Body Image Essay example -- Psychology

Laurie was a size fourteen at age eleven and weighed one-hundred fifty-five pounds. She went through elementary school being the kid that everyone called fat and never felt love from any of her peers. Even a counselor at her after-school YMCA program made an example of her to the other children. The teacher told all the children that she used to be as big as Laurie. Putting aside all the criticism from her fellow peers and teachers she found the courage and strength to lose weight. She began doing sit-ups and eating â€Å"healthier†. In all reality, she was eating less and less every day. She went from a size fourteen to a nine and then from a nine to a five. This all happened to her between summer and Christmas. By the following summer Laurie was a size double zero. During the following school year, she was called to the nurse’s office to be weighed and the scale read ninety-seven pounds. Laurie had become anorexic from the mentally abusing childhood she experienced f rom her peers. Every culture has a â€Å"perfect body image† that everyone compares their own bodies to. Girls especially have the mental thinking that they have to live up to the models on TV and magazines. In the United States the skinnier the girls, the more perfect their image is perceived. The â€Å"perfect body image† has an intriguing background, health and psychological problems, and currently few solutions. Background The history of having an â€Å"ideal body† type goes all the way back to the colonial times. Jennifer L. Derenne and Eugene V. Beresin have researched the â€Å"ideal body† from the colonial times up until now. During the colonial times, women were valued who were fertile, physically strong, and able women. This was because women during this time helped tend to t... ... (Ed.), Nutrition and Well-Being A to Z (Vol. 1, pp. 69-71). New York: Macmillan Reference USA. Retrieved from http://go.galegroup.com Drugs (Illegal). (2006). In J. Merriman & J. Winter (Eds.), Europe Since 1914: Encyclopedia of the Age of War and Reconstruction (Vol. 2, pp. 886-891). Detroit: Charles Scribner’s Sons. Retrieved from http://go.galgroup.com Franco, K.N., Alishahie, M., & Bronson, D. L. (2004). Body Image. In S. Loue & M. Sajatovic (Eds.), Encyclopedia of Women’s Health (pp.110-112). New York: Kluwer Academic Publishers. Retrieved from http://go.galegroup.com Gleason, W. (2006). Leisure. In J. Gabler-Hover & R. Sattelmeyer (Eds.), American History Through Literature 1820-1870 (Vol. 2, pp. 639-644). Detriot: Charles Scribner’s Sons. Retrieved from http://go.galegroup.com http://www.eating.ucdavis.edu/speaking/told/anorexia/a42laurie.html