2. Every one wants to be glamorous and look good,
When you a teenager peers seem to be very important in our
life’s and they certainly where for me. that’s how it all started,
the DIET. It seemed very innocent at first.
This gave me a “Pygmalion effect” which is beneficial positive
feedback.
dow,
The Johari Win
sense of
represents our
erfully
self, then is pow
ur
influenced by o
involvement in
with
communication
others.
Perhaps influence of media did help as well,
looking at all those gorgeous models. They
were so skinny and all of the sudden that’s all I
wanted to be “skinny”.

3. However having that “role model” in my life
become very important to me. It was almost like
a goal that I can reach with a bit of dieting.
Rogers (1961) would see in role modelling evidence that
we have a number of layers of self-consciousness. The
modelling of ourselves in terms of other ,often public and
famous people, is a part of a process that creates,
presents and maintains our own ‘public self’.

4. However I soon realised that my diet is not glamorous and
actually it become very hard to concentrate on anything but that.
My peers also become very judgmental on my appearance
and it just felt like I didn’t fit it anymore. However it is likely
that I have been dominated by the influence of other
people, those who's responses make a difference to me.

5. I thought that being skinny would get a good respond,
so I followed that. Then, when I later started to get
negative responses, my opinions soon change. It
didn’t make me stop completely but made me more
conscious about my actions and in a way helped me
get better. in
re sted
wa s inte dify
oley we mo e
Co ng t o th
the ways accordi n
r e
b eh aviou s betwe
nce
di ffere ns’
ctio
‘refle
These interested others act as a validation of our
behaviour, reflecting the kinds versions of ourselves that
we think we are projecting. This is what Cooley (1992)
called “looking-glass theory”. When wee get dressed up
for a night out, we partly see ourselves in other people’s
reactions to us. The theory is similar to “the-self-fulfilling
prophecy” in that expectations is created by response.

6. Eventually it got to the point, where I got very ill
from the dieting, it become my obsession.
67) The skinner I got, more ill I become. People
it h (19 m as
persm lf-estee t of
Coo s se
called me “stupid” and “attention seeking” which
n
de fine al ju dgme effected my self-esteem badly.
rson ’
‘a pe ness
i
worth

7. However physical appearance, of course, includes not
only things with which we cover or adorn our bodies, but
its also the shape and size of our bodies. The
preoccupation with body shape and size is reflected by
practices such as slimming, body building and cosmetic
surgery. It is the body’s capacity to communicate aspects
of an individuals identity which makes us so aware of our
physical appearance.
People judge you on what they can see, and I have learned
the hard way that when your change your appearance people,
seem to judge you on that and change towards you.

8. There’s a video I would like to share with you :
http://youtu.be/bjKiZEr9nCc

9. For me it was the reaction of
e
said ow “th others that changed the way I
ein
nst ation h was behaving – by others
Ber alis
i is reacting to the way I looked, I
soc gical d into
lo e was in a process of
bio sform ing”.
tran ral be socialisation. I was wanting to
u
cult ‘fit in’ and so I changed my
behaviour in order to ‘fit in’.
However The British sociologist Basil
Bernstein said that socialisation is a ‘process
of making people safe’. So in my case trying
to ‘fit in’ made me feel safe. Almost like a
comfort zone where you are accepted and
that’s what makes you feel safe.

10. When I got better, surprise, surprise I got all my friends back and was treated
“normal” again. So what I’m trying to say is people will treat you different,
when you change your appearance and that can really effect the person.
However according Goffman we identified ‘social role’ as a significant theme
to the responses, Goffman’s theory shows that we have different masks and
depending on who we with, we play different roles in front of our friends for
example, whether it is to ‘fit it’ or to ‘show off’ . Goffman sees the parts we
play as an organising principle of our self-presentation. He would see most of
us moving from role to role across the day. However the research by Kuhn
and McPartland (1954) also indicated that ‘definition by role’ becomes more
prominent as we mature.

11. Over all I think there’s to much focus in our society as how women look or how
women should look. Women are constantly being bombarded with new diets in
colourful magazines, where the image of the women is to be skinny and
glamorous. Partly that’s what effected me as every girl wants to have this
perfect body like all those models in the magazines. What have changed my
opinion was my illness, dieting its not fun, and skin and bones are not
glamorous. I think media is sending the wrong message especially to young
girls, how skinny is good and pretty. However you don’t have to kill yourself to
be skinny.