I was walking past a magazine rack this week, and was again struck by how preoccupied many tabloid magazines are with body image. One cover said something along the lines of; The Best Hollywood Bodies, and how you can get them. Also I found that when it comes to women there is always this focus on food and exercise, while with men it seems just exercise. Artists such as Rihanna and almost all other women were talking about how carbs were their ‘enemy.’ Rihanna said that two weeks before she goes on holiday she would be very strict about what she eats, and also does Pilates intensively.

The problem is not with these celebrities, but rather it is the message this sends to average women and girls in society. Being in good shape is part and parcel of being a performer or an athlete, however this in involves great dedication. Time, energy and money are key to achieving this; athletes and performers literally spend hours a day refining their bodies. They often also have personal trainers and chefs that may live with them; it is an extensive process. However this is not portrayed in magazines, rather achievement of similar bodies is made to look very accessible. We are told that cutting carbs, and lifting dumbbells for ten minutes every day will get you this perfect body. This I feel is where the problem lies, and what makes it so dangerous. Female viewers can become convinced that they too can achieve this and might therefore embark on extensive measures to do so, which can in the worst case end up us eating disorders.

Whether such magazines are doing this purposely or are to blame for increasing problems of female eating disorders, is difficult to answer, and also in many ways is irrelevant. While it may not be purposeful, the fact still remains that they still have great effects on women. By omitting certain details such magazines provide readers with inaccurate information that could potentially have a great effects on them. Ideally these magazines would stop focusing so heavily on body image, however even if they continue to, I suggest that they be more careful with what they print.

Studies have found that women who tend to read such magazines are the ones that have the greatest problems with self-image. I know people who have been influenced by these, and I myself was too. I feel that I am less affected by such magazines now, however it has taken me a long time, and three years of college education in women’s issues. This is not something that everyone has access to, and so I feel that popular media has a moral responsibility to their audiences. They must be more sensitive to the issues women are facing, and how they often make these harder.