Am I not beautiful enough?

In an article called, Over the Knife written by Allison Adato & Natasha Stoynoff (2004) for People magazine, there was a young woman who reflected on her life and struggle with plastic surgery addiction. Donahue stated, I always thought that after the next surgery, I'd be happy, Hope Donahue a suburban women had everything yet she threw herself into about 20, 000 dollars in debt to continue having repeated plastic surgery in the hopes of finding happiness once she fixed herself of her flaws. Flaws that she saw when she looked in the mirror. She stated, When I got beautiful enough, Id be happy. But there was never an enough. (Adato & Stynoff, 2004).

Hope Donahue suffered from a condition known as Body Dysmorphic Disorder. This disorder that involves a preoccupation with an imagined defect in appearance. This preoccupation causes clinically significant distress or impairment in social, occupational or other important areas of functioning according to James Slaughter & Ann Sun in their article In Pursuit of Perfection: A Primary Care Physicians Guide to Body Dysmorphic Disorder (1999).

This is a rather extreme case of negative body image many woman have and leads me to question how a negative body image affects a woman and the quality of her life.

There are woman who diet religiously, there are woman who are using drugs to suppress appetite or increase metabolism, all in the attempt to become this ideal that our society suggest are ideal and perfect. Just open up a womans magazine, or flip through the channels of television shows that are overflowing with images of women, who are thin and desirable and sought after.

The message is clear that if you want happiness, success and love you have to fit this mold. A negative body image has affected many women of all shapes and sizes in our country. Women with a negative body image do not like their bodies. Why do so many women feel such dissatisfaction with their bodies and appearance?

There are many reasons to speculate. Some believe that our society and the media is to blame for womens distorted reflection of themselves and what size clothes they should wear or body shape they should have. A person can walk up to any woman and ask, "If there were something you could change about your appearance and money or time was not an issue, what would it be?"

There is a very high

• 1
• 2
• 3
• next page >>

---

Add your voice

Know something about How the media is altering our perception of beauty?
We want to hear your view. Write now!