Miss Representation: Self Objectification

        I began worrying about my weight at 8 years old. Now I'm nearly 16 and still worrying about my weight years later. I remember being much younger and watching America's Next Top Model on TV. I would watch that show religiously. Those women were everything I aspired to be. Skinny and tall. I already had the tall part down even as a little girl. However, being skinny was the next thing I needed to achieve. Counting calories, weighing myself two times a day, excessive exercising, every diet trick in the book, and laxatives; these were the things which I lived and breathed. I ate less than 400 calories a day for two months. As the pounds began to fall off, so did my hair. I was always cold. I stopped getting my period. The thought of food consumed my mind constantly. Shockingly, I was being complimented more than ever. I was the sickest I had ever felt and yet strangers would stop me on the streets to say a kind word. This just motivated me more, so I continued. I was only 11 years old and I had lost 35 pounds in two months. I had become dangerously underweight in such a short period of time. The most terrible part was that I was happy and even proud of what I had done to myself.
     It is clear that I have recovered since then. I eat like a normal person now and am at a healthy weight. Its all good now. However, that was something which a girl as young as I was should have never gone through. I am sure that many have the same experience as me, and it is sickening. And I did all that, for what? To look like a tall, skinny model, just like in the TV show. This is an example of the media's effect on young girls. This TV show pins women against each other based on their appearance. It is basically a contest of who is the prettiest or who has the nicest body. Media such as this puts all the worth of a woman into her appearance. This leads to many girls, such as I, to objectify themselves and put all self esteem into how they look. The definition of self objectification is to see oneself as an object rather than a human being. Media sending these messages of unrealistic body standards causes this in women. We compare ourselves to the images of these women and cognitive dissonance is created. All of our self worth is put into how much we resemble these women and we cease to see ourselves as anything more.