with airbrushing, almost downright starvation, in some cases, holding ourselves up to standards that are almost impossible to achieve without developing grave consequences. Body imaging and our young women in America is a big issue that we as a community have to take a stand against.                                   

            Body imaging and how the media has affected women has increased in negative consequences over the years. According to Emma Halliwell, expert in applied social psychology “exposure to ultra-thin media models leads to increased body image concerns amongst women”(410).  Have we ever stopped to think about what message we are sending to our youth as well as the mental pollution that we are clouding our own brains with? Whether you have a daughter, sister, mother, aunt, or your wife whoever it may be this epidemic is reaching families all around the world. In this study done with women and being exposed to “ultra-thin” models and the negative effect that it has on how our bodies reacted to these imaged were astounding. Then the researchers exposed the same women to images of models who were attractive and average sized, healthy and fit. The reaction that the women in the study had to the healthy sized models was one of “lower levels of body focused anxiety”.