The Bigger Picture

I understand the different oppressions and pressures that women and men face. As much as I realize the importance of understanding how gender plays a role in generating these different perspectives, I also believe it is important to step back and take a look at the bigger picture.

The eating disorder rate in American adolescent girls is extremely high, but it's because we missed the warning signs that led to a society where they thrive. I see guys taking extreme caution with how they look - forcing themselves to go to the gym for hours a day, no matter how tired. I have seen guys that are worse calorie counters than most girls. One could say that they're just being healthy, but this could also be just how the female dynamic started.

While we try to improve the female dynamic when it comes to self-image, it's important not to led males fall in a similar pattern.

In my health promotion class, we learned that health information is most efficiently transmitted through television. Television, especially in America, has become such an important outlet of information. To make a huge change in the way the majority of women are perceiving themselves, tv has to change. This is not to say that personal factors don't hold a strong influence, because they do - it's just saying that major societal trends should be able to be influenced by major outlets.

There have been many campaigns to help girls improve self-image, such as the "You are beautiful" campaign. http://you-are-beautiful.com/ESSAYS.htm However, nothing is going to improve, unless we step back - look at the bigger picture and figure out how to make a substantial change.