Writing Exercise 3
A ketogenic diet produces health benefits in the short term, but adverse effects after about a week, Yale researchers found in a study of mice (q td. in Belli). Diet is an integral part of a healthy life, so it’s essential to eat well-balanced meals. Somehow, in today’s world, dieting and thin ideals in magazine advertising are framed in such a way that people get attracted to them, which can generate a short-term effect of body dissatisfaction and a long-term impact of an eating disorder. These ads influence people through good impressions but also result in negative consequences, which ultimately must be faced by people who got engaged in these ad’s products.
First of all, the ads influence the girls’ perception of their bodies or shapes. For instance, they may see a smart and well-groomed lady on TV and start to yearn to be like them. Therefore, they may perceive them as their role models. Fiji being geographically isolated from the rest of the world, hence, has taken longer for it to experience technological development. For instance, it didn’t have western TV until 1995, and so, the thin ideal was not likely as pervasive as it is in western culture. Like most isolated countries, the TV would have been the only medium in which Fiji would experience western culture. However, a study conducted at Harvard Medical School by a psychiatrist Ann Becker in 1998 shows that 29% of Fijian “girls now had symptoms of eating disorders” (pg180). The disorders are caused by voting to lose weight to look at their role model women they watch on TV.
The western TV ads also cause peer pressure on women and girls from all over the world. The TV women are always portrayed as goddesses for most of the teenage girls. As a result, fat girls are feeling wrong about their bodies’ shapes. According to Becker, the ideal picture a woman they Fijian girls see on western TV programs is a “body that is sturdy, tall and large- features that show that the body is strong, hardworking and healthy” (pg180). As a result, the “west to them means success, and they are altering their bodies to compete (pg180).”
Western culture has also impacted many cultures globally. For instance, many people are adopting the western cultures in what sociologists would term as westernization. They are abandoning their traditional customs and values to embrace the culture of the west they see on TV. In Fiji, the ideal body is determined by the insular culture and is reinforced from one generation to another. Therefore, one would perceive the perfect Fijian body to be deeply rooted in the minds of every Fijian body. However, western culture took no more than three years to undermine this culture rapidly.
Finally, despite the negative influences of the TV programs, many people would agree that there are some other positive impacts of the emergence of a TV in Fiji. For instance, it can be used as an empowering tool for these innocent Fijian women by showcasing to them the ideal nature of the global economy in which they might look better and powerful. As a result, most of them are inspired to work hard to earn a solid spot in a patriarchal world.
Work Cited
McClelland, S. Distorted Images. 2000. Macleans Archives. https://archive.macleans.ca/article/2000/8/14/distorted-images