If I could change the world…

Well, not quite.

But if I could make one change as to how rhetoric happens I would do away with the rhetoric of body image. The media today tends to portray women and their bodies in a sexually degrading way. The media exploits a wrong perception of what the average American body should look like. From movies, magazines, to television sitcoms, there tends to be an obsession with this sense of the “perfect body”—an ideal that is not only unattainable but dangerously unhealthy.

There is no encouragement towards a healthy body with a balanced diet and regular exercise—a healthy lifestyle—but encouragement towards losing weight as quick and as painless as possible. I don’t know how many commercials I’ve seen where thin models who have “used” diet pills share weight-loss “testimonies”: “I lost 50 pounds, and I didn’t have to change anything about the way I live my life!” These testimonies can hardly be true, and if they are, this form of losing weight can have detrimental effects on the body.

I have had several friends who have struggled with eating disorders, and it’s frustrating that the media seems to advocate these types of lifestyles.

As was stated with cigarette advertisements, dieting seems to be something that is also directly targeted our culture. The end is praised above the means to that end—and weight lost is worth any cost along the way.

I think maybe a way to avoid these problems would be to start educating students on the benefits of healthy lifestyles and the dangers of unhealthy ones. If we replaced the negative perceptions with positive perceptions on body image, maybe there would be a significant change in the way society views that “perfect body.”

On a different note--I just wanted to thank all of you for a wonderful rhetoric class! Good luck with your exams... ONLY ONE MORE WEEK...