Television plays an important role in influencing people. It is one of the major arms of the media. Teenage girls in the United States idolize famous actresses such as Mary-Kate Olsen, Calista Flockhart, and Victoria Beckhem. Teenage girls want to look like them. So, to get such a slim body, they tend to suffer from eating disorders. This is not only the case in the United States, Ellen Goodman in her essay “The Culture of Thin Bites Fiji” used anthropological research and her statistics to show the eating disorder of Fijian teenagers to look like actresses in a popular US TV show. Ellen's article focuses on how television has changed the views of the technologically inferior Fijian society and the role it has played in changing Fijian culture. Before the introduction of television, as Goodman states: women in Fiji greeted each other with their ritual cultural compliments such as “you are wonderful! You've gained weight." And if you looked thin it was considered a sign of some social problem or an indication that the person wasn't eating enough. So getting fat and fat was a good thing in Fijian culture (Goodman 608). Ellen uses research conducted by Anne E. Becker, an anthropologist and associate professor of medical anthropology at Harvard Medical School to support her claim about how television impacted Fijian adolescent girls in the way they viewed your own body. The eating disorder that these teenage girls practice to look like actresses in popular television programs. Even though the media doesn't want to acknowledge the fact that it plays a role in creating the effect mentioned above. Goodman says: “In 1995 something happened. A Western mirror was inserted into the Fijian Face. Television has arrived on the island (Goodman608).” Television and teenagers were introduced...... at the center of the newspaper...... giving the example of Calista Flockhert. Goodman is actually limiting his statement by stating, “I am not surprised by the research showing that eating disorders are a cultural byproduct (609).” The writer's argument in this piece is epideictic in nature. Tackling current issues and addressing questions of guilt, Ellen Goodman demonstrates with her essay that the drastic cultural change in Fiji occurred because of Television.Works CitedGoodman, Ellen. “Fiji's Thin Bite Culture.” Everything is a discussion. Boston, NY: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2010. 608-609.Magill, JH. “Eating Disorder Statistics.” South Carolina Department of Mental Health. DMH, 2006. Web. April 9, 2012. “Adolescents with Eating Disorders, Facts for Families.” aacap.org. American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 05/2. Network. April 9 2012.