June 11, 2010
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Media Influences on Weight: America vs. Japan
“In the United States, you see all these beautiful skinny people on television, and yet Americans keep getting fatter anyway,” said Sasaki, the public health expert at Tokyo University. “Why is that?”
I started to do a series investigating how it is that certain cultures seem to be thinner than America on my other blog. Someone asked me if I would pick that up again here, and I wasn’t sure if I wanted to. But, I find it very interesting, so I think I will.
Today’s topic, the media’s influences on weight.
In America, we hear it all the time: society puts so much pressure to be thin. Thin women are glorified, seen everywhere in our tv showes, magazines, movies, and even music. We see headlines of celebrities like “Britney Spears’ huge body after having a baby,” or, “Best and Worst Beach Bodies,” as well as, “Is Nicole Richie too thin?”
In America, headlines like these give some kids mixed signals: we will be scrutinized for being big, but then scrutinized for being too thin? Oh, no, wait. You want us to be skinny, but just get there in a “healthy” way. I mean, forget that our bodies may not be able to get below 130 without some extreme dieting, because even though we must be skinny, we have to “healthy,” right?
