The original purpose of the human body was to be capable of surviving; however, today the purpose is to be accepted by the views of society. In order to “make it” in this world you either have to be a strong man with a six pack or a size two woman with great hair. The need to be perfect has been etched into our brains since childhood. This perfection is found in magazines where women promise that eating healthy will give you this body rather than photoshop or plastic surgery, and men are promised a ripped body with the use of powdered protein and vitamins rather than illegal steroids. In the article “Believing is Seeing” by Judith Lorber, the idea that resonates is that men and women are more than just two categories. Petrocelli mentions in his article “Getting Huge, Getting Ripped: A Qualitative Exploration of Recreational Steroid Use” that men have many motivations to use steroids, some of which date back to childhood fantasies. Lorber brings up the idea that the perfect human is created by the views of society and Petrocelli shows that this is true by explaining how men will resort to any means to shape that body. In today’s world the ideal body is not formed from its physiological efficiency but rather from the way society wants it to be. This is where a woman that is 5’6” and 200 pounds of muscle is seen as fat while the 5’9” 100 pound model is in perfect condition. In “Believing is Seeing” Lorber illuminates that: “Bodies differ in many ways physiologically,
Some Athletes in society today are considered heroes despite their double lives. Their drug use and violence are brushed aside while leading their teams to victory.
The encouragement to focus on physical appearance has been an all-time buzz in our society, and with it comes the possible significant increase in negative body image. While some of us think that ideal body image are only women's issues, men—turn out—have body image issues too! Just like women, men are bombarded with “perfection” blueprint as well. Media, advertisements, and professional sports create a compelling and toxic mix of messages, assaulting men with ideal body images of young, fit and muscular professional athletes and male models with bulging muscles and six-pack abs. Enough to make an average Joe feels like an average old and fat Joe. This dilemma is what men go through based on Ted Spiker's article, How Men Really Feel About Their Body.
In society, women relate to friends, models and actresses which are actually people who are in the industry portraying the ‘ideal body.’ Women think too much about what others think of them instead of just caring about themselves. They also choose to take the unhealthy approach and gain all these bad habits to obtain the ‘ultimate’ body image of this ‘ideal woman’ society has created.
President George W. Bush says “Steroids are dangerous in sports and steroids send the wrong message: There are shortcuts to accomplishments and performance is more important than character.”
What is the first thing that comes to mind when steroids are discussed? Is it positive? Negative? What comes to mind for me is the vision of an extremely large man with bulging muscles like we see in bodybuilding competitions. These types of images are becoming extremely commonplace in society today, and also increasingly disturbing considering just a few short years ago the ‘bodybuilder’s body’ was just a niche in the sports world. But what drove this movement? There is no way to possibly limit this phenomenon into one single cause, but rather I can hazard a guess as to what I believe may be at the root of this ideal change. America, since the time it was founded, has grown increasingly confident in itself. This mindset has
We as a people are preoccupied with the notion of greatness. Our role models are athletes, actors and actresses, and other figures in the public eye. Many of us often desire to be better off than our current state; to look better, to be in better shape, etc… We compete with each other for jobs, for mates, for grades, for parking spots, and in sporting activities. This competitive nature is a way of life, especially in sporting activities, often learned as a child and built upon throughout adulthood. But where do you draw the line? At what point do the “costs” of winning or being “better” outweigh the benefits? Maybe it’s too much when you start putting your own health in serious jeopardy
The rhetorical imagery that is used to portray a man's body is spread throughout the fitness industry and health advertisements. These images are on the cover of well-known magazines such as “FITNESSRX”, distribute worldwide targeting men, ages 18-30. These magazines give a visual rhetoric as a method of persuading beauty, body image, and the pursuit of “perfection”. These companies target young adults because they believe they have the money to buy their products to obtain the body they want or the body portrayed on the cover of the magazine.
In recent history American culture has become more and more dominated by sports. Out of all of these sports baseball is considered to be America's pastime. Over the last couple years America's pastime has come under scrutiny about some of its players using anabolic steroids and other performance enhancing drugs. In an interview with Sports Illustrated, Major League Baseball commissioner Bud Selig said, ¡§... hopefully we can figure out ways to solve this problem. It needs to be solved. There is no one I¡¦ve talked to who can say it is not a problem. Now the question is, What can we do about it?¡¨ (41). The commissioner is absolutely correct in saying that the steroids issue is a problem. Without a doubt the steroid issue is bringing
In the book “Drugs and Sports”,on page 13, the author Rodney G. Peck states that “Experts believe that the disease of addiction can be passed down from parent to child.” He also states that, “ a teen who has a parent with an addiction (or a parent who is recovering from an addiction) may be more likely to become an addict as well. Teens should talk with their parents and not follow their steps to addiction. Drug addiction usually starts with something called a gateway drug. One commonly used gateway drug would be weed, the easiest drug to get in the streets and everywhere.
On April 8, 1974 Hank Aaron surpassed Babe Ruth’s home run record. Later on, he had ended his career with 755 home runs. Thirty-three years had passed since that day Hank Aaron won the home run title. It was a cold Tuesday night on August 7, 2007 in San Francisco, over forty-three thousand people were inside of the AT&T Park. The pitcher for the Washington Nationals, Mike Bacsik, was pitching for the fifth inning when Barry Bonds went up for the bat. He pitched the ball, and Barry Bonds hit his 756th home run.
I decided to help increase my writing’s boundaries, I would write about some everyday life things that leak over into to
Are you aware of 52 German athletes given anabolic steroids during the 1970's and 1980's who were examined in a 2007 study, one quarter got some form of cancer, one third reported thoughts or attempts of suicide, and the risk of miscarriage and stillbirth was 32 times higher than in the normal German population. Drug use in sports should not be allowed such as it already isn’t. Drugs use in sports such as steroids, can be good for the moment of the game, but after it could affect your body. But like all hormones, which regulate the body's most basic functions, throwing one's testosterone out of balance can have wide-ranging consequences. It is true that steroids build up your muscle although they are powerful hormones and affect the whole body. Side effects may include abnormally high levels of testosterone in the body and may include high blood pressure, elevated cholesterol levels, liver damage, heart failure, acne, baldness, as well as aggressive and violent behavior. The use of drugs such as steroids, should not come into play when it comes to athletes, to play a sport you must have natural talent and not use steroids to make you even better, you gain an unfair advantage.
The result of portraying this unrealistic woman lowers one’s self-esteem especially among adolescent and young females. These images make them view themselves as ugly and plain. Consequently, they desire this false perfectness and thus alter their bodies to achieve the so-called perfect figure by starving themselves, taking medication and drugs or doing cosmetic surgeries on their bodies. Unfortunately, the outcome for a woman who takes such drastic measures to achieve the immaculate body is an ill and unhealthy woman with lowered self-esteem. The question then becomes, why do we still believe in such
Being large isn’t just a women’s issue furthermore, most ladies don’t ask to be heavy, yet it turns into an unconscious struggle that conflicts with society’s expectations of perfection in a woman’s body. In recent talks of fat being a feminist problem, a sketchy subject has been whether eating impulsively is a lady’s problem signifying it relates to her experience of being a female in society. From one perspective, some argue that a female’s body is the most important thing about her, that it’s an indication to the world about who she is. From this point of view, women are taught to occupy themselves apparently with a self-image that others will find satisfying and attractive rather than being classified as an overweight woman; shunned by what society considers a perfect body. On the other hand, however, others argue that it is thoroughly up to women to make themselves healthy and to avoid becoming overweight for which they ae shunned. In the words of Susie Orbach (2015), one of this view’s main advocates, “You are your body, you have to take care of it! You’re the individual, you’re responsible. It has nothing to do with what’s going on in the wider society.”
"Haven't we learned anything from the research done on female eating disorders...except to extend it across the gender line?" asks Kevin Coleary, a doctoral student in education at Harvard University. "You would think we would have learned to make our culture more accepting of healthy, natural physiques," he says in the New York Times (“More Boys”). Magazines are brought up for making women look thinner or curvier but everyone seems to forget the alterations to make men look more muscular making teen boys want to bulk up which can cause them to develop an eating disorder or worse, abuse drugs such as steroids.