Alyssa Bourassa

Professor Miya

ENC-2135

22 July 2023

MLA

Intentional or Consequential? The Stepping Stones of Bulimia

Introduction:

Bulimia, or bulimia nervosa, is “a serious eating disorder that occurs chiefly in females,

characterized by compulsive overeating usually followed by self-induced vomiting or laxative or

diuretic abuse, and is often accompanied by guilt and depression” (Bulimia Definition &

Meaning). This is an eating disorder that is extremely common in this paper’s focused discourse

community of teenagers, ages thirteen to nineteen. Many things can cause this eating disorder or

help it materialize, and whether or not those things include the two artifacts that will be

discussed in this paper is to be determined.

Written Artifact: Star and Who Magazine Covers

The artifact in question is an image of two pop culture magazine covers that focus their

stories on celebrities. Its exigence is that the celebrities with those body types exist, while its

purpose is to body shame celebrities and point out their bodily ‘imperfections’. These magazines

attract audiences of people interested in pop culture and/or celebrities and they are very much

aimed towards this discourse community of teenagers, especially teenage girls, as their audience.

This ultimately affects their perception of societal expectations and acceptances of weight and

body image. Something that is even more damaging about this aspect is the fact that many

magazine readers, especially those of this discourse community, will either only read the cover of
a magazine, or will only skim through the magazine. This will further warp their perception of

the magazines’ overall harmful message, and receive even less sensible context. Other

constraints of this magazine are that the audience members must be able to read and understand

English, because that is what these magazine covers are written in, as well as be able to see and

read to get technical and specific. Though price may not be an issue, because one is not required

to purchase a magazine to read the cover, this makes it all the more accessible and easy to spread

the damaging message out to the impressionable public.

The overall goal and purpose of these magazine covers is to grab people’s attention to

make them want to read, or more specifically, buy the magazines. Though, there are underlying

purposes of these magazine covers as well, including to make the reader feel insecure if they

look like the girls on the cover and share their same bodily ‘imperfections’. Another alternate

purpose is to shame the celebrities and dehumanize them in the public’s eyes. This is proven in

the rhetoric of this text as well, for example, by using the words “shock” and “shocking” when

the context is simply just how the celebrities’ bodies looked in the photos on/in the magazine.

Similarly the modality of this text acts as if celebrities’ weight and body image is the most

important, shocking, and horrifying news. This message is sent through multiple attention

catching phrases and words like “BREAKING NEWS!”, “shocking new photos”, “lose fight

with cellulite”, “shock bodies”, “already thin stars”, and “new extreme”. The lexicon for these

magazine covers is not a limitation in the slightest because the text does not contain full

sentences, paragraphs, or any thorough text of substance. Therefore, this text is one that can be

identified as not consisting of any formality. Although, this does make it easier for the audience

to become even more impressionable and receive the blatant message of body shaming that much
quicker and firmer. All of these motives ultimately feed the cycle of societal expectations of

young women’s bodies.

Its diction is very sharp, simple, and ordinary since the text aims to quickly grab attention

and leave the reader wanting more. Its syntax, similarly, consists of small phrases and shock

words that cause curiosity through the surprising information it exposes while revealing such

little elaboration. Though this is uncommon in this text’s medium of magazines, it is extremely

common in this text’s genre of magazine covers since the genre’s purpose of being shocking and

getting a shopper or reader hooked is successful through the strategy of exposing such shocking

and scandalous information on a cover, but giving no elaboration away and leaving room for the

mystery inside. Its tone though, correspondingly, is dramatic, acerbic, and even exhilarated since

its aim is to cause the reader to feel these things as well and obtain a desire to be a part of

societies’ opinions on these topics that they will then feel is important. More specifically to this

text-based artifact, these magazine covers’ subgenre is the media’s/society’s body standards as

well as defining bodily imperfections. Magazines reach a large amount of viewers, and magazine

covers reach an immensely larger amount of viewers. The damaging messages displayed on the

covers greatly affect the consumer as to what society must be deeming acceptable and expected

of the discourse community.

Due to the nature of its genre relying on the interest of consumers’, magazine covers’ text

will rely heavily on pathos when choosing the short phrases plastered on the front. For example,

“shocking” and “shock” will quite obviously make the reader feel shocked and intrigued into

delving deeper into the topic at hand and reading the smaller print on the cover. The smaller print

on these covers include “lose fight”, “strict diet”, and “gone too far?”, causing the readers to feel

pity for these celebrities. This is important because utilizing pathos when targeting its audience
will trigger the necessary desires like the desire for acceptance, the desire to include one’s

opinion, and the desire to feel better about oneself. These can all be achieved when judging

others and joining in on the toxic conversation this artifact creates. Less strategically but more

analytically, and the common theme of this text’s goal, is that the journalist’s and/or magazine

cover artist’s adherence to logos is that with working in words like “stars” and “shocking” and a

rhetorical question, it will grab potential buyers’/readers’ attention and logically draw them into

purchasing the magazines. Both of these magazine covers, Star and Who, generally have

generally no strong appeal to ethos.

Non-Written Artifact: Dulcolax Pills and Box

This artifact is a laxative box and the laxative pills inside and its medium is over the

counter pills for constipation relief. A laxative is “a drug or substance that induces bowel

movements or makes the stool softer and looser” (Medical Dictionary of Health Terms). Due to

the fact that this drug can induce the excretion of consumed food and calories, this drug is often

abused by those struggling with the eating disorder known as bulimia. Its exigence is that

bulimia is the most common eating disorder both in general and in this discourse community and

laxative abuse is often a part of that in the act of purging. To cover the double sided coin that is

laxatives, its purpose is to fix constipation, but in eating disorder terms, its purpose is to get all of

the food and calories, that one binged previously, out of them so that they do not gain weight and

so that they either maintain or lose weight. Because of this alternative, and quite popular, motive,

many qualities of this artifact include the two extremes. For example, its audience includes

people with constipation, people with bulimia, people looking to lose weight, store distributors,

and finally doctors. With store distributors, the constraint of product placement is presented to

consumers, considering the fact that based on where the laxatives are positioned in the store
contributes to the likelihood of purchase. Although, these specific consumers now include only a

population over the age of eighteen because that is what is required to purchase laxatives. This

relates to another constraint as well, which would be that the price of this drug will determine its

audience.

Its modality includes the fact that the bottle is subtle and neutral packaging and that the

laxatives are small, easy to take pills. Although, not everyone is able to physically swallow pills

successfully, so the audience would be for those who are able to swallow pills. This artifact’s

formality is formal, due to the fact that it is a drug product. Another cause of this being a drug

product is that it has absolutely no appeal to pathos, but a strong appeal to logos. This is

extremely logical because when one makes themself excrete everything they have consumed,

they will not gain any weight. Because this is a non-text artifact, it has no inherent appeal to

ethos.

The genre is medication, specifically over the counter, but its subgenre is a weight

loss/weight maintenance drug. Similarly, this artifact’s rhetoric is a constipation solver, but seen

as a weight loss/weight maintenance opportunity. Finally, this artifact would have no tone,

formality, diction, or syntax because there is no text involved in the focus of this artifact analysis.

Conclusion:

Both artifacts, while one’s medium is an official drug and the other is a gossip magazine

cover, have many aspects in common. For example, both artifacts have two extreme purposes,

one intentional and one a repercussion. The magazine covers’ purpose is to sell magazines and

bring in the most money and popularity, though their consequential purpose happens to be to

create societal body standards and implicate insecurities while shaming the subjects of their

paper. Similarly, laxative's official purpose is to relieve constipation and quicken bowel
movement. Though, the alternative purpose of its use became to maintain or lose weight and

purge one’s consumed calories. While neither of these products have the intention of giving their

audience eating disorders, that is what the outcome has become. Laxatives have been covered

previously as to how they have contributed to bulimia, but the magazines do as well because the

Star magazine cover can cause bulimia through fat shaming and pointing out bodily

imperfections that come with being a healthy weight and above. Similarly, the Who magazine

cover can cause anorexia by publicly shaming underweight and naturally thin celebrities and

deeming their bodies as causing “shock”. Although, the modality choices differ in the fact that

the laxative packaging is subtle and somewhat neutral, therefore not exactly attention grabbing.

Meanwhile, the magazine covers’ purpose is to grab people’s attention with their modality

choices of the words “star” and “shock” and a rhetorical question. Lastly, for the comparisons,

both of these artifacts can have majorly damaging effects on an impressionable audience. On the

other hand, these two artifacts also have their fair share of differences. For instance, while the

laxative pills and bottle have no indication of drawing in this discourse community or creating

any damaging effects on an impressionable audience, the magazine covers are majorly guilty of

this consequence. Similarly, the magazine covers are irresponsibly, and arguably intentionally,

damaging whether that be towards their audience or their subjects. Meanwhile, the laxatives are

an innocent over the counter medication that had developed into becoming used and abused for

alternative purposes. While either artifact can argue innocence for the repercussions of their

products, both damaging effects are extremely easy and common to fall victim to. For the

magazine covers, it is psychological damage that leads to physical damage. Meanwhile, for the

laxatives, it is physical damage that leads to psychological damage. Overall, these two artifacts

are so dangerously damaging to their audiences and have immensely contributed to the world’s
most common eating disorders. Their similarities and differences just adhere to different

audiences being affected in different ways, but conclusively becoming the product of an easily

influential artifact.

Works Cited

“Bulimia Definition & Meaning.” Merriam-Webster,

www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/bulimia#medicalDictionary. Accessed 21 July

2023.

Dulcolax. Amazon,

https://www.amazon.com/Dulcolax-Overnight-Constipation-Irregular-Stimulates/dp/B000

063XTO. Accessed 22 July 2023.

“Medical Dictionary of Health Terms: J-P.” Harvard Health, 13 Dec. 2011,

www.health.harvard.edu/j-through-p#L-terms. Accessed 21 July 2023.

Moreno, Jay. “Magazine Covers (Star Magazine & Who Magazine).” Youth Aspiring

Magazines,

https://youthaspiring.com/body-shaming-in-the-fashion-and-entertainment-industry/.

Accessed 21 July 2023.