Blog 3: What role does the media play in how we feel about our bodies?

                The role of media and Hollywood combined have helped to establish unrealistic images that nearly all women want to look like and every man wants to look at. The average fashion model on the runway has an average height of 5’10” and an average weight of 114 lbs. meaning that the BMI is approximately 15 to 17, which is under the minimum for a healthy woman. As Hollywood and the media have helped perpetuate this through the years, one can simply look at the all popular Barbie doll that every girl in our great nation has probably received at least one of before she reached grade school. Barbie’s perfect proportions helped to perpetuate the image that the Hollywood and the fashion models that cover the newsstands and the TV screens day in and day out. In the last few years there have been enough outcries that Hollywood and the media have realized that they ran the risk of alienating mass numbers of the populations, after all over 60% of our population is either obese or overweight. A size 0 fashion model is approximately 12 dress sizes smaller than the average American female.

                Health educators need to put the facts out front and expose Hollywood and the glamour industry for the blatant lie that they are. Every year, entirely too many girls are hospitalized for bulimic and or anorexic issues. Putting the facts up front at an early enough age, those young ladies can grow up with the information in hand to spot a lie when they see it.

                To a small degree, the media has opened up a little bit, but only because that the voice of the people became so loud and the potential for losing that many customers, literally scare Hollywood and their glamour industry cronies. In the past year or so, a comedy, Mike and Molly, came on to CBS and rather quickly won a fairly large audience over. Mike and Molly both weigh an excess of 300 lbs. and for a first time I can remember there is a fat girl on a popular show during prime time besides Oprah. While changes have been made, it has not really amounted to an awful lot though. One TV show amongst hundreds and thousands of TV shows is a drop in the bucket. Being overweight may not be the healthiest thing for you, but being stereotyped by Hollywood surely is not a good thing either. As the future unfolds, only time will tell if more TV shows or modeling careers go to plus size models and actors, the power is in the hands of the American consumer if they chose to buy or if they chose not to buy will make a huge difference in how producers and investors approach this question.

CDC, n.d., Healthy Weight - it's not a diet, it's a lifestyle! Retrieved From: http://www.cdc.gov/healthyweight/assessing/bmi/adult_bmi/index.html

Bill Hendrick, February 10, 2010, Percentage of Overweight, Obese Americans Swells Americans Are Eating Poorly, Exercising Less, and Getting Bigger, Survey Finds, Retrieved From: http://www.webmd.com/diet/news/20100210/percentage-of-overweight-obese-americans-swells

Blog 2 - "The Talk"

Looking back at my own personal experience with my parents teaching me, I can tell you what I will NOT do. They bought me a book with a lot of medical information that exceeded my ability to understand. It left me confused and with more questions than answers. The way I believe for a parent to approach this has to be tailored to the individuals’ involved. Perhaps a smarter child than I would have understood the medical book that my parents furnished me with. To me this was a bit of an easy way out and to avoid having any real conversation about the matter. I now have a pre-teen, and many of these conversations have taken place. She is intelligent enough to understand and grasp anatomy and biology. Children are growing up so much faster these days and the parents need to be aware and to start preparing these children with little conversations along the way. By taking little steps with the obvious that boys and girls are different and building upon this, it allows a child to digest the new information and ponder it for a while. And then the next step. Ultimately, filling in all of the details, there are many available materials for sex education from a ton of different organizations. Every major religion have some materials available if a parent wishes to approach it from a religious stand point and the government has tons of literature that is available for anyone seeking help in approaching this subject with a child. My child having been raised in a home where both parents are involved in medical related careers, she has been taught the basics of anatomy at a very early age simply because she asked a question. But ultimately, the conversation about sex came up about a walk in the zoo. Two animals were seen mating; there could have been a better opportunity to approach the subject about making babies. The details will continue to be filled in as she grows and is ready for more information. This process needs to be started at a fairly early age and it needs to have honest and real answers, and staying away from old sayings such as the stork that drops off the babies. Children today are learning so much faster due to the spread of information and availability of information. It is important that a parent keep an open line of communication and continues this process as the child grows and develops. Too much information at any one time can overload and confuse a child, and even scare them. Small pieces of knowledge based on facts, one step at a time is the best way to educate. As our classes are taught in school, we must be taught one plus one before we get to STDs and HIVs. It only makes sense to start with the basics and move to the advanced levels of knowledge as it is appropriate.