Literature Review Fear is an emotion that is stimulated by danger, evil, pain, etc., whether the threat is real or imagined. Everyone is born with fear. As a child you are afraid of many things such as going down a big slide or riding a two-wheeler for the first time. These fears change and people begin to overcome the small ones in life but continue to develop more throughout their life. Fear has changed over the years and people are becoming more afraid of what is happening with our society. But why do Americans fear more now than before when Barry Glassner, a professor of society at the University of Southern California, expresses “Americans live in perhaps the safest time in human …show more content…
People are living in fear of murder and crime because of what they are hearing about or watching on television. Glassner proves this true by stating, “Between 1990 and 1998, the murder rate in the United States decreased by 20 percent. During the same period, the number of stories about murder on network newscasts increased by 600 percent”. Are Americans increasing their fear in something that is actually decreasing? Along with crime, drug use has also decreased by half in the passed decade. Even this being true adults still fear that drug abuse is one of the greatest dangers to American’s youth (Glassner).
It is important for American’s to be aware of what is going on in our country but they should also be informed of the statistics that along with many others, drug abuse and crime rates have been decreasing. Glassner presents a great example, “Life expectancy in the United States has doubled during the twentieth century. We are better able to cure and control diseases than any other civilization in history. Yet we hear that phenomenal numbers of us are dreadfully ill”. Why is it necessary to overload Americans with all these fears when truly they are getting …show more content…
I am also guilty for being influenced by the fear-mongering happening. Reading gossip magazines and watching television has developed the fear to many women of body image. After reading the example essay and searching fears of American’s, I grew very connected to this topic.
The fear of body image is everywhere and everyone is guilty of insecurities. I spent many hours reading articles online about the fear of obesity and concerns body image and learned many things about the statistics behind weight gain and insecure woman of America.
Findings
The Center for Disease Control and Prevention state the definition of obesity in the article “U.S. Obesity Trends”, “Obesity is defined as a body mass index (BMI) of 30 or greater. BMI is calculated from a person's weight and height and provides a reasonable indicator of body fatness and weight categories”. Obesity has been increasing over decades and even though it has slowed down a lot the passed couple of years, people still fear being