Are publicity and
fashion guilty of most eating disorders in industrialized societies?. I
am inclined to believe that some people in western cultures have such an
obsession with imitating the famous’s appearance, that they even risk their
health. In addition, big companies usually promote this nonsense behavior, particularly
between youth, although most managers deny their implication in such a trouble.
To begin with, it is
known that modern societies are suffering from diseases such as anorexia or
bulimia, whereas seldom do people in Africa or Asia know about this kind of
illnesses. For instance, if we pay attention to TV programmes and series in the
so called "developed countries ", we can realise that some actors,
actresses or presenters, seem to have been chosen because of their physical
perfection instead of their real abilities. So that the media are also to blame
for manipulating citizens' minds.
Furthermore, it is a
common thought that teenagers and youngsters are the target of the fashion
trade. Not only does publicity, with extremely thin models, invade
advertisements aimed at them, but also, finding a big size in some shops is
almost an impossible task. As a result, what a girl or boy usually decides is
to lose weight as quickly as possible to fit into those tight jeans. Who
benefits from this situation are companies that mass-produce thousand of item
of clothes without worrying about the individual who will buy them.
However, designers and
managers of fashion industry claim that such ailments have existed since the
Middle Age, as a consequence they have not responsibility and insist on the
influence of psychological and social factors as the cause of the problem.
To conclude, we have a
great deal to learn from other cultures that are considered as poor, and nevertheless are wealthy in wisdom. Therefore,
it is through education that we can face
this issue; as the journalist Victoria Toro said: " we should develop a
critical mind in teens that enable them to distinguish the real world from what
it is not".
