Media offers unrealistic standards of beauty

Models with a perfect waistline and amazing curves strut up and down the catwalks, setting the bar for women worldwide. 

The situation this creates is not in the best interest of the ladies who idolize these fashion divas who promote particular looks.

The Mental Health Matters Web site (www.mental-health-matters.com) says "beauty and thinness in our society dooms every woman to eventual failure" and "Ads abound for cosmetic surgery, enticing us to 'repair' our aging bodies, as if the natural process of aging were an accident or a disease."

Psychologist and educator Mary Pipher discussed in her book, Reviving Ophelia, how girls in their early teen years struggle with issues, such as body image, which can lead to eating disorders and fears of rejection, all a result of them receiving mixed messages from society. 

We're clearly missing the mark when it comes to what is beautiful and how that image of beauty affects our health and self esteem. 

There are many young women who force themselves to throw up what they eat so they don't gain weight and ladies who will not eat at all to achieve the "acceptable" dress size.

There is nothing attractive about hanging over a toilet after every meal. 

Because society is causing these women to feel so inferior that they have to sacrifice good health to live up to the standards of the general public, we should rethink our values as a community.

The graven image of the tiny waist and the perfect curves has become godlike in America and, when grouped with designer clothes and makeup techniques, this idol becomes the beacon of defined beauty for all women to try to mirror. 

Similarly destructive to the self esteem of women are the magazines, such as "Seventeen", that list in detail "What's Hot, What's Not."

Almost everywhere we go, we see guidelines for our physical appearance. 

Society subtly pushes women to be Beyonce and Megan Fox. But, to achieve what these stars effortlessly are, some ladies end up sacrificing good health and confidence.