This essay will examine both the theory and the practise of this form of
violence against
women. It will be argued that while
this
violence is social and cultural in form, it is nonetheless real and physically damaging to
women. It alienates millions of women from their bodies and forces them into dangerous lifestyles and practices (anorexia/bulimia) in a desperate effort to meet an artificial construct of beauty. Given the range of influence of the mass media in modern society, it will be shown that this is perhaps one of the most common - and certainly socially acceptable - forms of violence against women today.