The review of the article ‘Never Just Pictures’ by Susan Bordo Essay

As guest editor of Star Telegram newspaper, I did what was asked of me and reviewed the article written by Susan Bordo Never Just Pictures. Bordo focuses on body image and our perception of beauty and how we are supposed to look according to the media. Never Just Pictures should be published because Susan Bordo has factual evidence to back up her reasoning to her claim about body disorders, the role that different types of media have on society, and how it is creating a false image of what true beauty really is.

In this article, Bordos central claim is for the readers to get an understanding of todays obsession with body image, and how we are no longer accepted for just our personality and our good traits but for the physique of the human body. Nowadays, society is obsessed with our physical appearance because it is seen as what reveals the internal characteristics of a person. The ideal body image is socially designed as the ultimate goal that one can attain in order to fitin and be acknowledged in todays society. The image that society has on the perfect body that has been gathered through media, ads and culture, is something that most people have started to idolize and are setting a trend for the younger generation to shape themselves according to the models seen on the ads and media. The new look, which is considered to be "heroin chic", makes the models look anorexic and lifeless. She writes about the fascination our society has on body image and how we can never be skinny in society and our own eyes. Bordo also informs the reader how societys point of view can change overtime, how something that was looked down upon by society not too far back in time, can now be seen as something positive and beautiful just a few years down the line.

Bordo looks at the need people have to be skinny, and she provides limitless examples on how advertisements are made at the expense of women because these social standards change the way women, and people in general, view themselves. She even uses example of how infomercials and advertisements for diet pills are put out there to give us the image that being a few pounds over, or anything but skinny, is unacceptable. She goes on to say Children in this culture grow up knowing that you can never be thin enough and that being fat is one of the worst things one can be. (1) This only proves that a single image is so much more than just a picture in an advertisement, it holds the power to make little girls think they want to grow up and look like the model in their magazines or a teens to starve themselves just to achieve the looks of the model. One picture holds so much power over people.

Bordo believes that todays society and its beliefs have taken its toll on our youth nowadays.