Future Army Leaders Train Hard/Media Promotes Unhealthy Images

8/3/2019 Future Army Leaders Train Hard/Media Promotes Unhealthy Images

1/4

Supermodels bannedfrom fashion shows for

being underweight

BY ROBERT MORAN

Daily Titan Staff Writer

[email protected]

Eating disorders have become such a worldwide health concern that a fashion show in Spainrecently prevented several models from participating.The presenters of the show cited the models weight as the key factor.According to Reuters, all the banned models were nearly 6 feet tall and weighed less than 120

pounds. Health officials in Spain said that their body mass index was too low. All the models who participated in the show were required to maintain an index of at least 18.Colleen Kvaska, a nutrition professor at Cal State Fullerton, explained in an e-mail interviewwhat the body mass index was. Its a measure of a persons weight relative to his or her height.An index less than 18.5 is considered to be underweight.An index between 18.5 and 24.9 is a healthy weight. An index between 25 and 29.9 isoverweight, while an index over 30 is considered to be obese.According to the Web site for the National Blood and Lung Health Institute, any person over sixfeet tall and under 140 pounds is considered underweight.Kristy Richardson, a nutrition professor at CSUF, liked the idea that the presenters of the showhad set the minimum index at 18. She said it was feasible for the presenters to set it at that level.

This would still be underweight, but since it is barely underweight the models wouldnt have ashigh of a health risk, she said.She said the average model has an index of 14 to 16, depending on the country.This is very unsafe for the health of the models, she said.Having a low body weight increases the risk for osteoporosis and can also impair the immunesystem, she said.If someone who is underweight becomes ill, they have very little reserves to fall back on, shesaid.Kvaska also pointed to hair loss, dry skin, anemia, and insomnia as the result of protein andcalorie malnutrition.If young growth ceases, basal metabolic slows. With continued starvation the heart muscle

becomes weak, the chambers of the heart begin to shrink, blood pressure falls, body temperaturedrops, Kvaska said. Finally, they may suffer multiple organ failure and die. Many of them of heart failure.Richardson said the fashion show presenters banned the super-thin models from their shows to tryto change the way that the media portrays women and to promote a healthy body image.

Genelle Belmas, a professor of communications at CSUF, agreed.


2/4

Just opening up a magazine, flipping through the channels, or watching a movie demonstratesthat women are supposed to be stick-thin, small-pored, big-chested, small-waisted and well-coifed. Belmas said"These images also demonstrate that women are supposed to be elegant, full-haired, tall and

pale, she said.

Most women arent that ideal, and many women spend their whole lives reaching to achieve thatunachievable idea, Belmas said."The medias constant bombardment of images enforce the unachievable stereotype and can leadto an obsession with size and weight. When such an obsession occurs, women begin to viewnormal weight as too fat and take unhealthy actions to lose weight. Belmas said."They have to resort to starvation to achieve and maintain these body weights, Kvaska said.Despite the influx of images leading to the weight obsession, Belmas said there are a few thingsthe media can do to downplay the effect of unrealistic female imagery. She said she loves DovesReal Woman and Crystal Light ads because the women who are portrayed are not the typicalideal of beauty.More companies should be targeting that demographic, Belmas said.

The more we teach our children [and] consumers of media that the portrayals they see are oftennot even real or desirable, the more likely they are to be able to reject and challenge those portrayals, she said.


3/4

Future Army Leaders Train Hard

BY ROBERT MORAN

Daily Titan Staff Writer

[email protected]

CSUF ROTC members navigated, shot and climbed during training

Cal State Fullertons Army Reserve Officer Training Corps marched into its twice-a-year trainingevent, which ran through Friday, Sept. 29 through Sunday, Oct. 1 at Camp Pendleton. Seventy-five cadets in the ROTC gathered at 4 a.m. on Friday morning to make the drive to the MarineCorps base near Oceanside.The cadets faced several events as part of their training. Cadet Victor Ting said that everything

the cadets learn has a practical use in the Army when the cadets become officers or when theycome back to the civilian world.Nothing here that we teach is stupid or for nothing, Ting said.The first task that the cadets faced was the land navigation, or LANDNAV, test. Ting said the

purpose of the exercise was to teach the cadets how to navigate using a map, compass and protractor.It gets us to basically navigate our terrain without the use of the Global Positioning System,Ting said.The cadets were required to find at least five points out of eight to pass. The tests course is about3 kilometers long, winding through a 2 kilometer by 2 kilometer area. The cadets are normallyallotted five hours to complete the test, but because of time constraints only had three and a half.Ting said that today in the Army soldiers have the use of the GPS, but LANDNAV is used whenusage of the GPS is unavailable. Cadet Tam Hoang said that the ROTC was divided by classlevels into a ranking system like that of the Army. Freshmen are corporals; sophomores arespecialists; juniors can be sergeants, captains or anything in between.Ting said that today in the Army soldiers have the use of the GPS, but LANDNAV is used whenusage of the GPS is unavailable.Cadet Tam Hoang said that the ROTC was divided by class levels into a ranking system like thatof the Army. Freshmen are corporals; sophomores are specialists; juniors can be sergeants,captains or anything in between.Despite the physical aspect of the training, the organization stresses that their members excel

academically as well.The cadets are pretty dedicated. They do all the homework of a normal student plus they do allthe military stuff that we train them in, said Cadet Joshua Carlson, a senior in the ROTC.Maj. Robert Medina, who has-been with CSUFs ROTC since 2004, said there are 90 cadets inthe campus ROTC.The majority of them are contracted, but a small portion of them are contracted under scholarship, Medina said.Being contracted means that the cadets will serve as Army officers with a commission of secondlieutenants, he said.


4/4

We try to expose them to as many challenges as possible for when they are out there in real-world situations as young lieutenants, he said. ROTC offers several scholarships programs tocadets. The scholarships, which entail active-duty commitments, are available to students at thehigh school level as well as to those students who are already enrolled in college, Medina said.Among the other tasks the cadets faced was the Field Leadership Reaction Course, which Ting

said was an obstacle course for the cadets.The ROTC members were broken up into individual squads and had to complete tasks as a part of the course. One of the tasks each squad had to complete in the course involved moving a tarpwithout tipping it over.The scenario was that one member of the squad had been blinded and another had broken legswhen the tarp representing a boat had capsized and the squad leader had to devise a plan to tipthe boat back over without causing the other soldiers to fall off.The cadets also spent time at the firing range where the seniors taught them first aid techniquesthat may prove useful in the field.The cadets were also given courses in how to properly disassemble and reassemble M-16 rifles,which were placed on cardboard so as not to get dirty.

Dont get them dirty, Cadet Rory Patterson said. They dont belong to me.The cadets laughed when they heard this.Despite all of the work the cadets had to do, they still had to complete the last task of the trainingweekend.The task involved rappelling off of wall nearly 100 feet in height.Smiles could be seen as the cadets expressed how they felt after somersaulting100 feet in the air and rappelling to the ground below.That was fun, a little nerve-racking, but fun, said Cadet Rae Fenstermaker.Cadet Matt Berne agreed.Ah man, for the first time it was pretty fun, he said.However for Berne, the highlight of the trip was something else.The M-16 made it all worth it, he said with a laugh

Documents

Future Army Leaders Train Hard/Media Promotes Unhealthy Images