Caroline Heldman’s essay “The Out-of-Body Image”

The Body Image

           

People have presumptions of what the perfect body looks like. Caroline Heldman’s essay “The Out-of-Body Image” discusses how body image affects people. Through many case studies, she is convinced that people with lower self-objectification do better in life than those with higher self-objectification. Self-objectification is how we look at ourselves through other’s eyes at our body image. While self-objectification has many effects, it tends to affect more women than men. Over the years, it’s slowly starting to increase in men. Heldman supports this idea by saying, “Boy and men experience self-objection as well, but at a lower rate- probably because, unlike women, they rarely get the message that their bodies are the primary determination of their worth” (50). Although I agree with Heldman’s essay, I think the most negative outcomes of self-objectification weren’t discussed enough; acquiring this idea body image can lead to eating disorders, which could ultimately lead to depression or suicide.

            The first link to self-objectification is body image. We are controlled by the things around us. We are secretly being blinded by ads of ideal bodies each day. According to Heldman, “U.S. residents are exposed to 3,000 to 5,000 advertisements a day- as many per year as those living half a century ago would have seen in a lifetime” (50). Each one of the cover girl’s ideal bodies is not real, but actually computer airbrushed. These cover girls paint fake pictures in our heads, which people try to compare their bodies to. Men and women are not the only ones being affected but children as well. The increase of the internet helps spread more ads than usual, Heldman believes, “The internet accounts for much of this growth and young people are particular exposed to advertising: 70 perfect of 15- to 30-year-olds use social networking technologies such as MySpace and Facebook” (50). This belief is being passed from generation to generation through the growth of technology to look skinny for an image rather than having a long lasting healthy life.

            Some people are so obsessed with their body image they’ll take any measure to be skinny. It can range from simply just being a weight lose diet or having an eating disorder. Heldman agrees by saying, “Women who self-objectify are desperate for outside validation of their appearance and present their bodies in ways that draw attention” (51). Many Americans struggle with diets. Everyone at some point of their life has been on a diet, whether it’s for the summertime or an upcoming event. We are all guilty of this. Little do we know dieting can very easily cross over to an eating disorder. Eating disorders are an outcome of having high self-objection. A dear friend of mine, Abby, had an eating disorder called bulimia. She would consume large amounts of food, then no later than thirty minutes later she would throw everything back up. She became obsessed with this and soon became depressed.

            People that are depressed think irrationally. This causes thousands of people’s minds to shut down each year, which could lead to suicide. These cover girls ads put unrealistic beliefs in our minds. Our thoughts start to follow our actions. Heldman’s studies have shown, “Self-objectification has been repeatedly shown to sap cognitive function because of all the attention devoted to body monitoring” (51). Abby went through depression for months while she battled bulimia. She was so small that she was bullied because her bones were showing through her clothes. After a month of depression, she came to the final decision to commit suicide. Watching this first hand, I understand how one can become so wrapped up in their body image.

            In conclusion, body image can lead to serious problems. Many American women and men deal with these problems every day without even knowing it. We are passing these ideas down from generation to generation. The increased use of technology may be hurting us more than it is helping. To make matter worse, these cover girl bodies are computer designed. We are setting unrealistic goals for ourselves. The self-objectification crisis, not only in American but the whole world, should be taken more seriously because thousands of people lose their lives every year. Heldman even states, “Self-objectification isn’t going anywhere anytime soon” (52). To stop these recurring problems, we have to first start with ourselves. The cycle has to end somewhere. We must learn to be happy with the skin we’re in. People come in all different shapes and sizes. No one really wants to live in a perfect, skinny world.

Works Cited

Heldman, Caroline. “The Out-of-Body Image.” The Contemporary Reader, Ed. Gary Goshgarian. 10^th ed. Boston: Pearson Inc., 2011. 50-53. Print.