Dying to Be Thin Essay Example

According to the film, young women are often faced with eating disorders such as anorexia as they strive to make it in fields such as modeling and ballet dancing. Unfortunately, this culture has been publicized to a point where most of these young women no longer feel confident about their body image. Consequently, most of them starve themselves to attain the 'right' body size. However, some of them starve to the point of death. The documentary mentions some famous public figures who died from conditions such as anorexia as they tried to keep a particular body figure.

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In other cases, young girls who are bullied in school because of their imagine end up starving themselves and losing a lot of body weight to fit in. In the current generation, being thin or slender is considered as beauty, and therefore, many of these girls end up developing an eating disorder as they go through puberty when many of them search for a particular personality and public image (Wini, 2016).

The documentary indicates that external stress may contribute to eating disorders. When children go through violent family backgrounds, they may sometimes develop eating disorders which persist throughout their lives. Another factor is trauma from past occurrences such as sexual abuse. In others cases, children also feel the pressure around them mainly from the media in their environment. In most cases, when children - and especially girls - go through some of these events, they end up having an eating disorder.

It is disappointing that eating disorders do not occur overnight, but instead, they take time and therefore, the people around those who go through eating disorders have a chance to save them. Unfortunately, many people are not aware of these disorders or their symptoms. An example in the documentary is when a patient who has been diagnosed with anorexia admits to having developed the condition when she was still young. During that time, she refused to take food as a way of upsetting her parents. However, during therapy, she admits that in doing so, she harmed herself and her body (Wini, 2016).

Therapists and psychologists have a considerable role to play in ensuring they uncover the hidden reasons behind the disorders while examining the patients. At the same time, a lot needs to be done to ensure that people are educated about eating disorders. People need to understand that eating disorders have long-term effects such as bone loss, little or no periods, infections, and even death. The documentary indicated that certain institutions in the ballet industry offer their employees a body check where they check for the body mass and the bone structure. Such services need to be incorporated in other institutions like the gym where many people go to lose weight.

Anxiety stood out throughout the documentary as one of the main reasons why people develop eating disorders. I believe that parents and teachers should teach both young boys and girls how to be confident in their bodies, especially during adolescence. It is during adolescence that many young women and men are exposed to the culture that advocates for extreme thinness. Such topics should be made public where people learn how eating disorders can affect the patients and those around them, that is, family and friends. In doing so, we get to support and help those that are going through eating disorders.

References

Wini, U. (2016, Sep 30). Nova - Dying to be Thin (PBS Documentary) Nova - Dying to be Thin Nova (PBS Documentary) PBS Nova Our YouTube channel features full documentary films. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MMyumga-Jr8