In order to revise this essay so that it is written in a completely formal tone, what needs to be eliminated? A. contractions
B. contractions and personal pronouns
C. personal pronouns
D. Nothing in the essay needs to be changed. It is written in a formal, objective style.

The essay:
Our Culture’s Obsession with Body Image
In today’s society celebrities set the bar for peak physical appearance. Models with size double-zero wastes lead the way, leaving the rest of the general public in their wake striving to achieve that same façade. The ironic thing is that the trendsetter’s can’t even achieve the physical image that they are portraying. The magazine pictures that women in America use as the ideal “after” image of themselves is more often than not touched up using a number of photo finishing techniques to reduce the appearance of any healthy body fat. These false images that lead the nation’s struggle to be thin set the bar to a low that is unobtainable using healthy techniques. Women’s obsession with body image results to pathways that are not only physically and mentally destructive, but may lead to death.

When women look to lose weight the first step is generally to start dieting. Dieting is one of the nation’s largest growing markets today. Every time you turn on the television you can see a different person giving their remarkable testimony about how they lost forty pounds in two weeks with a new dieting product. Unfortunately almost every one of those miraculous testimonies is followed with the disclaimer, “results not typical,” in fine print. So consequently, when people try the diet and come up short, a handful will panic and turn to more extreme methods of dieting.

These extreme methods of dieting can take thousands of different forms. Anything from protein shakes to rice cakes alone making up your day’s menu. These techniques may look effective from a short-term standpoint, but fail miserably from a long-term perspective. The truth is that your body can’t live on protein shakes or rice cakes alone. The body needs a range of vitamins, minerals, carbohydrates, and other things to keep it in top working order. By limiting your diet you are not consuming the proper nutrition that your body need body needs to stay healthy.

The second outcome of our nation’s obsession with body image is the dramatic rise in eating disorders. The most common of these disorders are bulimia, where the person eats then deliberately vomits to rid themselves of the food, and anorexia, where the individual stops eating all together. When behavior psychologists study people with these disorders they typically find an underlying psychological disorder. This disorder makes the victim think that they are always overweight, even if they are on the verge of starvation. Unfortunately these disorders are not easily fixed. It takes intense therapy over several years to fully recover physically and even longer to recuperate psychologically. You would think that the generation most affected by eating disorders would be teenagers, but regrettably cases of children as young as seven and adults well into their sixties with eating disorders are surfacing.

The last result of the nation’s obsession with body image is the growing popularity of plastic surgery. Plastic surgery is typically the last resort for achieving the unrealistic body image that the media demands. Surgery is the “easy out” of dieting and improving your body image. Many people use surgery if dieting proved to the useless or they are just too lazy to keep a healthy lifestyle. An individual will pay a large sum of money to do anything from getting fat removed from their stomach to getting the corners of their eyes lifted for a younger appearance. It is not right for women to have to result to surgically alter themselves just to keep up with the latest trends. Every person has a different body type and should stay the unique person they were meant to be.

In conclusion, our nation’s obsession with body image has molded today’s women into thinking that they are never good enough. People turn to the methods of unhealthy dieting, eating disorders, and plastic surgery just to reach the extreme high standards set by today’s media. Using these means to reach their goal is extremely unhealthy and could even lead to death. Everyone was born a unique individual and should embrace that. If this trend keeps growing at the same rate it is now, in one hundred years we will all look like clones and all individuality will be thrown out the window. You are your own person and that is something to be proud of!