Bobby Bleistein

            In “Getting Your Body Back” shows the effect and physical desire of women who are pregnant. Woman who are pregnant have the desire to be skinny while pregnant. This ironic statement is one of the top goals of women who are pregnant. It is also said by Shari Dworkin and Faye Linda Wachs, that women are now encouraged to be fit and be active while carrying as opposed to being enactive and not caring in past years. Also this is a reason for feminist empowerment for pregnant women. I feel that it is good to be active and physically healthy because it could help keep a women is shape while she is pregnant but there is a point in which it could become too much exercise in which it might injure the fetus during development. But I see moderate exercise as a good thing for pregnant women. 

90% of all high school girls have the believe that they are overweight. This number is remarkable and is astonishing in my opinion.  This is an extreme effect of social media on teenage girls around the globe, especially in America. An even worse many of these girls who are a part of the 90% of the teenage population affected suffer from eating disorders.  In “Perfect Girls, Starving Daughters” Martian shows teenage women suffer from “screwed-up attitudes toward food and fitness”. In this chapter these girls are described as striving for a level of fitness and wellness that comes with out physical exertion but rather starving, bingeing, and other ways that are considered dangerous eating disorder habits.

These dangerous habits can be accredited to media development of what a beautiful, seemingly perfect woman is, when in actuality these women are fabricated by computer modifications. Because of these so called “ideals” of a perfect woman,  the number of American girls and women are affected by eating disorders is a staggering 7 million. This absolutely shocked me and made me think of the people I know who could potentially have a problem but might not ever say anything. Also when you look at weight loss commercials and see women with drastic changes, how much of that is really accredited to the pill or exercises that are advertised as opposed to not eating and expressing eating disorder behaviors?

In  "Athletic Obsession", by Martin, the scrutiny that women go through in sports is expressed. Women are always criticized in sports for many reasons,  they are too big, their hair is not feminine enough, they are too strong/ tough, they are too masculine, ect.. these problems are ones that women’s athletes face every day. Not to over emphasize Gabby Douglas, because we discussed her a lot with the hair matters article but, she is one of these women who was scrutinized for her hair. Also Serena williams, superstar tennis player, is criticized for being too masculine, even though she is one of the best tennis players (men and women) of all time. In many cases women athletes must be in a certain shape to compete at the best level, but when they become overly fit and strong they must find a way to get back to “healthy” in the medias eyes. Martin explains that in many cases (not every women athlete) women with this desire will show effects and behaviors of having eating disorders. Even though these women are empowered already they feel that with loosing weight that comes with eating disorders will make them more respected, thus more powerful. 

Females are constantly judged based on every aspect of their physical appearance, height, hair, muscle size, body bulkiness, ect….  In order to counter act these women take extreme measures including showing behaviors of eating disorders. This is not just for the every day woman but even athletes whose lives are scrutinized.  Women are extremely concerned with their physical appearance when they are pregnant, forcing them to have the desire to be in extreme shape even though in my opinion they can risk the health of the baby they are carrying.  Not all women experience these problems but there are many that do because of social media, the internet, tv, and many other sources.