Knowles 1

Jessica Rae Knowles
Professor Canan
English 1113 Sec. 8407
November 29, 2014
Self-Image
In Concurrent times, the bias of the media on all facets of culture and society has proliferated everywhere –especially in the United States. Body Image is one of the social cultural facets mainly influenced. A majority of young women develop their body image as claimed by the ideas advanced by the media; which reckon their attractiveness based on how glamorous or thin they are.
Body image amuses a very defining role in our nonconformist society, in which a women’s identity is meticulously cognate to her body. Because of the immense stress on size and beauty, the currents of general thought suggest that material success, self-confidence, and enticing personality characteristics are all corresponding to the level of how elegant a woman is. Improving how you look can definitely have an effect on your self-esteem, which will ultimately help you in your career or whatever path you choose to take (ezinearticles.com). Although society informs everyone differently, women who are not perceived as physically attractive are fully capable of obtaining successful lives. There is significance in the cliché quote that states, “Beauty is only skin deep.” Physical beauty is

Knowles 2

superficial, and is not as important as a person’s intellectual, emotional, and spiritual qualities (dictionary.reference.com). Physical image is not a vital key to a successful life.
Many women undergo physical harm to maintain the body image that they have always desired. They live for the quote, “No pain, and no gain.” Although being beautiful may require going through some pain, it is not worth the many health risks that it puts the body through. For example, many women become anorexic because they think that it is the quickest way to lose weight. Anorexia is an emotional disorder characterized by an obsessive desire to lose weight by refusing to eat (medicalnewstoday.com). As many have come to believe that it is harmless, it actually is extremely destructive. Starving your body of food damages the heart, kidneys, digestive tract, bones, muscles, and ovaries. It also causes dehydration and the possible loss of hair (medicalnewstoday.com). The physical harm a women puts herself through to obtain the body image she desires is not worth the horrendous risks that it brings.
A majority of young women develop